[Grades] Grades v. Rockets 11/25/2016

Cure for the Kings' slow starts?

  • Random pregame shock treatments.

    Votes: 3 10.7%
  • Drug sniffing dogs in the lockeroom.

    Votes: 3 10.7%
  • Mandate showing inspiring sports movies instead of shootarounds

    Votes: 4 14.3%
  • Switch out sideline water for Red Bull

    Votes: 8 28.6%
  • Set up table with big bowl of candy in middle of lockeroom to inspire sugar highs

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • Lashes

    Votes: 8 28.6%

  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1


1st Quarter:
Rockets 38
Kings 19

remaining 3 quarters:
Rockets 79
Kings 85

I don't mind the idea of losing to the Rockets -- all along I was just hoping for 2-1 over the last three home games. But it's the how of it that irks as we gave it away early by coming out dead flat and not ready to play, and Rudy needs to be slapped, hard. With aftershave after his face is nicked up.

Then Temple very obviously came in in the 2nd and began to singlehandedly wake us up with hustle and D up top. Omri got to play, struggled for a bit, but eventually fed off Temple's energy and joined the hustle party. From that point onward we outplayed the Rockets, but the hole had reached a ridiculous 29pts so just no way to get all the way back.



Link to Boxscore

Starters

Gay ( D- ) -- so very close to an F for this. Simply Did. Not. Come. Out. To. Play. Which is unacceptable. Slugged around, and refused to challenge Ariza in the first quarter as we got bombed. Was an energy sap most of the game, but finally after half made a few defensive plays inside to keep this out of F territory. But Rudy very much let us down with flat lack of energy in this one.

Barnes ( C+ ) -- really did not come out with his normal pep, although hit a few little midrange jumpers to show that he was more awake than the real slugs. Never did hit his threes however, and really did not start to show the fire until after Temple had lit the flame. Was part of our second half charge, but felt more like a follower this time than a hustle leader we needed from the getgo.

Featured Grade
Cousins ( C+ ) -- Unfortunately for me:rolleyes: I missed the first 8 mins of the 1st quarter. Was able to tune in in time to watch Cousins miss two free throws already down by 14 points. Seemed to have a lot of trouble from Superstar Clint Capella all game long. In the second quarter ran over Capella for his 11th point, only to be blocked by him a few short moments later. Knocked down a 3 pointer around the 3 minute mark. Missed a defensive cover on Montrel Harell that led to two missed free throws. Later in the second bricked a three and followed that up with an offensive foul on Harell. Started the third quarter out with a nice block on Capellla, missed a 15 footer, then picked up his 3rd foul on a reach in. Had a nice stop in the paint against Anderson which lead to a badly missed Rudy 3. Got blocked by Capella while in good position for a dunk as he continued to give him fits when he did take it into the paint. Picked up his 4th foul on a dumb play against Beverly. Did manage an easy lay in off an Afflalo assist. In the fourth, after sitting out almost 10 mins of the game, dove for a loose ball to no avail. Dumped the ball in to Gay to cut the lead to 11. After another easy 2 in the paint over Capella picked up his 5th foul. Late game heroics including making his third fourth and fifth 3's were all for naught. Topped off his 32 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocks...with a double technical as he and Beverly exchanged pleasantries. --Suicide

Collison ( D+ ) -- a player who's value is in giving us spark and speed did precious little of it in this game. Came out flat in the dual-mini backcourt, had a minor role to pay as we steadied, got out on the break a few times. But it led nowhere and he was no kind of factor at anytime as Beverley flat outplayed him.

Lawson ( C+ ) -- got thrown out there for no reason as a starter vs. Harden, and we got curbstomped. But eventually with Collison doing little started earning his keep at PG with aggressive hustle play and turned a disaster into a respectable night.


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Bench

Afflalo ( C ) -- I thought he gave us a real effort when he first came in, but it was ineffective effort. Again showing signs of turning into a roleplayer though as we went conventional after half, and Afflalo did not score for us, but helped with D and smart veteran passing as we made our push.

Koufos ( C+ ) -- ineffective fish out of water first half stint had this in the Ds somewhere, but after Cuz picked up his 4th in the 2nd half, Kosta came in and gave us a long extended run of effective reserve work as we whittled the Rockets lead down. Hit his little hooks and follows and bought us time. Would have been a B of some sort without the first half misery.

McLemore ( INC ) -- we've seen this before this season. Ben was brought in early in the midst of our opening debacle, came into the game unready to play, and after a 4 minute tryout where he wandered around and notched a -10 +/-, Joerger yanked him and he never returned. Coach is trying to teach guys lessons about being ready to play, but are they getting it?

Temple ( A- ) -- deserves a heck of a lot more credit than the boxscore alone will give him. Really was the Kings player of the game as the first King on the perimeter to put up a fight, to start hustling and fighting over screens and up onto guys. To make some hustle plays and get on the floor. And eventually it inspired his teammates to pick it up too. Made some mistakes, a few costly turnovers, but harassed Harden and left it on the floor, and that was the key to this game.

Casspi ( C+ ) -- Omri got his shot, and the old coach's motto be ready to play applied. I wanted to try to bump this up to a B-, but just could not do it. Came in with us looking for energy, and was all kind of wobbly bouncing around from one near disaster to the next. But with Temple hustling and grinding, it was Omri who first picked up the thread and joined him in playing some inspired defense. never got anything going offensively, but an important guy just for hustle/effort.
 
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#2
During Casspi's 28 minutes on the floor tonight, the Kings were +5.
Best +/- of the team tonight. Just sayin'.

Maybe he should get his chance to help the team.
 
#5
How about Starting a defensive, 3 and d shooting guard that we already have, Garrett temple, instead of letting teams torch us every single 1st quarter! :eek:
 
#6
During Casspi's 28 minutes on the floor tonight, the Kings were +5.
Best +/- of the team tonight. Just sayin'.

Maybe he should get his chance to help the team.
Don't get this wrong - Casspi did not have a good game!

Even as a spark-plug, I thought there was a lot less fire in him tonight.
I felt it was a confidence issue, perhaps due to his current situation in the team.

Still, even on a slow night, I'd transfuse Casspi's inner-drive & energy
into the veins of ANY King, if it was possible.

BTW - I think the Temple-Casspi duo has great potential on D.
 
#9
If coach is going "small", I would much rather prefer a starting line up and rotation of:

PF: Casspi / WCS / Tolliver
Sf: Gay / Barnes
C DMC / KK
Sg: Temple / Afflalo or BMac
Pg: Collison / Lawson
+1

I also thought about that lineup you suggest.
It seems to be our best balance of talent & grit, and I would really love to see more of it:

SF .. Gay
PF .. Casspi
C .... Cousins
SG .. Temple
PG .. Collison

I'm not even talking about starters/bench.
It's simply a very high synergy lineup IMHO.
It has a great combination of D with O,
of ball movement with driving ability,
of speedy FBs with rebounding,
of inside and outside threat, etc.

Note that the whole lineup consists of vets,
but no-one is old or even past his prime.
Plus, most of those guys have been playing together for a long time.

I wouldn't mind Barnes taking Omri's place in there (slightly better D perhaps),
but I'm not sure it would be an improvement, because of size, age, breakout speed & rebounding.
Omri is also the better 3pt shooter of the two (Don't look at his 3pt% this year. He only attempted about 10 shots or so...
Shots will fall once he starts shooting. You don't forget how to shoot the 3 after 2 consecutive seasons of steady 40pct...)
 
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#10
Rarely will a team ever best another team that hits 42% of their threes. It is nearly impossible when that 42% clip is evidenced in 21/50 threes. I did not get to watch this game but from reading the game thread it appears that many of them were wide open shots. That is frustrating. More frustrating is that the Kings win every quarter except the 1st.

I used to hate getting blown out and the team giving up. I think getting blown out and then fighting back just to lose might be worse. I'll give coach some blame and some credit for that.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#12
Wait. What the eff has Omri done to deserve to start?

He performed alright last night but it's not like he was spectacularly outperforming Matt Barnes or anything.
 
#13
Wait. What the eff has Omri done to deserve to start?

He performed alright last night but it's not like he was spectacularly outperforming Matt Barnes or anything.
SMH...
When will that kind of logic disappear?
Starting is not a prize or reward.

It almost seems like you are implying that your best 5 individual players should be your 5 starters. Are you?
 
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#14
Wait. What the eff has Omri done to deserve to start?

He performed alright last night but it's not like he was spectacularly outperforming Matt Barnes or anything.
Barnes is doing alright, but how long can you get away with starting a 6'6"/6'7" power forward in this league?

Barnes is great off the bench, but I prefer someone more taller and more full size as a starting stretch 4.

I believe that Omri can grow into a reliable stretch 4 with more playing time. His 3 point shooting will come around.
 
K

KingsFan80

Guest
#15
I went to the game....guard the 3! I will admit I was wrong on Garrett Temple, I wasn't in favor of signing him but he is a heck of a player. This team just lacks talent. WCS hasn't played in three games, McLemore was invisible, is $8 million Tolliver still on the team?

We have no three point shooters. Barnes was attempting to shoot threes, as was Temple, but these guys just simply are not three point guys. Where is Richardson? Is he really that bad? Bellinelli had like 20 points and 4 Threes yesterday --where was that last year because we could sure use it right now.
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
#16
Carmichael Dave had a good point on twitter....we were getting blown out and Joerger might have taken the opportunity to showcase Casspi to the rest of the league. I think Casspi is a fit in Houston.
 
#17
One of the cures for the negative starts is not constantly rotating the starting unit, which establishes no consistency
At the game, the starters sucked against the Rockets. Gay was getting torched, and Collison was ball-watching during rebounding. Barnes in the 2nd half looked languid. There was a marked difference in Cousins effort on defense at the end of the game and beginning of the game. 3-point shooting was a ridiculous differential - Rockets destroyed the Kings from long range, while the Kings misfired from long range in a failure to try to keep up. The 2nd unit is what keyed in small comeback attempt led by Lawson on offense and Temple on defense. Too bad Casspi had a bad shooting night from 3pt line like most others; he had some open looks that could've closed the gap much closer. Lawson looked to be onto something in the early 4th Q, but Joerger pulled him prematurely. Last year close to the same time against this Rockets team plus Howard minus Gordon, the Kings got a win keying on sloppy turnovers from the Rockets and more energy. Now a road-trip and more losses upcoming.
 
#20
Our inability to defend the 3's and rebound last night is/was inexcusable. Just when we thought we were seeing some improvement and reason for hope!
But I don't know whether to blame the coach or the personnel. Probably some of both. The more switching we do on defense and covering for teammates who can't or won't stay in front of the ball, the less able we are to defend the perimeter. We paid for that last night, and were far too slow in adjusting.
I'm ready to start Aflallo, Temple, Casspi and Cuz (along with one of our pint sized PGs) and see what happens. Let Gay be the 6th man for offense and Barnes be the 6th man for defense. This starting lineup may not be our cruch-time lineup, but at least they would come out with energy and defensive intensity and - hopefully - keep us in the games in the early going when - so often - Cousins and Gay are lethargic.
 
#21
Ive wanted Gay as the 6th man since Malon quitely departed....just a bad fit with Cuz....as a 6th he comes in fresh when Cuz needs a blow...staggering their mins allows both to be more effective...plus avoids the common dual sleepwalk of Gay and Cuz

Also, i could care less about effecting his percieved value or if he likes the role....he is out their only for himself anyways so will play hard in his new role because he knows that if he doesn't it might effect how much money he can get after the season.

Starters

Collison
Temple
Casspi
Barnes
Monster Man

Bench

Lawson
Afflalo
Ben
Gay
Koufous

Tolliver i havent seen enough of yet...been missing his shots unfortunately but i like his hussel and would be happy to bench Ben in favor of Tolliver
 
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#22
I think it is more the Kings opponents getting off to WAY TOO FAST of starts, as opposed to Kings getting off to a slow start.

The Kings need to start playing defense from the opening jump! :mad:
 
#23
Trotting out Lawson and Collison against Harden was a WTF Karl-esque move by Joerger.

Though Harden was quiet in the first half, there was not enough length on the perimeter to bother their shooters on switches and transition. I don't like A-Slow-o, er Affalo, but he should have been out there. I don't get the basis for the decision unless their internal data showed Harden had lit up Affalo in the past. Joerger made adjustment at the half by starting Affalo in the third but it was desperate catch-up mode from there.

I give credit to the Rockets for coming out blazing but it was disconcerting how out-matched we looked with a day to prepare. This Rockets were clearly the dominant team. I am also not sure the point of going to Omri, other than, (1) ex-Rocket with extra incentive vs his former team (2) showcase for trade (3) infuse lifeless team with a little life or (4) all of the above. The Kings defensive efficiency sits at a pathetic 28th out of 30. The way out this morose is (1) better offensive efficiency with defined roles to prevent easy baskets after bad sets (2) Willie escaping the doghouse and replacing Barnes as starter at PF (3) trade.

The Kings are teetering again, and need to go 4-2 on this 6-game road trip to run their record to 10-12. This is a reasonable expectation if we get back to the way we played against OKC and TOR. 3-3 is acceptable but disappointing. 2-4 or worse will solidify our standing as playoffs pretenders with glaring talent deficit beyond the Big Three.
 
#24
Starters

Collison
Temple
Casspi
Barnes
Monster Man

Bench

Lawson
Afflalo
Ben
Gay
Koufous

Tolliver i havent seen enough of yet...been missing his shots unfortunately but i like his hussel and would be happy to bench Ben in favor of Tolliver
Casspi has a 20% turnover rate and 45% TS rate....yeesh, not exactly making a compelling case to be promoted to starter.
 
#26
I think it is more the Kings opponents getting off to WAY TOO FAST of starts, as opposed to Kings getting off to a slow start.

The Kings need to start playing defense from the opening jump! :mad:
Is there a difference? I mean, really?
If our team gets off to a good start, then to me, that means we're playing good defense. Otherwise we're just playing playground basketball with an inability to sustain a lead. I don't care if we have the lead after the 1st or 2nd quarter. But I want us to have set the tone with good defense and to be within striking range in the 3rd quarter.
 
#27
They had one job, guard the 3 point line. You'd think after Ariza knocked down about 4 or 5 in a row that they'd be like hmm....maybe we should get up in their face when they're at the 3pt line? But no, that would actually take effort and brain power. I have a better idea, lets wait until we're down 25 or 30 before we start trying again. That idea seems to work so well.
 
#28
Is there a difference? I mean, really?
If our team gets off to a good start, then to me, that means we're playing good defense. Otherwise we're just playing playground basketball with an inability to sustain a lead. I don't care if we have the lead after the 1st or 2nd quarter. But I want us to have set the tone with good defense and to be within striking range in the 3rd quarter.
There is definitely a difference, even if the Kings shot is off and they can not score, if they play good defense and limit their opponents to a decent score, the kings will increase their chance of winning.
 
#29
And how often is Ariza or anyone else for that matter going to not only hit 4 threes in a row but do it in the first 4 minutes AND the Kings miss I don't know how many open shots in the same period. An anomaly as well as anything else you want to call it. We won the rest of the game. Let's move on and dwell on the next loss or whatever. I was there and enjoyed the game.
 
#30
And how often is Ariza or anyone else for that matter going to not only hit 4 threes in a row but do it in the first 4 minutes AND the Kings miss I don't know how many open shots in the same period. An anomaly as well as anything else you want to call it. We won the rest of the game. Let's move on and dwell on the next loss or whatever. I was there and enjoyed the game.
I agree that it was a bit of an anomaly but you have a chance to put an end to the anomaly instead of just waiting on pure luck and/or odds. The Rockets had a wide open 3 point shot on nearly half of their possessions. They played that same old tired defense where they sag down into the key for no reason before a quick pass out to their man sets them up for a wide open 3 point shot. Wishing for the other team to miss open shots hasn't worked for us the last 10 years so I don't know why it would work now.

On one possession Capella was trying to post up Kofous who is a solid post up defender. One of our guards decided Kofous needed help with Capella's Olajuwon type moves and moved in to double team him. Capella just kicked the ball out to the wide open wing player and they splashed down what was practically a free throw of a 3. Back in the Chuck Hayes days that used to bug the hell out of me because he was about the best post defender we ever had. Yet when someone would try and post him up, we would run all our guards in at the player and they'd just kick it out for a wide open shot. That line of thinking weakens your strengths and even further weakens your weaknesses.