Kingsfans.com Official Game Thread
Game 55
Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Clippers
By Stephen Tetsu, Was in elementary school when Andre Miller entered the NBA.Game 55
Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Clippers
Ouch.
I can't say it was pretty but the Sacramento Kings scrapped, clawed, and turned-over their way to a victory to start the George Karl era off at 1-0 with a 109-101 victory over the incredibly shorthanded Celtics (they played fat Gerald Wallace for Pete's sake!).
Missing Darren Collison, George Karl went with the stereotypical cop drama combo of the young hot shot and grizzled old dude who remembers what the world was like before cell phones. Ray McCallum had a good game as the starter, hitting his open threes (in George Karl's system, the only good shots are three balls and lay-ups/dunks) and playing okay defense (though considering Marcus Smart's relatively inauspicious start to his career, that might be more on the Smart than on Ray). Ray didn't exactly do much to alleviate concerns that he's a shooting guard in a point guard's body but that's okay when 75% of the offense was being run through Demarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay (who himself had a pretty good game to start the Karl era).
Of course, the point guard that caught everyone's attention was David Stockton, erstwhile son of the greatest point guard of all time and also roughly the size of a seventh grader. Sure the dude never saw the court, and if he ever saw the court, it'd probably be because the Kings were losing by forty points, but he sure cheered like he was an actual part of the team, which I guess counts for something. He also couldn't be any worse at point guard than Ramon Sessions had been in stretches this season.
Andre Miller made his Sacramento Kings debut and played like he had found the fountain of youth on the trip from DC to Sacramento. I say that semi in jest because Andre played about as athletic a game as a guy who was once teammates with Pete freaking Chilcutt could, which is to say I think I saw his feet leave the floor once all night. Still, the Professor came into the game in the second quarter and, despite having been on the team for all of three hours, soon had the entire Kings roster answering his every beck and call. Sure it helps that he's George Karl's spiritual muse and will probably follow him until the end of the time, but through a combination of veteran guile and not-being-Ramon-Sessions, Andre Miller immediately established himself as Tom Hanks character in Saving Private Ryan to the rest of the team's wide-eyed pups.
After enduring two months of being stuck on the bench behind the likes of Derrick Williams and Quincy Miller, Omri Casspi suddenly found himself being thrust into some serious minutes as a stretch forward and promptly put up VLADE numbers in response to the tune of 7 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists. If you'd have told me after their rookie year that I'd feel more confident in Omri's court vision than Tyreke's, I'd have called you crazy and yet here we are five years later and Omri is zipping around the court with reckless abandon throwing perfect passes three-quarters down the court.
Of course, it goes without saying that the main highlight of the game was Demarcus Cousins's absolutely bonkers full-court dunk/murder of Jae Crowder in the third quarter. Outside of that highlight, Boogie had a fairly middling game, which only makes his pedestrian 31/15/3/2/1 stat line all the more impressive. He also narrowly missed the bad sort of triple-double with 9 turnovers but that's okay because in crunch time, the Celtics simply had no answer for his size and general being-good-at-basketball-ness.
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Tyler Zeller had a career night, although when you're the only guy on your team taller than 6'8" you'll probably be in the position to make more plays than you rightfully should.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim Award- Gerald Wallace. Remember when Gerald Wallace was the awesome highflier crazy guy who never got any playing time because he was stuck behind Peja, Hedo, and Jim Jackson (DEPTH!)? That was 12 years ago. Now Gerald Wallace is once again rooted on the bench but it's mostly because he's an old fat guy who still can't shoot.
Jason Hart Award- Carl Landry got the start. The Celtics knocked the Kings around like Ray Rice and his wife in an elevator for the first five minutes. Carl Landry promptly sits the rest of the game out. The Kings go on to win.
Mikki- Jae Crowder, who got put on Demarcus's next poster then tried to compensate for it by getting his own dunk and... bragging about it... on Twitter.
Mateen of the Night- David Stockton, who saw absolutely no playing time but made damn sure to let it be known he was enjoying being on the bench in an NBA game (and out of Reno). The dude will never even be 15% the player his father was but maybe he can be 75% the towel waiver Mateen Cleaves was.
WTF Moment- The bench comes in and doesn't implode. Do you believe in miracles?
The View From the Other Side
The following has been borrowed from CelticsBlog.com
- 4:36
They better play their best in this game to entice Boogie to join the the team lol - 7:14
We're killin em! - 7:22
George Karl must be wondering what he signed up for. - 7:24
Cousins is wild tonight this outta be good. - 7:24
DMC with the flop and the T!
Love it - 7:24
If only this game was before the deadline carl mighta traded him - 7:25
Zeller is owning Boogie - 7:26
Are the Celtics in Cousins head? - 7:36
Starters did great
Bench COMPLETELY screwed it up. I mean — COMPLETELY. Wow. Don’t think I’ve ever seen such a stark difference between first and second team. - 7:36
Pressey is playing like a fool - knowing his minutes will soon be gone with the arrival of Thomas. - 7:37
Come on Carl
Put Boogie back in! - 7:37
Watching Pressey and Turner play the point at times makes me so happy for Isaiah. - 7:41
Carl got some athletes he's gonna make this team good. Tommy would love George Carl as the celts coach. - 7:42
Williams is a George Carl type of player. Jeff green would be a beast on his teams too. - 7:43
Watching on NBA Package
and these fool Kings announcers not mentioning Celts down 5 players. - 7:53
i always grin ear to ear
When Cousins comes in the game. He is truly the gift that keeps on giving. - 7:57
you just can't have mccallum, mclemore, or gay taking 3's
Williams dropped one, but you live with that. Just can’t give up the 3’s to the wrong guys. And you WILL need to double Boogie. No way around that. Just have to double from the right spots - 8:00
Cousins gets his contemplated revenge on Smart. - 8:00
i guarantee you cousins knew what he was doing there. he should be gone - 8:02
After that tech
Looks like the refs have been worried about calling anything on cousins. That was a blatant forearm to smarts throat and he followed through, common foul called. Hmmmm - 8:04
BOOGIE FLOP
dat dude is a joke - 8:06
Cousins is unbearable. Great player horrible attitude. - 8:07
does cousins complain on every call
or every call? - 8:07
daymn...
Boogie is such a baby.
GROW UP - 8:15
This is like in soccer
When a guy gets an early yellow card, and for the rest of the game they get away with yellow card-able offences, but the refs won’t call them because they’re scared to send off a big name player.
Cousins has been elbowing, throwing arms around, screaming at officials, complaining after every call.
I love his game but my gosh this display of his attitude is disgusting. I thought Karl liked high IQ players (though he always ended up with idiots like JR Smith haha)? - 8:20
What are the odds DMC gets ejected this game?
Betcha Smart’s plotting it right now
) - 8:38
Ok I'm starting to hate Cousins. Once again he's talented and definitely an all star but wow his attitude.
If he was in our division he would be the most hated player. The way he complains, the BS he gets away with, etc. - 8:41
Considering where George Karl was a couple of years ago, it is great that he can sign a 4 year contract today. - 8:42
The Kings
Are the biggest bunch of whiners. - 8:44
how are we down 8
When the have 20 to’s - 8:49
The benches are the difference in the game right now
The celtics bench is just completely over matched. - 9:00
Looks like George Carl
Has his team playing well. Unfortunately it was against us. - 9:09
FOUL COUSINS. JEEBUS. why give up 2 free points?!
I hate those give-up defensive possessions. - 9:09
i really dislike Cousins...
big time d-bag - 9:11
Cousins is an animal, I want him on our team, - 9:12
This has been a good game
Demarcus Cousins is a BEAST! WOW - 9:12
Cousins is bat$hit crazy. He's probably the best center in the league
but he’s also the most volatile. - 9:16
The kings are so awful they are giving us every chance to win and were still down. - 9:17
Man, it's tough being a "Tanker"
Almost makes me want to change my religion. - 9:19
Best center in the NBA
Is DeMarcus Cousins. I don’t care what kind of attitude he has. He is just very passionate on the court. He’s one of the most talented players in the NBA. - 9:26
Boogie
Needs to take some anger management classes. He has issues. - 12:50
Man George Karl is a winner and great coach
I didnt see game but he wins and never seems to coach teams with heralded players or stars minus Mello who he did better without.
Is AB turning the corner?
Hmmm. doubt it, hope it. - 2:28
Absurd
Cousins is clearly the best defensive tackle in the NBA. Had that game been a summer league game in Cousin’s rookie year he would have had 20 fouls. Watching the first quarter is exactly what I don’t like about the NBA, I’m not impressed with Cousin’s football game or his behavior and luckily Zeller still has all his limbs.
I don’t like NBA officials and believe they are the farthest behind all the leagues (NFL, MLB, all other sports) when it comes to objective decision making. When Hubie Brown says on national TV those calls are only being made at one rim (Golden State vs San Antonio), then it’s "Houston we have a problem." - 4:53 The effort was there even tho they were outplayed. Altho he scored, the most impressive thing about Avery’s game was his passing off the p and r to Zeller. Also tho not great, they got good backup minutes from our old friend shavlik. Cousins is a beast but I agree with the comment above, the refs allowed him to bully his way treating Zeller like a rag mop and calling the touch foul on Zeller. Very winnable game but we give them the all star game layoff rust factor especially missing free throws.
Tonight's Game
The Current Clippers Depth Chart as remembered at 11PM in Japan
C: Deandre Jordan/
PF: Captain Douchenugget/ Big Baby/ Hard to Spell Udoh
SF: Benedict Arnold/The Mummified remains of Hedo/ Dainty Jones
SG: JJ Reddick/Good IT Jamal Crawford/Someother guy (I think)
PG: Chris Paul/Shameless Nepotism
Injured: Flops'n'Dunks
New reason to hate Spencer Hawes #506:
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