Tyreke Clinches 20-5-5, But Kings Fall Again

In a vacuum, I think the trade for Carl Landry was a good one – we get a very good, efficient low post scorer and a lot of cap space to work with. In reality, we’ll have to see how it meshes – I’m still a believer that the team never gave the Martin/Evans backcourt the time needed to gel.

However, the way Martin was treated by the franchise and the local media prior to his departure this season is a disgrace. It was damn near Rovian…they were able to successfully take a hard-working, team-oriented kid and make him look like a malingering troublemaker before he was dealt.

The Martin debacle is one of the low points for this franchise in it’s recent history, IMO.

A series of 1-on-5 possessions ensued. No scoring. The Rockets closed the gap. As the third quarter began, there was still no gameplan aside from "get Reke to 24." I can’t complain about most of the shots he took in the 3rd, I mean, there must have been what seemed like 40-50 layup attempts that wouldn’t fall. I think it was very apparent that those 2 points were the hardest he’d ever tried to ring up. Everyone, especially the Rockets knew what was going on, and it absolutely killed the flow, and any chance to win the game. The Kings lost this one 2 minutes before the first half ended.

Exactly how I felt about the whole thing.

Regarding Napear, I was amazed that the talking heads still felt the need to kick Kevin around, even though he’s been gone for a while. They had to show their little montage of him failing on defense against Reke and Nocioni.

I guess Kevin gets the last laugh on this one.

I thought it was a rather shocking display at the end of the 2nd and beginning of the third that the team’s only goal was for Tyreke to score, and that was worth more than the game. Why he couldn’t just get it in the flow of the offense is beyond me. I am very surprised at PW on this, that was a lack of coaching, and it might have cost us the game.

He’s a class act.

He was acting as you would expect a 20 year old to act. It would have been nice to see the Head Coach exert a little veteran cool in that situation.

Injuries aren’t adversity. They are physical conditions which prevent you from playing to the best o your ability, or at all. A death in the family is adversity. Going through a divorce is adversity.

I don’t have any idea what you are referring to in regard to Westphal and Elie.

For me, it wasn’t trading Martin that’s so wrong, its how it was done. Why malign your own player before trading him? Why not talk to more teams and let them know you’re trading him? Why do it seemingly at the last minute?

annoys me

With the players you have, you should have made it to the playoffs in my opinion—even with the injuries. So in the real world, you still lost. Personally I’ll take the playoffs over so called self respect every time.

To suggest the Kings were playing for Tyreke’s numbers over the win is complete and utter nonsense. Evans scored when you created an easy mismatch for him. When it became clear the final two points he needed were getting into his head, PW pulled him. Would he have done that if the Kings weren’t playing to win?

Gotta tell you dude, if the Rockets need a win over a team tied for the third worst record in the NBA to give them self respect, I’d much rather be a Kings fan.

Because I really agree. It was absurd to celebrate an achievement over trying to get a victory.

When Ariza was on Evans they put Martin on Noc and the Kings tried to exploit that. It didn’t work as well as it should have, but they kept trying. Evans was tired the second half and it showed.

I was concerned about the lack of rest they gave Tyreke in the first half. He played almost the whole first half and should have come out sooner. He was pretty wiped the whole rest of the game. I think this really hurt him as he still isn’t back to shape after missing 10 games and PW should have known it.

Also, we needed more from a couple of other players. Landry did well and we had decent scoring out of Noc, Beno, and Greene, but needed more from JT and Casspi. They didn’t really shoot the ball.

I wondered where Donte and Noc were during the second half when Ariza was on Evans. That being said Noc really hustled and played a great first half (only one bonehead shot!).

Though Casspi did post up K pretty early and score on him. (never repeated)

I agree with 3, there are alot of reasons why we lost and Tyreke being under the gun to get the 24 was the least of them.

I think that Note 2 is more of a concern than Note 1. We definitely need more offense from the 3 to punish teams for putting their 3 on Tyreke. But, for the most part, I believe Evans is still going to have an advantage over most 2’s.

My question was did Cisco have any impact when he was in for Beno. I don’t remember, and already deleted the game.

Looked pretty speedy making backdoor cuts off of picks, too.

Remember when we used to do that sort of thing regularly?

Kevin scorched people last night. He blew by defenders repeatedly. Same old Kevin in my book.

you see what you want to see sometimes. You want to see ‘broken down Kevin’ , then you see broken down Kevin. I didn’t see a busted player zooming around and scoring 39.

but more like he doesn’t because they obviously are hazardous to him, he has adjusted to play a safer style while still being incredibly efficient, that’s being a good basketball player

So, I just reviewed the recording and it doesn’t show them talking, BUT it does cut to show Martin walking away from him just before his last shot. Looks like it happened to me.

The one thing that has stood out is that Kevin has class. That is something that few can argue with and if they do tends to show they don’t have much.

I thought the rockets were all about winning last night? congratulate him profusely afterward, give him a big sloppy kiss if you want to – but don’t intentionally attempt to help your opponent score points during a game

and im a kevin martin fan – very bittersweet watching him light us up (and peaches barely mentioning it as he was just destroying us)

lets get one tonight for the offseason

You never root for Golden State to win

Are you crazy? That was the McDonald’s team unis.

and I thought he was classy

Give him a couple more and we’ll have a monster.