Update: 10 pm
The Sacramento Kings played guard ball with four guards and Drew Eubanks at center for most the night. Not hard to predict how that might go against the NBA champions and MVP.
As the Oklahoma City Thunder extended their lead into the last part of the second quarter and the team couldn’t make shots or play defense it became glaring that Keon Ellis had not entered the game. Then by the end of the 3rd quarter it became even more glaring. He entered in the fourth quarter with the game already in the books for the most part.
Then you look down and you see Eubanks was cooked by Hartenstein and Holmgren, holding him to 1 rebound. To be fair Eubanks got 16 points. But without anyone to really step up with Domantas Sabonis not playing in this one, it was all too easy for a disciplined and talented Thunder team. Good thing we traded Jonas Valanciunas for Dario Saric, who didn’t play.
SGA dropped 30 in 29 minutes and sat out the fourth.
From Earlier Preview:
In a bizarre night where both teams were missing their best players, the Sacramento Kings defeated the Golden State Warriors on November 5th to get themselves back in the win column, and now it’s time for some NBA Cup action.
Who: Sacramento Kings (3-5) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (8-1)
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
When: 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
The NBA Cup is here! How exciting? The Kings and Thunder share Group A with the Suns, Jazz, and Timberwolves. Until tonight, only two teams have playing in Group A thus far: the Suns defeated the Jazz.
The Kings played the Thunder tough earlier in the season before ultimately losing 107-101. Here’s a nice little opportunity for some revenge. OKC will be without Jalen Williams, and Lu Dort is questionable. For the Kings, Zach LaVine is off the injury report, which is a great sign. Domantas Sabonis is still listed as questionable, so we’ll see. Keegan Murray is still out.
Prediction: Kings 113, Thunder 105
GO KINGS!
Curious to see how Lavine coming back affects Monks game, he had a helluva game last go around. Also curious to see if Sabonis comes back and how impactful he is. As an energy undersized big, having an injury really showed in his game against the Nugs
30 teams 1 cup.
I’ll see myself out.
30 Teams > 2 Girls?
Don’t Google that!!!
Is this an Evan Fournier reference?
This time OKC will be rested
So the game may not be well-contested.
If this one’s a rout,
Ev’ry Kings fan should shout,
“Hey, Vivek, just sell!”, as suggested!
+1 So we’re playing the Thunder?
Cup check!
Mitch?
Dennis Scrotum.
Pennis Shredder
OKCups of Steel
The Blazers ended OKCs winning streak the other day, with the young ones stepping up in PDX. Interestingly, I was surprised to see who the player development coach is at PDX…one-time Kangz all time great…Pooh Jeter (ole STR boomers are gonna remember this 24-58 Kangz team with the late Paul Westphal and DMC’s rookie year). We still had the Yeti!
Domas is out!
And Chet is back.
On an unrelated note, De’Aaron Fox is back tonight:
NBA Cup, a meaningless in-season tournament.
Sacramento Kings, a meaningless in-season team.
Other teams need to beat the Kings so they can get to the playoffs easier! The Kings do have meaning.
and a non-existent post-season team
I’m not down with that.
The 8-1 Thunder, last season NBA champs versus the Sacramento Kings (3-5). Where’s the suspense in that?
For anyone looking for some good basketball until the Kings play. Kansas and UNC are on ESPN right now with #1 prospect Darryn Peterson playing. This kid is going to be good. We can dream of a player like that should the Kings go all in on the lottery this season.
Peterson along with Boozer and Dybantsa all have a chance to be special franchise-altering players. Would be nice to have any one of those three guys.
We’ll be picking 4th and selecting a ball dominant 6’2″ combo guard who doesn’t play defense.
Might be going to this one if the guy offering me his ticket actually responds. Had to cancel a different obligation for it so hopefully it all works out
And I am no longer going. Welp.
Russ would appear to be a great mentor to the rooks.
Welp, It is as I feared. Keon is the odd man out of the core rotation when all the guards are healthy. He’s probably only going to get minutes of someone else has foul trouble to Doug needs to shake thing up.
Yep giving up 70 pts hoping to outshoot the champs
Keon’s nickname is The Big Rested.
Keon ‘Be On the Bench’ Ellis
Doug really is putting Ellis on an island.
Keoff Ellis.
Christ, Doug’s gonna DNP Keon while SGA cooks us, isn’t he?
Either he tweaked something in warmups or he pissed off someone who matters, because this is beyond the usual overlooking they do to him.
Deuce sees it. He’s calling out the Kings for giving up so many points in the paint and playing a matador defense on the perimeter.
If only the Kings had a very good POA defender. Oh well, gotta get the The Old Guard(s) their minutes.
Right one Deuce! For his key to the second half he says, “I want to see some Keon Ellis.”
Gotta play Russ guys, Vivek wants fans to see Russ get a triple double guys lol. Keon doesn’t sell tickets sorry
Not even joking. This is exactly what’s happening.
Fun fact: Keon has as many 1st half rebounds as Eubanks!
And as many points as Schröder!
Wait, Keon is getting shafted again?
Teams love playing here for their random players to get career highs
This one kinda makes sense with our big depth
Schroeder’s 0/10 shooting. FDC
Alternatively, if it’s an organizational politics thing, FVR.
And since I’ve been giving him way too much slack, FSP
Scott Perry stealth tank commander signing Dennis
How is Schroeder even in the NBA? Just play Russ at point and put Keon in, come on man
Keon sighting lol
Guy needs to quit being a “professional” and request a trade or he’s gonna waste his career.
One or more of these senior citizens is going to bust a hip and Keon will get enough minutes to go somewhere else with a decent contract when his deal is up.
That’s easily an F1 on Russ.
Keon in down 17 with no SGA, no Joe. Great job Doug!
Since he just got in for what amounts to garbage time, it’s clear he obviously pissed somebody off.
They’ll show Keon! (…to the door of some other team)
Maybe he spurned Anjali advances ?
As good a reason as any…
So Keon finally gets in when the Kings are down 15…in the 4th quarter…against the best team in the league.
We need Dougie McBuckets
No we don’t
Keon needs to be traded to San Antonio asap.
If the Kings trade Keon to San Antonio it will mean they will somehow get Kuzma back in return. It’s destiny.
Don’t forget Jeff Green to keep the youth movement rolling along!
Good.
You and Kuzma. Me and Eason. You are probably going to win out. Aside from either one IMO the Kings and Perry and Christie have wasted Keon Ellis. He has his weaknesses just like Sabonis but he can sure play defense and shoot the three ball. Trade him. That’s at least fair to Keon. Do something right by him Perry he deserves at least that.
Oh, I don’t want Kuzma. I too would much prefer Eason. It’s that I think it would totally Kangz to get Kuzma after all the rumored attempts. It is sooooo Vivek.
Shai’s gonna sit the whole quarter. Free Keon.
Kings are clearly saving McDermott for the 10 v 11 play-in. Savvy game planning. No one will expect the McYett.
We are very hospitable hosts.
It’s part of the free agent pitch.
“Come play for Sac, where you can score 40 every night!”
So….will anyone in the media be asking Doug postgame why Keon didn’t play until it didn’t matter?
Hopefully Keon asks. Or better yet, his agent.
Whoever is playing, will play.
Mostly a shameful performance. Once the threes stopped falling, the Kings couldn’t compensate for their olé defense on the other side of the court. The head coach obviously tried to make changes to improve that defense by *checks notes* playing Keon Ellis when already down 16 points and with 12 minutes left to play. Oh well, another win for the tank.
Some interesting post-game comments from Christie. When asked about Ellis not playing, he mentioned the “logjam” the Kings have at guard and how it’s a numbers game every night, while also calling Ellis a “winning player”.
Interesting strategy to keep ‘winning players’ on the bench whilst trying to win basketball games.
I’ve also loved reading all these people praising Westbrook for all the stats he’s been putting up and saying how great he still looks. Can we just tone that down slightly, as he finds new ways to do fuck all on defense each game.
Stop being mean to Russ!!!
The follow-up question should have asked him if that means the team is tanking, since “winning players” are being held out of games.
Yeah, but which media outlet in Sacramento would be so “aggressive”?
Sorry, only when i scrolled further i saw that TKH Twitter also posted this quote.
IMO, Monk needs to go if the Kings are going to prioritize Keon. Many folks won’t like that, but with Westbrook on board, Monk’s backup PG “skills” aren’t needed anymore. If his sole purpose just score off the bench, it’s rather redundant with the other guards on the team. The Kings can’t simply bank on outscoreing their opponent every night and praying hot hands stay hot. They need to stop their opponent if they are to take things to another lovel. Keon can provide that skillset, while Monk cannot.
I used to think Monk or DDR would be a good fit down in an offensive barren Orlando, but those hopes seemed sqashed when they added the firepower of Bane. So far, however, things haven’t been going good down there and their offense still needs help. Monk and his skillset could be of value to them. Though I’m terrified of his injury history, a Johnathan Isaac package for Monk could make sense for both teams. Isaac has fallen out of the rotation down there and should come with some compensation from Orlando in a Monk deal.
No Domas and Hartenstein was allowed to play like Shaq . Drew was solid on offense but 1 rebound and less muscle .
If only they had a big backup center that could muscle up and rebound….
And was also Lithuanian
DC got drunk on the 1st quarter 3s and thought we could outshoot the champs. Live and learn? Hopefully he keeps his job till end of season. SP can then tell Viwrek to back the fuck off as his “head coach pick” is not working. Tank for picks and get a new coach next season.
And Vivek will just say “okay”?
Hypothetical trade: Derozan, Carter, Ellis and a protected first for K. Johnson, Sochan and Champagnie. Contracts work.
Vivek is not going to pay three head coaches at the same time. Doug could sleep through games and not get fired.
He’ll have to start sleeping through practices first. IYKYK
You’d think the type of player Doug was, Keon would be a 36mpg type player for us. My only explanation is that he was a monte gem find and not a vivek scholarship player so why should he be getting minutes over his hand picked team? Only a couple “winning players” on this team as is and yet he gets no run to help said winning.
Mind bottling
I fucking hate my favorite team.
I’m have shifted a big part of my focus to the Blazers. A fun, hardnosed, scrappy team.
Did we ever anticipate winning against the defending champs?
The Kings are living up to our expectations/predictions, so everything is
on firefine.Badge Legend