Preview: Kings at Bucks

Very excited for this game. I think we need to establish Tyreke early and let him go at Jennings, trying to get him in foul trouble. Last night, we did that with Flynn but then we settled for 3s and never went back inside to Reke. We gotta switch it up a bit tonight.

In summer league (ages ago) Reke had trouble with Jennings quickness and if I remember correctly BJ got a bunch of steals. Reke’s handles have improved since then but I’m sure so has Jennings feel or the game. On the D end, though I haven’t seen much of him, I think we may want to force him to just shoot jumpers. He can make them, but lately he hasn’t been very efficient from the field. Denying penetration will also cut his assists as he’s probably pretty good and kicking the ball out to his shooters.

While that matchup is the big showdown tonight, we need others to step up and help. For all we know, Reke and Jennings may just cancel each other out, so to get this W, we’re going to need the other guys to show up and win their respective mtchups.

I don’t know what they served on the plane going to Minny, but never do that again.

I thought coming off Tyreke’s exceptional play to win the Washington game, the Kings would go into Minny with energy & excitement. They had neither. So, I need to change my opinion that they would sweep this road trip.

Milwaukee has a better defense than Minny and at home their offense is on par with the Kings. It’s true that the Bucks have had a bad month in December, but their competition was CAV’s twice, Bos, LAL, Por, Tor, Det, & Was. They came away with 2 wins, 2-2 at home & 0-4 on the road. That’s about as good as the Kings could have hoped for against that kind of opponents.

Jennings shoots alot but only hits about 39% fo late, but he’s deadly acurate from the FT line at 94%. The starting line of Bogots, ILyansova, Moute, & Delfino are good shooters averaging 46%,46%,57%,41% repectively for the month of Dec. But, as with most players, they play better at home, and played half their Dec. games on the road.

In my Minny comments, I under valued the defensive stat, and since the Kings were terrible on offensive we had no chance. The majority of the teams in the East play much better defense, and that’s why the average PPG are below the KIngs. That’s one of the reasons the Kings were 1-29 against the East last year.

The Bucks are no exception. Defensively their main weakness is allowing defensive rebounds where they are dead last. But, I don’t believe that’s going to be enough to turn the tide. Teams are packing the lane against Tyreke, and daring us to beat them from the outside. And, I expect the Bucks to do the same.

Tyreke will have a good but not great game. As the rest of the team, flip a coin. We’re a hustle team that thrives on getting out on the run after steals, but defensively we’re very poor. If Jennings gets any decent picks at all, he’s going to kill us in the paint.

The joy & enthusiasm I expected during this road trip, has already turned into finger pointing and doubt. Spencer lost his starting role even tho we have no one to replace him. Noc lost his starting job to Omri but not his shooting slump.

 And, Donte has no idea what his role it, SG, certainly not SF, PF, or Center. I can’t help myself, I have to say it. There is no way that a 2nd year player, trying to change his game should be asked to take on so many roles. Going into this season, he needed stability. Right now he can’t hit his 3’s, but came up with 7 rebounds & 4 assts in the last game. How about giving up on the SG experiment. It worked as far as forcing opposing PG’s into defending Tyreke, but we have a losing record with that line up.

Without knowing whether the 3 pt shooting will return, or who will rebound I’ve got to call this a lose. And, depending on how bad a lose, we could go home still with only 1 road win.

If it were up to me, I’d start JT, Donte, Omri, Tyreke & Sergio. I think Sergio could defend Jennings & Tyreke can still score on Defino. I know it goes against the Tyreke is a PG not a SG, FO line. But, the truth is we don’t have another SG, and until Martin comes back, it’s foolish to bury our head in the sand and refuse to consider that Tyreke is our best option at SG. And, that we have PG’s that are more than capable to starting.

I honestly don’t know where the places to do this in Sac are anymore.

Ridnour vs. Carril. Milwaukee’s Ridnour is super white but pale, while his Kings counterpart reeks of prunes and wisdom, except on Friday when he reeked of indignance. Looks for May to devour the press row, if Kayte can’t stop him.

Yay!

Farts vs. Farts. Milwaukee’s Fart is super farty but farts, while his Kings counterpart reeks of farts and farts, except on Friday when he reeked of farts. Look for farts to fart the fart, if farts can’t stop him.

Starting lineup for tonight: Reke, Casspi, Noce, JT, and Spencer

Link