We bad!
Literally.
You notice that when we finally get to play the PACErs, that we win? See? See? Pace DOES = Kings win!
Well, we got the 6th win of Ty Corbin's tenure. And its the 4th of the 6 to be a flat out bad win. We had those two home wins back in early January which were good. All the rest have proven nothing, including this one where we struggled, and Carl made a perfect play to give the game away away with a ridiculous turnover with 42 seconds to go. Unfortunately those lovable Pacers refused to take it. Ah well, can't lose 'em all I suppose.
Boxscore
Stats: 44min 31pts (10-22, 0-2, 11-11) 5reb 3ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Gay ( B+ ) -- we got off to one of our biggest starts of the year -- reminiscient of the early season quick jumps we had against Memphis and Dallas. And while Rudy was a part of that, he did not become really important until we started slowing down, as more thna any other King he was the guy was able to keep on scoring (notable here: all the attention being paid Cuz meant that Rudy was normally singleteamed by characters like Rodney Stuckey or CJ Miles, so big nights can happen). Really began to step forward in the 2nd, and just never quit thereafter. Almost literally, as if you check out the boxscore numbers you will notice a key to our epic victory here; Corbin finally did something smart and just about eliminated our bench altogether. We iron manned this one thorugh on the backs of our Big Three, and Rudy got all of 4 minutes rest on the night. Should be some answer to suspicions we might be tanking. We got desperate and pulled out all the stops to end the streak. Late in the game after we lost Cuz took and missed a shot, opening the door for the Pacers to finish another Cuzless collapse for us. But the Pacers politely shut the door back up, and Rudy turned the deadbolt with a tough tough fallaway over Hibbert at the 1:03 mark, and then the sealing FTs (that Collison refused to hit) at the 5 second mark (yes our streak buster was in doubt until the final 5 seconds). in the end the 31 is less impressive because it was on 22 shots in 44min. But it was also more impressive because Rudy was the one constant scoring presence, when we did not forget about him, as we pulled this out. Cuz was struggling horribly on offense, and DC was big early, but quiet after half. Rudy was the guy who kept us limping along to victory. --Brick
Stats: 26min 6pts (2-2, 0-0, 2-2) 6reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( C ) -- maybe our only negative in the early going was JT getting lit up by West early, just letting him shoot freely around the perimeter. Its such a constant complaint that you suspect that what little defensive scheme we have has to center around packing the paint. But he was still making a few nice plays to contribute. Got his hand on an interior pass, scooped it up and made a nice little soft pass up court to Rudy for the oepn court dunk. Followed that with the same little halfhook he was using on Kayte in that little feature on post play they did together. And a little layup on the nice drive and dish by Ben. But that would be it offensively. In the early 3rd nabbed some d-boards, but was struggling to slow West again. And he began racking up some tough calls, as whining or not, I'm not exactly sure how the Pacers could be the more physical team, yet it was both our big guys who eventually fouled out of the game while theirs were barely in foul trouble. Got called for a ticky tack foul with 48 seconds to go to finish his night, and was the only one of the starters to not go for big minutes to get this win. Ben wasn't any good, but still, he's part of the Big Four if you will. JT was "the other guy". He didn't do much to hurt us, but West's ability to score relatively easily against him doesn't leave much room for a good grade.--Brick
Stats: 39min 20pts (6-24, 0-0, 8-8) 19reb 3stl 3stl 0blk 4TO
Cousins ( C- ) -- consider how this grade would have looked if I used the abbreviated stats lines and left out the shooting numbers: 20pts 19reb 3ast 3stl = a big muscular thumping effort by a big man. Instead...well... A major issue of course was going to be this:
And an even bigger issue was that Boogie's jumper has been off for a long time now. And this time it reached fugly Tyreke levels. Hibbert sagged back and dared him to take it. he had help. practically the whole team of help. Boogie shot. Boogie bricked. Rinse. Repeat. At a certain point I was actually getting annoyed at Collison, because there is no way after a guy has missed 8 straight jumpers that you should throw it to him with time running down in a position where he almost has to force up another. Good PGs are sometimes called "floor generals" in part because they are supposed to know who is hot and from where. But that wasn't happening this time. We stubbornly kept giving him the ball 18 feet from the hoop facing up. The Indiana defense packed in, knowing we can't shoot, and more particularly that Boogie couldn't shoot. And up went another jumper. And in a pattern we've seen all too much of, and which is all the more frustrating because we don't have an actual coach capable of drawing up a way to beat it, every time Boogie did post, it was against two men. The few things that did fall were the special shots again. A power drive right through Hibbert's chest, knocking him under the hoop. Down the stretch he came up with some huge muscled 0-rebs and finishes. But offensively it was mostly a real struggle. And a struggle aided by the refs and the opponent, as I think Indiana would rather mug him than let him get into a rhythm. And the refs were kindly put "letting the play". Letting them play is valid, but the headshaking part of it again was they were calling basically bump fouls and touch fouls the other way. Then another wrestling match would break out with Boogie vs. three guys and they wouldn't call anything. Rough games don't bother me at all. Just be consistent. Now, the reason this grade is not a complete disaster is of course the other stuff. He battled inside for 19rebs as opposed to all 5 of Indiana's starters combining for 20. He kept on getting steals, not just poekaways underneath, but athletic steals up top which he scooped up to lead the break and set guys up for open threes. Sporadically he would find somebody out of the doubles and traffic with good passes. Forced up a falling down hook in the early 4th for another miss, but went down the other way and took a charge and got extremely physical underneath, muscling for offensive rebs, but also picking up offensive fouls. Finally fouled out on back to back plays in the 4th with a big, tough, wildly inefficient mess of a game. He needs to find his offensive game if we are going to build on this at all. Unfortunately I have almost no confidence in Corbin's ability to help out with that process, and who should we be running into but Bogut and the Warriors again. --Brick
Stats: 36min 8pts (3-9, 1-5, 1-2) 4reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( C- ) -- Ben had a pretty nice stint in the first quarter. He only scored two points on two shots, but his hustle and defensive effort was very good. He was playing lockdown D on Stuckey, and while he made a classic Ben Mistake™ in going over to help on an open West then LEAVING him while he had the ball for an easy jumper, he had a few other defensive plays that really stood out. On one he batted a loose ball high into the air in order to let the shot clock run out - it was good recognition of the situation. On another he (and DC) got stuck on Hibbert in an open lane in transition, and together they denied the entry pass long enough to force Hibbert to clear the lane and give our D a chance to balance up. But after the first quarter, things went a bit downhill. He had a very dull 3-4 minute stint to close the second quarter during which I'm not sure he ever even touched the ball, and after making his first two shots in the third, he was shut out (outside of a free throw) for the remainder of the game - he missed his last five shots, four of them from three. His defense was still pretty solid, and while the Pacers were able to get some shots off against him, they missed all 7 threes they tried against him (thanks, C.J.!). In fact, the Kings defense let Ben down a bit in the fourth, when they took to packing the paint at the expense of allowing open shooters on the perimeter. Not that the strategy failed - the Pacers only shot 20% from three for the game - but on one play Ben was forced to singlehandedly guard THREE players outside the three point line with none of the other four in purple giving him any help at all (the Pacers made two passes and still missed the three!) Ben just didn't have it offensively tonight. The defense had some nice moments but might have looked significantly worse if the Pacers hadn't been ice cold. --Capt.
Stats: 40min 23pts (9-15, 3-6, 2-4) 5reb 5ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Collison ( B+ ) -- you know, just a couple of days ago I was joking I was just about ready to start just giving DC a "ditto" grade so predicatable and mediocre had his play been for basically the entire month. A few weaker, a few a little stronger, but no truly terrible games, and almost no really good ones. 15pts every night, 5ast or so, some on and off defense. Sufficient to dodge primary blame for our swoon,but never enough to impact anything. And then vs. the Pacers we finally, finally! got an inspired effort out of him, for at least a half, and we won the game, in no small part because of the boost he gave us. Most of that boost was early . After a missed quickshot to start -- one of three back to back by the team (1 each by DC, Rudy and Ben -- this team needs Gene Hackman to coach them on passing), he stepped into a three, hit a side pop, knocked down a corner three from Cuz, and had a big first quarter with 12pts as we blasted out to a big lead that we would need to nurse all the way until the end as the glow slowly faded. DC was not as good after that. In fact when he came back in the first thing he did was get beat twice for 5pts off that big lead. And int eh third his offense disappeared, he missed a three to start the quarter, had a poor sequence in the mid-quarter picking up his dribble, turning it over, trying to pass out it, then committing a loose foul down the other way. He responded down the stretch as things were getting too tight, hitting a little facing jumper and layup in the mid 4th to push the lead out to 14. But he had an unamusing close to this one as he not only got intentionally fouled at the 8.5 second mark and missed not 1, but BOTH FTs with us up 6, but then he went down the other way and let Hill bomb a three over him to cut the lead to 3 and keep the miracle loss in play. Luckily Rudy sealed things, or the negatives would be tearing this one down again. As it wa, each of our big three were flawed in theor own way, but so massively productive as a group that they muscled out a victory wiht very little help from their teammates. --Brick
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