The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Week 6

Yeah. I went there.

A pretty good week for the Kings overall, who finish the week at 9-9, on a pace to win 41 games.  The schedule gets tougher this week and for about the next two months is pretty hard, so we should have a pretty good idea of how good we really are after December.

The Good:

1. TURNOVERS!!!!

This is the best news of the week for me.  After struggling so much with turnovers for most of the year, the Kings had 2 of 3 games with 12 or less turnovers, and the game where we had 19 turnovers we had a season high 28 assists to go along with it.  Our assist to turnover ratio for the week was 63 to 41, a far cry from previous weeks, hopefully this trend continues.

2. Non-fouling Jason Thompson

In our two wins this week, JT had 22 points and 14 rebounds against New Orleans, and 22 points and 6 rebounds. The most telling statistic to me though is the 2 fouls he acquired in each game.  It just goes to show how effective JT can be in games where he isn't in foul trouble.  It's definitely the part of his game that needs the most work.  We need JT in the game.

3. The Professionalism of Kenny Thomas

K-9 was definitely in the dog house last year.  Little did we know it was because of the ineptitude of the coaching staff (we should have guessed).  Kenny is challenging Jon Brockman as the best rebounder on the team, and he plays some stellar defense as well (He is second on the Kings in defensive rating with a 106. Udoka is first with a 105).  He's done a good job of coming in and providing a good veteran presence.  As Section214 pointed out yesterday, Kenny had 15 rebounds all of last year.  Against Phoenix he had 18 in 27 minutes.  I applaud you my good man.

4. The Point Gerberus strikes again

You just don't know which one of these guys is going to step up each and every night (although you expect Tyreke to for sure).  Against New Orleans, Tyreke struggled with his shot and was limited in his penetration since New Orleans geared its entire defense to packing the lane and preventing him from getting to the rim.  But Beno and most of all, Sergio definitely stepped it up.  Beno was perfect from the field for 13 points and had 3 steals.  Sergio had a career night, with a career-high 24 points, 5 assists (no turnovers), 2 boards, and 2 steals, all in 24 minutes. Sergio could not have been better.  Against Indiana and Phoenix, Tyreke was the force of nature, but Beno and Sergio both had effective games in limited minutes.  Sergio's become quite the little ball hawk as well, 2nd on the team in steals per 36.

5. Chapu for You! and Jewbacca

Noc had a pretty effective week, especially from distance, as he shot above 50% from 3 in each game, and shot 10/18 (.556) from 3 for the week.  Omri continued to show a little bit of everything, although he struggled a bit against Phoenix, and he's showing he's a pretty good rebounder for a G/F.  Something he needs to do more often I think is get into the lane and use that beautiful runner of his.  It's a thing of beauty.  He needs to teach it to Tyreke.

6. Jon Brockman knocking Tyler Hansbrough's contact out

This is why I love Jon Brockman. 

7. ESPN to televise Kings v. Wizards on Dec. 16th

National respect is always welcome.  Yesterday, the subtitle to NBA.com's highlights for the Kings v. Suns game was "Steve Nash scores 32 points as Suns get their 15th win of the season, defeating a resilient Kings squad".  I might try to buy a ticket to the Wiz game now.  We need to bring the Arco Thunder for our boys.

8. Ime Udoka against Indiana

Ime continues to bring defense when he's asked to come play.  He did the best job of anyone against Granger (even if you count that unfortunate foul of a 3 with the game on the line), and also had 5 rebounds and 3 assists.  His offense is still suffering from Desmond Masonitis, but he did hit a 3 against Phoenix so perhaps he's getting better?

9. The returns of My Losing Season and SactownHeartofChouse

Both users came back with some great FanPosts that you should all read.  Welcome back you two, and stay for good this time! 

10. You're Western Conference Rookie of the Month of November

TYREKE EVANS!  How you like THEM apples?

The Bad:

1. The Show has been showing re-runs of last season

Donté did not have a good week, and although he had some good moments (some great passes against New Orleans, and the game sealing steal of the inbounds pass against Indiana), he was not the Donté of last week. You have to wonder if PW will continue to start him for the matchup problems he presents or bring Beno back (or another possibility is to start Omri at the 2 to keep the matchup problems).  We'll see this week for sure.

2. Letting Jeff Foster dominate us on the glass.

Jeff Foster is a very underrated rebounder.  But when the Kings have quite a few good rebounders themselves, you can't let the guy get 10 offensive boards and 18 overall.  Indiana had 22 offensive rebounds against us.  That's the only reason that game was close. 

3. Tale of two Spencers

Spencer had a great game against Indiana, shooting the ball well, blocking shots, hitting the offensive glass (5 of 7 offensive boards!).  But against Phoenix, he missed a ton of shots from within 5 feet which led to a 4-14 shooting performance and he only had 5 boards in 34 minutes.  But as TZ pointed out, Spencer makes a large majority of his shots at the rim, so we shouldn't be too worried.

4. Sean May

I don't care what you say Sean, you're in the doghouse. You didn't make it into a game where Spencer couldn't play.  That has to tell you something.  I'm rooting for you Sean, but you're time is running out if you want to have a career in the NBA.

The Ugly:

1. Pick and Roll defense

Our pick and roll defense is horrible. I first noticed it against the Spurs in the first week of the season, when Tony Parker and Tim Duncan destroyed us with it, and then again last night against Phoenix when Nash and Frye/Stoudemire ran it to perfection and ended up winning the game because of it.  This needs to be a focus in practices.  Until then, perhaps running a zone against the better pick and roll teams(San Antonio comes to mind, and they're not anything special from the 3 Point line) will alleviate some of this.

2. The Attendance of the Indiana Game

The announced attendance of the Indiana game was 10,021, the lowest attendance mark of the season, and small enough to drop us from 26th to 27th in total attendance.  I appreciate why some people won't go to the games (see Economy), but I see people in Kings gear all the time at my work, and I ask them if they've been watching the games lately, and it saddens me to hear that most of them say no.  For what its worth, I let them know how much better they've been playing but most people seemingly don't care about the Kings anymore. I don't know if its from them being turned off by the last few years, anger at the Maloofs over the Arena resolution (I know thats the case with my cousin), or merely ignorance of how much the Kings have dropped ticket prices. 

Another thing that I don't think helps the cause for getting out knowledge of the Kings is the fact that no games are on News 10 this year.  I'm not a rich guy by any means (I'm a college student working at a grocery store to pay for it), but I love the Kings.  I don't want the Kings to leave because of apathy from the locals. So my call to action to all you StR folks, let people know about the new Kings.  Tell them how excited you are.  Don't tell them to go buy tickets, or anything like that, just share you're enthusiasm for the team.  We need to get this town talking about the Kings again, get people excited.  We need to do this for our Kings, because they've been laying it all on the court for us.

3. Oden out for the season

Condolences to Portland.  Kid doesn't deserve it.

Player of the Week:

Sergio Rodriguez

13.6 PPG, .571 FG%, .500 3P%, 4 APG, 1.7 SPG in 20.3 MPG

Sergio gets the Player of the Week Honors this week. He's been so effective coming in and running the offense, and he's also been hitting his shots at a very high rate, something he wasn't supposed to be able to do.  His passing almost makes me forget who Ricky Rubio is.  He's also becoming quite the little ball hawk, and he's second on the team in steals per 36 behind Ime.  His decision making has been superb, and he only turned the ball over 3 times the entire week.  Sergio could be a conundrum for the Kings after the season, on whether to retain him or not.

Highlight of the Week:

Comment of the Week:

Mental note: Do not let Spencer use my toilet.

Questionable aim. Rarely flushes.

by elfboy_ on Dec 5, 2009 10:25 PM PST up reply actions   3 recs

And Nostradumbass Prediction for Next week:

v. Miami 12/6 W (With Jermaine O'Neal out, the Heat have no Center. Hopefully Spencer and JT can take advantage of this)

@ New Orleans 12/8 L (CP3 is back and I think the Hornets look for revenge since the loss to us is still fresh. Should still be a close game though, we match up well.)

@  San Antonio 12/9 L (Spurs destroyed us with the pick and roll last game.  Our pick and roll defense is horrible, as evidenced by the last 6 minutes of the Phoenix game.)

v. Minnesota 12/12 W (I'll be at this game, but I'm not feeling as cocky about it now that Kevin Love is back.  Guy will lead the league in rebounds for years to come)

Nostradumbass Prediction Rate for the season so far 10 correct, 8 wrong