Post-Game Thread: Pistons at Kings

Why no Spencer? Seems to me like he could have really helped with the offense. Is he hurt?

Looks like they finally started clicking in the 4th and we caught a glimpse of some good things there too. Tyreke figured out where Landry likes the ball, Dorsey earned some more Playing Time in my opinion.

Sage advice here.

But not 3’s

I just can’t believe how incredibly bad this team is looking.

What?

Oops – nevermind.

He’s going to be seeing some playing time I think.

Dorsexy?

that Westphal is enjoying answering questions about Hawes. As I’ve said, I like Westphal and think that he is the right guy for this franchise at this time, but he’s being very douchey right now.

But this loss doesn’t upset that much. The 2nd and 3rd quarters sucked, but the 4th quarter push gave me optimism that I haven’t felt since we were .500.

1) Tyreke Evans. Soon he will be among the 1 Name Superstars (Kobe and Lebron).
2) I finally don’t have to read another fanpost about NaPG. 13 Assists says it all.
3) Landry shows good chemistry with our PG.
4) I like the coaching decision to bench Hawes, maybe Hawes will respect PW now.
5) Dorsey has great upside with his tremendous body and great energy.
6) It’s great to see JT play so well with Landry by his side. Frontcourt of the future!
6) Even though Casspi struggled offensively, his defense and rebounding in the 4th quarter made our run possible.

Like we needed more distractions.

when you refer to Spencer’s misdeed as “mouthing off.”

Oh, and am I mistaken or did Nocioni ride the pine in the second half? Seems like he didn’t get into the game again, despite having a decent showing in the first half.

the nice soft spoken guy thing isn’t working. The team is not getting better short of Reke.

Unfortunately, we can’t seem to be able to do that either

18-5-6-1-2 good for Sergio I knew he would look good with Dantoni

At this point I am glad I do not have my cable hooked yet in the new place… at this pace I think the Kings will be lucky to win five more games before the year is out… on the plus side, that’s six more then last year, so it would be an improvement.

needs to take a “basic body movement” class that they give to retarded children trying to recover from strokes

I don’t mean to offend the retarded children but his offensive game is going to ruin my tv soon

better get that arena deal signed soon, this is starting to look positively natt-esque

The Maloofs are trying to market the hell out of a product that people are starting to lose interest in. We really need a win streak. The offense seems so disjointed. I reran some games from the first part of the season and got really depressed.

I hope we have help coming this summer.

I manage to go to about 3 games a year. Tonight was the night the little and I got time to go, so I picked him up and drove off to Arco, where I wound up buying 2 $75 tickets from a scalper for $25 each. yee-haw!! For what its worth the little had an awesome time and wondered where the time had gone when we were down to 4 minutes left in the game. After the game we wandered down towards the floor and checked out what happens post game. Here’s what I noticed tonight:

Our offense is terrible, do we even have a strategy that is more than Tyreke drives and lays it in?

Donté (my favorite king) was awful for 4 straight plays and benched, weird drives, very short shots, muffed defensive assignments, it hurt me to watch, and then he was benched never to be seen again.

Right now, it looked like everyone on the team not named Tyreke was an iffy NBA player.

The arena was really quiet, outside of teh 8 kids 4 rows up who chanted and cheered all night.

Joey Dorsey looked huge and energetic, strong on defense and looking for boards – what’s wrong with him so that we got him as a throw in on the trade?

Kayte Christenson is unbelievably gorgeous and has the longest legs on the planet.

Rip and Tayshaun seemed to never miss.

I was sitting next to a Detroit fan, after Big Ben’s fade away jumper, I looked at him and said “that doesn’t usually happen, right?” we got a chuckle out of it.

I’m losing the faith I had in our youth movement from earlier this year.

It’s Kevin’s fault for being traded. Soft.

The most sour tasting post game thread I have ever shared with everyone. :-) haha Wow, what a difference a week makes!

Of course players are speaking out. Look at the minutes played game by game, what does he expect? In the last week he has asked Donte to be a starting Power Forward then a starting Shooting Guard. Who in the NBA could do that, let alone a 22 year old? PW needs to man up and realize that his team has no discernible offensive personality, no cohesion, and it’s team defense is deplorable. Blame it on young players, someone needs to be in charge, someone has to call the plays, someone has to be a leader, and getting your feelings hurt by a kid is not being a leader. There is a reason he hasn’t had a head coaching job in years, and had to work for cheaper than anyone else.

If it’s about the article in the Bee, and his comment seems to indicate as much, I read back what Hawes said.

“All year we’ve kind of been dealing with that,” he said. "When you think you have kind of gotten over that hump, it comes back up again. That’s the philosophy, so you’ve just got to deal with it.

“Everyone up and down the roster has had a taste of that, so everyone can relate. I think it’s kind of tough, the not-knowing part on a game-to-game basis, to get in that rhythm. But that’s the way it’s going and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it.”
He didn’t critisize PW, just said it is difficult. May said something similar, and even Reke was quoted with something similar:

“Guys never know when they’ll be having their time to play or they might be (starting),” Evans said. “They’re going into the game confused, and when they get into the game they want to impress the coach and (try) to play well. … It’s probably hard for a player to keep that focus when they know that if they’re playing bad they might not go in again.”

I see no reason why Hawes should be punished, or in any event why he should be singled out (unless there is more behind it). I don’t see how this action will help PW establish authority, or will make the team improve.

My faith in PW is crumbling a bit every game, lately. He knew he got the reins on a young team, but it’s time he starts steering them into one direction. I really hope he can establish a clear identity in the remainder of the season, coz right now, we’re all over the place.

The Kings tonight scored or got fouled on 14 of 21 offensive possessions where a player posted up. In fact they were 9/10 in the fourth quarter!!

67% scoring percentage is pretty damn good. Tyreke and Landry are the guys to do it too.

in regards to him talking about Spencer, here’s the video from the players post-game comments.

Video here

Donté doesn’t want to blame the coaches ( I think he’s really bought in to Westphal and he’s seen the improvement in his game).

Landry seems like a nice guy, states the obvious in that this is a young team that still really hasn’t had a chance to practice with eachother.

Tyreke is REALLY frustrated with the losing. He’s already looking forward to things being better next year.

I am just guessing here. They probably went at it pretty good. I bet WP got ticked at the article and laid into the players. As the teams Union spokesman I think Spencer probably stepped up and said a few things that nobody wanted to say. That probably set PW off at him.

(ducks)

a win for the Pistons last night solidifies their lead ahead of us, er behind us, in the lotto ball sweepstakes. They have 3 more wins (18 vs. 21) which based on the way we are playing looks to be insurmountable!!

And the Knicks, while losers of 9 in a row, and 19 wins, are going to get more wins with Sergio and T-Mac. Team is playing nice basketball, and a lot more fun to watch post-trade. T-Mac has something left after all!

Until other details come out, courtesy of Sam Amick no doubt, I have to defer to PW on this one. And I like Spencer. But remember Spencer is a guy who felt he arrived by end of his rookie year, although he has never proven he is a capable starting center in the NBA. He blew off summer league last summer, and feels he should not have pass conditioning tests without prodding. He is basically a big spoiled kid and PW sees potential going to waste.

PW is pulling a page from the Greg Popovich playbook on this one, and I have no problem with it. It worked on Tony Parker and Manu G, let’s hope Spencer responds. I would argue the difference between riding a guy like Spencer and being lax on Sean May for same harmless quotes is Sean May is not capable of giving much more to the team than 5 to 10 minute spark, whereas Spencer has a lot more to give, and he needs to realize that. He has decide if he wants to be a career journeyman and bounce around the league, or find a home in Sac as a legitimate NBA center. Right now it could go either way.