Woohoo! Another win in the clutch. Another dominating game by Boogie and Rondo. Another penny in the Make-National-Writers-Eat-Crow Jar.
Not only did Boogie manage to somehow "quietly" score 36 points but he decided to do his best Dikembe impression and completely shutdown the paint against the Raptors, almost singlehandedly holding the Raptors scoreless in crunch time with a combination of quick hands, basketball smarts, and sheer intimidation.
Apparently all it took to turn Quincy Acy into a plus defender was giving him Doug Christie's old jersey number. Since coming back to the Kings after one season in Phil Jackson's Knick House of Mirrors, Quincy has seen himself go from 5th big man to an erstwhile bearded version of Draymond Green as an undersized four who scraps and plays solid to great team defense when Boogie and/or Willie aren't on the floor. I'm not quite sure that the Quincy we've seen over the past week is the Quincy we can always count on getting but then again hustle and defense aren't exactly traits susceptible to hot or cold streaks.
Bismack Biyombo is still among the stupider players in the NBA, somehow still playing like he did as a rookie, that is to say like a chicken with its head cut off that occasionally accidentally blocks a shot or two. When the highlight of your game is you getting tangled up with a guy and getting called for a double technical, your career hasn't exactly gone the way you anticipated.
But anyways, another win in the books and we officially have a streak on our hands. Now comes a road trip and the (still) very good Atlanta Hawks.
The View From the Other Side
The following has been taken from RaptorsRepublic.com
- 11:24 In the limited minutes I've seen Cauley-Stein has been..interesting? He's all over the floor
- 1:09 Should be a Fun Game With The Sac KINGS repping against the Toronto Raptors.
Tha KINGS I Like as a Team...Yall don't know how good Cousins Is Fam....
Just Understand This...Cousins is a BIG MAN!!! Avgs 1.1 Blocks and 1.4 steals plus almost 3 assists as the CENTER!!! Chris Webber is that You??? WAIT! My Brotha Webber was a Power Forward, Cousins is a Center who can Pass Like Arvydas Sabonis!!!(OH OH ) Them Portland Brothas can school you on Sabonis..
Don't think cause Cousins fg% is not as Good as He Can BE, that his game is overrated...Naw Man...Just Know How Webber and Tha KINGS did there thang when Shaq and Kobe were battling.
KINGS MEN DON'T PLAY!!! - 4:00 Key Match ups
Lowry vs Rondo = Lowry
DeRozan svs Gay = DeRozan
JV vs Cousins = Cousins
Carroll vs Anderson = Carroll
Raps Bench vsSacs Bench = Raps
Raptors win 4/5
which means they'll win by 40 tongiht - 9:26 WCS is a defensive monster.
- 9:27 Cousins shooting threes is terrifying
- 9:27 Cousins with a 3 pointer is unstoppable
- 9:27 Damn! I didn't know Cousins could shoot 3's that well. Welp he is officially unstoppable now
- 9:33 Biyombo needs to foul Cousins hard
- 9:36 dmc is a problem!!
- 9:38 Who is DMC's shooting coach. DD needs to call a guy lmao
- 9:39 Is George Karl a genius or a dunce for turning one of the pre-eminent big men in the game into a 3 point shooter?
- 9:49 Damn our team passes to Biz WAY too much lmao. He is just always open
- 9:50 Oddly, Biyombo and his intangibles are keeping us the lead. It's his FT shooting that shocks me, like a living rock man oddly writing in caligraphy
- 10:08 3rd quarter is going to define this game if the score keeps keeping it close like this. we're the #1 3rd quarter team right now while sacramento is not far behind at #3.
- 10:10 real superstar big man
- 10:10 Can't believe People were disrespecting Cousins
- 10:10 Please stop it Cousins
- 10:12 What the ****, when did Curry get blacker and gained 10 more inches and 75 lbs?
- 10:26 King's gameplan looks to be doubling JV in the post snd Jonas is utterly clueless how to pass out of a double team. Teams will be scouting JV tighter now, so he & the Raps have to adapt.
- 10:29 C have a ladder. JV is better than Asik worse than Cousins
- 10:37 Have to make some shots soon.... We are letting Sacremento stay in the game...36% on some very makeable shots that we are leaving short...and still only a two posssession game...
- 10:41 No matter how bad I feel time to ttime about the Ross deal.... I just have to look at Rondo with the Kings.... and it makes me feel better...
- 10:43 You see how energized The Crew fromT.O. IS!!!
Cause The ball aint sticking, everyone is touching the ball, everyone is Moving, they finding the cutter, they Passing and ISO IS A NO GO!!! bahahahah
T.O. Here Sactown..Gotta Love it! - 10:43 Cousins is unguardable.
- 10:44 Rondo is averaging 13, 7 and 9 though, and 3 triple doubles in his last 4 games. When Ross misses shots, he is useless all around.
- 10:52 Except that Rajon Rondo has turned it over 7 ! times tonite... The guy marches to his own drummer and at times just doesn't have any buy in to the team game.. it may look like it with some really nice nights with his assists totals.. but its all about Rondo.. his act wears thin quickly....
They couldn't get him outta town fast enough in Dallas and he has a one year deal in the land of misfit toys ... - 10:54 Lowry channeled his inner Curry in that quarter.
- 10:54 This is The Raptors Team that makes the Game exciting and FUN and Notice NO ISO!!!
Teamball for the win!! - 10:56 Box score says Cousins hit Three(3) three pointers?
Since when did he have three point range?
That basically makes him unstoppable - 10:56 Rondo sucks. I've BEEN saying that since he was in Boston. The only reason he looked good there is because he played with three first ballot HOF.
- 10:58 I LOVE THIS TEAM!
- 10:58 What a start to the 4th!
- 11:01 Here it starts...DmC is ticking right now... Biz can get him going easily...mayebe another few stupid fouls
- 11:02 demarcus is still a whiny *****
- 11:02 Keep shooting Rondo!
- 11:03 If Cousins loses his head now, that tech that Biyombo drew will end up being his most valuable play of the season.
- 11:05 Biz has done a good job on DMC this second half
- 11:05 Biyombo amazes me
- 11:08 now we should let rudy gay shoot them out of the game
- 11:11 Rudy having a good game tonite... 8/13.... but 4 turnovers... Hard to really dislike Rudy..
- 11:12 lmao this ****ing arena
- 11:13 LOL even the Kings arena is a joke...
- 11:13 Biz is doing an amazing job. Cousins is just that good man
- 11:15 Biz is doing an amazing job on Cousins. KEEP him in the game.
- 11:20 Don't you dare blink! This one might go down to the last play.
- 11:20 Why is Bismack in... he isn't playing Demarcus well enough to offset his terrible offense. He is open every single time on the roll but no one is giving it to him (which I agree with too).
- 11:21 Biyombos done a pretty good job on Demarcus. Well, as well as one can guard Demarcus. Mans a beast
- 11:22 Take BB out, he is so bad offensively nobody needs to guard him.
- 11:23 you can't run pick and roll with biyombo, it's pointless. they just ignore him.
- 11:23 Wow...this is just...bad.
- 11:23 THERE JUST POUNDING THE BALL!!!
What Got you the Lead was MOVEMENT!!! - 11:24 #FireCasey
- 11:25 This ultra small unit ain't working.
- 11:25 i wonder what our organization did to pee off monty mccutcheon so bad that he stiffs us game in and game out...
thats laughable.. cousings took 4 steps... no travelling... - 11:25 This loss is on Casey...for keeping biyombo in there for like 15 mins straight.
- 11:25 my god wtf is up with this offense when it matters
- 11:25 casey snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with his coaching tonight.
- 11:25 Bismack hurts you way more on O than he helps on D. Kings just ignoring him completely the last few minutes. Get anybody else in the game. Even if you don't put a big in.
- 11:26 Too little too late
- 11:26 **** this team
- 11:27 never seen a worse-coached NBA team.
- 11:28 cant believe were about to lose to these scrubs
- 11:29 Well Dwane, hopefully you never close with Biyombo again
- 11:29 jesus this team can't even beat up on the scrub teams anymore.
- 11:30 Kings aren't scrubs NOP and Sixers were. Kings are an NBA team with a full roster
- 11:31 Demar forced some shots for sure...
But maybe if JV gets close to his averages, we win
4 points, 5 rebounds 2/9 in 20 mins deserves some blame too
This was a TEAM loss! - 11:32 Biyombo didn't look gassed. Kings just figured out all they had to do defensively is leave Biyombo alone and load up on everyone else.
- 11:34 Tough L. No answer for Cousins. Gave that game away. Huge no call on that travel by DMC late. On to the next one.
- 11:37 I saw the loss is more on Biz and Casey than anyone else. But mostly Casey because he knows Biz can't score. And its not like Cousins wasnt still scoring after a while
- 12:04 I was so happy with DD through three Q's... Terrible 4th. Truly terrible. Lowry kept us in it but what the heck was he thinking with that long three down one late?
JV struggled, but you absolutely HAVE to get him out there. Casey threw this game - Biyombo couldn't guard Cousins anyway, so what's the point of going 4 on 5 for a full quarter? It worked until SAC wizened up and just ignored him, which was the last 5 minutes of the game, and the offence was terrible from that point on. Even when they scored it was tough, tough buckets from DD, Lowry and Joseph.
I got so excited with that 10 point lead in the 4th. All they had to do was get the closing lineup in (KL-CJ-DD-DC-JV) and breeze to victory, slow it down, take good shots, and don't allow run outs. They did the absolute opposite. Completely indefensible decision making from Casey and DeRozan down the stretch. - 12:15 This game was all lost on Casey's lack of wanting to play JV.
1) Boogie still dropped 35+ on us. BB really didn't lock him down or do anything spectacular.
2) Offense was 4 on 5. BB was left wide open and none of our guys gave him the ball (righfully so).
3) Casey should have reacted during the last two minutes and put in JV or Scola. Someone that would force Boogie to guard on the defensive end.
4) The lack of having a legit PnR guy on offense forced Demar into tough doubles - 1:03 HERO BALL is a staple in the Raptors offense. 2 1st rounds exits and a sweep still doesn't change the way they play
- 9:17 Reading this thread is highly entertaining. You can tell the score from when the "I love this team" comments turn to "what is wrong with X" - typically Casey or DD.
I will simply say this, Biyombo is a drug for Casey. He embodies enough of the defensive qualities that Casey wants for last year's system, and despite the lack of production on D, the new D system and the dearth of Offensive skills, that is enough for Casey to sit JV in favor of a completely inferior player. Clearly up to Masai for this to change. - 9:41 I kind of like Biz. As a back up 5. But not over your starting 5. I don't think Biz did a better job guarding Boogie who destroyed Raps regardless who was guarding him. And I think Casey will take any kind of excuse to bench Jonas and play somebody else instead. It's Salmons all over again (except Biz is a better player).
- 1:56 If we had Salmons, Rudy Gay would drop 40.
