Kings Crumble in Fourth, Fall to Atlanta 113-105

I hate news. No really, I do.

veteran leadership.

I feel like I should point out that while Evans did some bad things at game’s end, he continues to do a lot of things that this team needs – get to the rim and give a very good effort on the defensive end. He is a rookie and is going to make mistakes. That is how you learn in sports or any other activity. I’m glad he is starting, and, frankly, I think Beno may play better from the bench and as a combo 1/2. Just to clarify that I’m not on the “start Beno over Tyreke” bandwagon. (I do like them together, at times, however.)

at least against Atlanta. It was the 3rd quarter, where we took back the rebound advantage and jumped out to an 8 pt lead with that line up. It really concerns me that PW never went back to it. Right now he seem to be counter punching instead of attacking.

We had a size advantage against Atlanta’s Bigs yet we only ran about 9% of our offensive sets thru Spencer & JT. And, the decline in the 4th quarter started after PW decided to bring in defense to try and stop Joe J. He should have let JJ get his points and tried to limit Bibby & Crawford.

Spencer & JT were defending Horford, Williams & Smith pretty well. There was not reason for Martin or Tyreke to double. With the 3 guards (Tyreke, Martin, Beno), Beno is capable of guarding Bibby, & Tyreke & Martin are capable of guarding JJ & Crawford. There not going to stop them, but then we didn’t have anyone that could. So, it was a mistake on PW’s part to break up the offense to try and stop JJ.

Thanks, again.

He’s just not quick enough and simply can’t guard most of the starting point guards in the league, and he’s got a much better shot at guarding the backups and contributing off the bench.

especially if our starting guards don’t give up the ball. What Udoka does do is give Martin 8mpg to rest. And, it’s probably going to move Sergio to the far end of the bench.

If he and Tyreke can play decent D while Martin sits, and keep us from getting into a deep hole, then he’ll earn his salary. And, he’ll problably get Mason released.

coolcat, I really like the analysis you are bringing this year.

Or facts? Well done and rec’d.

I got hammered earlier for saying that about Tyreke, but you said it better.

Westphal out coached himself, but Mason’s gone so maybe that’s the end of it. He should have gone with the best 5 players instead of trying to find someone who could stop Joe J. They scored 66pts in the paint, so Joe J wasn’t even the biggest problem.

Big sore spot for me with the inability of our players to get the ball into the post. Whether it’s JT, Spencer or Tyreke, no one seems to be able to get the ball to them when they have a mismatch or when their in good position in the paint. Tyreke hasn’t been able to post up any of the last 3 guards he’s played against (Bibby, Parker or Paul).

Tyreke needs to be more decisive and give up the ball. I bet if you divided the Kings possessions into those where he held the ball for the first 10 seconds or more and those in which he passed or shot more quickly, the plus/minus would be like night and day.

Thats the trick isn’t it? Its the hardest thing to learn for a lot of ball handlers. Pass the Ball! Its so silly that they think they’ll never get it back if they give it up.

I thought too much. But I suppose it really was only the 5th game and he got off to a bad start with Mason which GP just rescued him from.
He’s got this work cut out for him now that he really has no true shooting guard.
I say give Casspi a lot of the minutes and see how he does. I still want Tyreke to keep working on his PG skills a good portion of the time.