[Game] Clippers @ Kings - 10/14/13 - Beat LA!!
- Thread starter John Galt
- Start date
Tonight's game, for some strange reason, was blacked out on DirecTV for Sacramento, even though League Pass is showing it as a FREE PREVIEW on both DishNet and xfinity. The block was lifted for some areas but not others, even though there is no other local broadcast. Typical snafu that happens at least once or twice because of the stupid antiquated League Pass blackout rules.
G-Man interview with GV: Said he was extremely excited to be back, that he was part of winning 1st Q and Kings played well to win game. Said surgery to clean up bone spurs appears to have gone well and now he's looking to more time - finally back on the court in real game after being out for so long.
I need a month or two to get a feel for the new system, but it looks competent so far.
One thing that I immediately dislike is the new delay of game rule. Players are just going to touch the ball and I don't know how you expect them to stop touching the ball. The whistles for it slow the game down more than the actual touching. If you touch it and flip it to the ref then that should be a delay of game. If you touch it and knock it away, then that's a delay of game. However, if you touch it and it has little effect on the bounce of the ball then play on. It's just a ridiculous rule that they'll conveniently stop calling once they realize it won't work in actual play.
One thing that I immediately dislike is the new delay of game rule. Players are just going to touch the ball and I don't know how you expect them to stop touching the ball. The whistles for it slow the game down more than the actual touching. If you touch it and flip it to the ref then that should be a delay of game. If you touch it and knock it away, then that's a delay of game. However, if you touch it and it has little effect on the bounce of the ball then play on. It's just a ridiculous rule that they'll conveniently stop calling once they realize it won't work in actual play.
Hung with the Warriors for 3 quarters while Cousins played like crap on the offensive side, and beat both LA teams with Cousins coming on strong. Tonight was a joke for Cousins, tore up the Clippers inside as if they were not even there. Domination makes me happy! All in all, not a bad start to preseason at all. Malone is already more of a coach than our last 2-3 coaches put together. Winning sure makes a difference the bench was smiling half the night. Vasquez, though rusty, knows how to run an offense. At one point he made an entry pass down low and he hadn't even crossed the halfcourt line yet. That's what I want from a PG. Get it to your best player every time down if you can.
Hard to take much from this game as the Clippers phoned it in, Cousins dominated them as he should. McLemore looked good in his first stint, Vasquez showed flashes of what he could bring but you could tell this was his first real game in months. Thornton was Thornton, IT was IT, although he looked sloppy at times again.
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Yeah I read that. What can I say, I am a smart ass.
Cuzzins played a monstrous game. Is that A+ preseason fodder Brick? Hitting from everywhere, dominating the glass, per 36 is what kind of ridiculous #? 40 and 14?
Its a preseason game against low level competition but what else do u expect from the soon-to-be best C in the league?
Cuzzins played a monstrous game. Is that A+ preseason fodder Brick? Hitting from everywhere, dominating the glass, per 36 is what kind of ridiculous #? 40 and 14?
Its a preseason game against low level competition but what else do u expect from the soon-to-be best C in the league?
I'm still not going to get too excited until I see Cousins dominate every night, against whatever type of competition. So far in preseason he's struggled against length, which is nothing new. To his credit he is working a lot harder than he used to, but I still want to see him go up against the real good big men in the league.
Collison suffers from poor shot selection and me-first offense a la Aaron Brooks. Lots of threes and long twos early in the shot clock. He started his career as a backup for Chris Paul in NO and will be doing it again.
He should be a better defender than he is. Maybe Doc Rivers can mold him into a better player, but he has failed to live up to his flashes of brilliance thus far in his career.
He should be a better defender than he is. Maybe Doc Rivers can mold him into a better player, but he has failed to live up to his flashes of brilliance thus far in his career.
Apparently Malone was not a fan of how the team played last night, and was not impressed. He even went straight for the gut calling the team last years Kings. He stated that Demarcus did some good things on offense, but he requires that he defends better. Not to nitpick or anything (I am glad we won), but IT comes to mind first, followed by Salmons and Thornton in regards to players who might have played like last years Kings. IT was up and chucking, Salmons was only concerned about himself, and Thornton had some negative body language and pouting involved. I am not the biggest fan of IT or Thornton so maybe my view is biased, but I am calling it like I see it. IT is clearly best used off the bench and Thornton needs to figure it out quickly or he definitely will not play if he continues to defend like garbage. Salmons should really be used as a stop-gap option to give someone a breather and not be the focus of our offense.
http://hoopshype.com/rumors.htm
http://hoopshype.com/rumors.htm
There is/was a reason why the Kings have been poor for awhile. Besides the previous coaches, some of these guys have been very selfish. It's a catch-22 as the patching has allowed it to happen, but they are also that type of players. Guys have an opportunity to figure it out or they can sit.....even Cuz said they played better against the Lakers so its good to hear this type of accountability.
I still continue to wonder, if he would much more effective playing the power forward, because of the length issue. Not that they're the same player type, but look at a guy like Tim Duncan who has had most of his success in his prime, playing the 4, instead of Center..and he's longer than Cousins. So are Gasol and Nowitski.
He's listed at 6'11, but I don't think he's really any taller than 6'10, which can make it tough against longer guys like Bogut for example
He's listed at 6'11, but I don't think he's really any taller than 6'10, which can make it tough against longer guys like Bogut for example
Wasn't able to watch the game, but just in the highlights I've seen, the defense was pretty bad when it didn't need to be. In one Jamal Crawford play, IT got stuck on a Byron Mullins screen (what?) for way too long. Chuck Hayes hedged the screen pretty well, but IT just didn't recover at all and gave Crawford the and-one finish at the rim. That sort of thing happened all the time last year. IT is quick enough and strong enough that he shouldn't get picked as easily as he does.
My issues with Thornton's defense are well-documented elsewhere, so I won't get into it too much.
My issues with Thornton's defense are well-documented elsewhere, so I won't get into it too much.
Cousins measured out at the combine at 6'10.75" in shoes. But Cousins has a 7'5.75" wingspan, which gives him a standing reach of 9'5". If you care to go through all the measurements history of NBA players, you'll find only a few with a standing reach that's greater. Drummond for instance stands 6'11.75" in shoes, but has a standing reach of 9'1.5". amazingly, both Cousins and Drummond are the same height without shoes. Obviously Cousins needs to find out what kind of shoes Drummond is using.
Point is, there's nothing wrong with Cousins length. What he lacks is a sophisticated post game. Instead of dropsteps and pumpfakes, he just tries to bully his way at times. There's no reason he can't become a good post player. He has good size and very good feet. He just needs the moves to go with that. Aka Al Jefferson, who is hardly an elite athlete, but who can score on anyone in the post.
Point is, there's nothing wrong with Cousins length. What he lacks is a sophisticated post game. Instead of dropsteps and pumpfakes, he just tries to bully his way at times. There's no reason he can't become a good post player. He has good size and very good feet. He just needs the moves to go with that. Aka Al Jefferson, who is hardly an elite athlete, but who can score on anyone in the post.
I could go into a long diatribe on pick and roll defense, but I won't bore you with it. Needless to say, IT is doing something wrong. He's not the only one, but his mistakes are the most glaring because they represent the beginning of the breakdown. He has a choice to either go over, or under the pick, and many times that decision is determined by whom your guarding. I'm also not sure how much IT's teammates are helping him by warning him of the pick. Too many times he runs directly into it as though he doesn't know its there. But my biggest problem with him, is that he quits on the play at times. Even Jimmer, when picked, will continue to pursue the play.
I too felt this was our worst game of the pre- season collectively. The only reason we held them to a low % was because they were missing a bunch of threes. This is the type of game they should have broken open early and never let them back in. It just felt like our players saw their lineup and knew they could phone it in and still win, at least Malone can use this as a teaching tool, better now than in the regular season.