Kings 89, Trailblazers 101: Five Minutes in the 2nd Quarter Were All the Kings Needed to Lose

He has the length and athleticism to be a great defender, but he just isn’t. And the coach needs to sit his but down every time he starts jacking up threes. This is his fourth year in the league and he still doesn’t get that he is not a good outside shooter. Very frustrating to see him starting.

Jamal Crawford reads StR.

But not as bad as the blowouts 2-3 weeks ago.

Normally when a team gets blown out by a another team, they come back looking for revenge the next time they play. I didn’t see that in the Grizzlies or Portland game, though. They pretty much rolled over and got blown out AGAIN. I’m really getting disgusted with this team.

Save for Reke, DMC, Thornton (Maybe), we don’t have anyone that would get legitimate playing time anywhere else on a good team in the NBA. Not that I use it as a rule, or that I always use this as some sort of measuring stick, but save for our two up and comers, we don’t have any house hold names in the NBA. It’s like Donte? Salmons? Hickson? Who would they start for on a current NBA playoff team?

Sac should really consider trading evans if a good deal comes, while he still has some value left…

It’s easy to hate on the performances of our young corner stones, with no consistant outside help thus far mind you, and say they are terrible and should be shipped off.

But atleast we have a team reguardless of the maloofs not putting the right vet experience in place.

And the fact that we got blown out by a team that more than likely will make the western conference finals this year barring serious injuries, is not important. Be patient we need time to develop a real confidence and automatic way of thinking. They are trying their best out there to improv a system that for most teams has been in place for 5+ years.

They will get better and they are no worse than the lame ass knicks. Compare records and hearts not point totals.

This team doesn’t have the raw talent to score 90 points most nights. Certainly they don’t have the right pieces to play defense. It is going to be a bad season. Sit back, enjoy every win, expect a blowout any game it looks like an opponent is going to reach 100 points, look for player development from Reke, Cousins, Jimmer, IT and your pet favorite than hope for a good lottery ball. Its over, no shock here. Its not lack of effort, lack of BBIQ, etc, it’s playing 3 against 5 every single game which gets this team blown out.

Man, Mike Rice (provides color commentary for the Blazers) would not let up on bagging on the Kings (not that it wasnt somewhat deserved). Just 2.5 hours of giving out about the poor shot selection, lack of team play, etc. Sir. Please stop beating that horse. It’s dead already.

It was that 19-2 run by the Blazers in that 6 minute stretch, which told the tale. As a fan watching the game and posting on the game thread, it felt as though we were run over by a Mack truck. I can only image what it must have felt like for the players. It appeared to be pure chaos by the Kings in that stretch, as through they were ambushed and didn’t know how to regroup. Smart mentioned that the game got away from them in the second quarter, so I would imagine their post-game autopsy will focus on that portion of the game.

Despite the glaring hole they dug for themselves, I have to give the team some props for their composure under the circumstances. Course, they have been in this predicament before, so this was not new territory for them. Kudos to Cousins who played after turning his ankle and continued to contribute. Kudos to Jimmer for making some shots

I turned the game off near the end of the 4th quarter, when it appeared with almost certainty that it would be another blowout loss. I continued to monitor the game thread and was surprised the Kings went on a little run of their own, putting a little band aid on their wound.

Silver lining: The final score could have been much worse.

What Tyreke’s 1/2 court shot shooting percentage is?

I think it’s gotta be better than his regular 3 point shooting percentage, and that’s not a good thing.

It should not be completely unexpected. We are the toughest part of our schedule, we have two starters out, we changed coaches in midstream, we have several new players and very little practice time, and we still have a better record this year than last year

All the goofy GIFs that follow :)

It’s pretty obvious we didn’t need Jamal Crawford and he wouldn’t have made us a better club. After all, all he would have done is stunt the growth of Jimmer.

We aren’t going anywhere until we drop the mindset of being a player development league and gifting rookies minutes before they’ve earned them.

That said, a few more Isaiah Thomas makes last night would have made this an interesting game.

I think things have improved under coach Smart, but I saw a lot of our old offense out there- guys standing around not moving and a lot of our possessions following the same m.o.- 5-8 seconds on the shot clock elapse before the offense is even initiated followed by one or more of the following: dribbling, half-hearted screen/roll, or lateral passes around the 3 point line. possession ends with iso-ish long 2 or 3 jacked up as shot clock ready to expire.

Not always the case, but we seem to frequently regress to this type of offense, which hurts because nobody is hitting anything from the perimeter!

Note to coach Smart. Instead of putting Outlaw in (or almost any of our 3s at this point), please do one of the following: pull any fan (whether they’re a Kings fan or not doesn’t matter) from the stands, give them Outlaw’s jersey and send them in OR play 4 on 5.

• Tyreke on his bad nights is still looking to contribute. Last night I saw him getting to the rim, but he wasn’t getting any whistles and his shot wasn’t dropping (at least not from less than 40 feet). When he’s not scoring, he’s not killing the team’s chances by forcing it all night, he’s looking to draw attention and get the ball to his teammates (who also aren’t scoring, but at least he’s trying to get things going), and also grabbing some boards. He’s not piling on a ton of shots or turning the ball over a bunch.

• Cousins on his mediocre nights is still contributing a lot. If he’s not getting good looks, he’s not forcing things for himself and piling on the missed shots and turnovers. He’s working hard on defense and rebounding the hell out of the ball. Think about how far his “baseline” production has jumped from last year. I’m not giving you any advanced stats or anything, but I sure remember quite a few “total disaster” games from DeMarcus last year, where he didn’t have it going good but he was still forcing things, pouting, fouling, and losing the game for us. Have there been any of those games this year? I can’t think of any. He’s a second-year player, 21 years old. Knowing that he’s not going to lose the game for us even if he’s not winning it for us is huge.

• Hayes is coming back. Despite his shortcomings (pun intended), he’s probably our 4th most talented player overall, and our most veteran. Does he solve all of this team’s problems? Not even close, but this team will be better with him on the court, with less time for some of the guys that are contributing little or nothing.

• Jimmer has looked a thousand times more comfortable out there the past couple of games. Don’t expect 20 points per game any time soon, but if we can start to count on him to make most of his open shots and limit his turnovers, this team will start to be much more competitive.

Flip Saunders fired in DC.

Do we have 5 average defenders?
I say Reke Greene DMC Hayes and Salmons are our best 5. I don’t think all of them are average!

That Isaiah Thomas has turned into a chucker. Eight assists, yes, but 1-5 from the three, and needed 12 shots to get 11 points. He needs to be told to stop jacking up 3PAs. He just doesn’t have the range.

Also got seriously abused on defense last night. He quit on a couple of plays, and has no clue how to drive his man baseline. He doesn’t run the offense. He’s quick, but I’m not seeing much reason for all calling for IT to start. He’s become almost as much of a black hole as Salmons.

Donté needs to be told not to shoot from three as well. For now, Garcia should start at the SF, then see how Honeycutt does, and then go to Greene or Salmons, or move Tyreke to the SF spot in smaller lineups.

Hayes can’t come back fast enough.

Jimmer and Garcia had good shooting nights. I hope that trend continues. And I hope that Smart starts running more plays to get them open, because everyone else last night, except DMC & JT, combined for a rather disgusting 12-48. Ugh.

Cousins really is coming along. His growth curve looks very encouaging. Portland did a very good job keeping him occupied defensively with Camby, Smith and Thomas – who each tooks turns throwing a cheap shot or two.
Of course what happens next is that he’ll get frustrated by the lack of winning and try to make every shot himself.
Smart has to be on his guard about that.

I would like to argue this one point;

the Kings trailed between 15-20 points for most of the game, thanks to a 19-2 run by Portland over a 6 minute stretch in the 2nd quarter. The Kings never recovered.

Portland only shot 6% better than we did, so were they hitting their 3’s better or their mid to long range jumpers better. No, from 10 ft out to the 3pt line the Kings had the exact same number of made shots and shot attempts. They had one more basket at the 3-9ft range but we had eight more points at the FT line. So, away from the rim, the Kings led by 6 pts.

Unfortunately, Portland made 23 of 37 shots at the rim for 62.2% and the Kings were only 14 of 32 for 43.8%. So, yes, they did have a run, but what allowed that run to stand up and what keep us from getting back in the game was the fact that we gave up too many easy baskets in the paint the entire game.

Yes, our half court game isn’t very good and a little predictable, and we could have been just as good as Portland in transition had we finished the fast breaks better. But, what is really making it hard to be competitive game in and game out is the help defense around the rim.

Pains