The Sacramento Kings capped an undefeated preseason, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 116-112. As icing on the cake, the loss meant the Lakers were winless in preseason. Do these thing matter? No. But they’re still fun!
Speaking of fun, this game was a blast to watch. Both teams seemed to be playing with regular-season intensity and the crowd energy was fantastic. It helped that the Kings led for a good portion of the game, and we were treated to several outstanding individual performances.
De’Aaron Fox had a team-high 21 points, including shooting 3-4 from the free throw line. He should have had more free throws attempts but the refs swallowed the whistle on several blatant fouls.
Terence Davis had 20 points off the bench, going 6-13 from three. It felt like he made 10 threes.
Davion Mitchell’s stat line won’t jump off the page but he was everywhere in this game. His defense held up against the likes of Russell Westbrook and LeBron James. Those guys obviously still got their points, but Mitchell was disruptive and made his opponents put in extra effort. It’s those little things that add up. And that defensive intensity carried over to the rest of the team, who got some huge stops down the stretch in a game both sides were clearly still trying to win.
We’ll have more detailed analysis of the preseason as a whole in the days to come. The Kings now have a few days off before opening the regular season on October 20th against the Blazers.
Unbeaten in the Post-Shaq era!
Kayte is undefeated as color commentator!
Luke Walton is invincible this season!
Isn’t Davis anti-vax?
There are unfortunately some on the team that seem like they won’t get vaccinated…
I was talking to someone associated with the team the other day and they said the last few holdouts have been vaccinated. This person isn’t training staff or anything though, so take with appropriate salt.
how is that unfortunate
Everyone not getting vaccinated is a selfish turd, you see. Or so it’s said around here. It’s not possible that those not getting vax’d might have a good reason or anything.
No one thinks someone with a critical health problem should get a vaccine if it’s not recommended by their doctor.
If you aren’t immuno-compromised, have an allergy to a vaccine component, or some other medical issue that would make receiving the vaccine hazardous, then you are either selfish, stupid, or chickenshit about getting a needle stuck in your arm.
Nothing says that it can’t be all three.
Wow. Such a tough guy over here.
How dare people make their own choices. If your vaccine is good enough for you then there’s no reason for me to get one.
You’re also choosing for the people you infect.
To say nothing of the social and economic impacts on people based on the unnecessary prolonging of the pandemic.
What about the people that are vaccinated the infect other people? Are those bad people too?
Fuck your choices. You don’t get to walk around contagious. That’s not freedom, it’s anarchy.
To not recognize natural immunity from surviving Covid and therefore to not need the vaccine is what is stupid. There is no other vaccine that is administered to someone who has survived the disease it treats…measles or even small pox.
So maybe have some humility and allow people to use their own judgment.
Natural immunity is worse than the vaccines, and acquiring natural immunity puts other people at risk.
That is totally untrue. Natural immunity is a stronger and longer immunity than the vaccines that are requiring more and more boosters.
100 million Americans have survived Covid already. They don’t need the vaccine now. They are less likely to get it again and therefore spread it than the vaccinated.
Collected data (not facebook memes or youtube videos) suggest that’s not actually true, at all. As natural “immunity” has a number of factors that go into determining just how “immune” one is after an infection. Studies also suggest Infection rates (and reinfection) are more than twice as high among non-vaccinated. Of course, then there’s the long-term effects from multiple serious covid infections that are becoming more and more reported on.
How’s this for science? https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital
It’s good. It’s a good article. I’m assuming you actually read the whole thing. From what we know, it basically breaks down like this. Vaccination gives you more antibodies. Infection gives you more diverse antibodies. Infection + vaccine is the best protection EXCEPT the risk that comes acquiring immunity “naturally” (which is nonsense, but we’ll go with it). And we should keep in mind, that the sample of subjects that acquired immunity via infection only includes people that survived that infection.
The reality is that the subject, conversation, current knowledge on the subject is nuanced.
Thanks for the response. The bottom line is for those who are still not comfortable with the vaccine and have had Covid, there is no need for the vaccine.
And yes, due to the nuanced understanding on this whole subject, patience with each other is the best road. Thus my reaction to being called “stupid”, a chickenshit, and selfish.
If you’ve been naturally infected with COVID-19 and you aren’t vaccinated, your risk of getting reinfected with symptomatic disease is about 2.5–fold higher.
I’m not particularly concerned about making most stupid, selfish chickenshits feel bad, because I’ve seen what makes them feel good.
Or MISINFORMED! Unfortunately many people simply trust the wrong sources. The reasons for this are complex but probably mostly derive from feeling alienated from most of what those with power and authority are doing and how their lives are going. Their alienation grows out of their experience.
I’m not sure I agree with your “mostly” statement there. I would say more people are being manipulated by those seeking power and authority. Unfortunately, there is power and authority (and money) to be had in actively engendering and nurturing a feeling of alienation in order to cultivate a receptive audience.
I agree that there are concerted efforts to misinform and stimulate alienation. What I was thinking of is why some are more susceptible than others to being misinformed.
I would suggest a combination of confirmation bias, education, and environmental factors. Which, of course, are all heavily inter-related.
Personally, I think confirmation bias is one of the strongest forces in the universe.
I know you’re wrong, and I’ll tell you why right after I do some research on Facebook and YouTube.
I would argue that in 2021, TV news and social media are more a factor than actual lived experience.
I’m not going to take a vaccine that members of Congress or the CDC aren’t mandated to. Once they take it, and once they are taking the same vaccine I’m expected to (which then can be verified other than from the worthless shills masquerading as media), I’ll be happy to take it.
Especially since that also means that I will probably be able to sue vaccine makers if I do somehow have adverse health effects due to the COVID vaccine. Or any vaccine for that matter.
If that makes me selfish, stupid and chickenshit, I’m 100% okay with it.
That Instagram image you may have seen is wrong. CDC (and FDA) staff are mandated by executive order to get vaccines. The executive branch can’t issue a mandate to the legislative branch due to separation of powers, and legislative majority leaders in either party can’t force members to be vaccinated, so congress will never have a vaccine mandate. This isn’t a vaccine issue, it’s a bureaucracy issue.
I wish I could like this 100 billion times
This seems like a good forum to get into a debate about the pros/cons of getting vaccinated. Sure would be nice to escape this garbage at least somewhere.
Unfortunately, because of the needless prolonging of the pandemic, “this garbage” is still significantly and directly impacting the Kings and the NBA. Which, of course, are the entire reason this blog exists.
I definitely agree with you here. This was the one place to go for a small escape at one point.
Not again in this thread too…
I’d expect you to have herd immunity by now.
The thread evolves, it’s Delta level now.
Why?
Because you’ve been exposed to so many discussions about NBA players with COVID already?
Yeah, it’s annoying. Can we just keep the site focused on the actual playing of basketball games?
I can’t just shut up and write about dribbling.
An unvaxxed player is germaine to the discussions about the Kings, I’d say. YMMV.
Tito, too.
The pandemic and player/team vaccination status is having a major impact on the actual playing of basketball games.
Yeah, the readership of this site will keep shrinking with the continual harping about anti-vaxxers.
Doubtful. Some may leave. Most probably won’t. More readers will join. Sun rise. Sun set.
NOW I know why there’s no traffic on that other Kings blog!
This was kinda crazy…
My untrained observations: the starting 5 was a mess at the start. TT is shunpert 2.0. Loved the energy and effort tonight.
Fun game to watch, especially the second half. Some good things here, but I felt there were a lot of bad signs as well:
Good:
Bad:
TD played a fantastic game. 20 points on 14 shots. Maybe 1-2 of this 3s were forced, but otherwise he is getting clean looks on balance. He is a two way player and plays with a lot of moxie which is elevating to the rest of the team. I have more confidence in TDs shot than Buddy and unlike Buddy, TD can be a net positive when his shot is off.
IF TD can continue to play like that, he makes Buddy totally replaceable. Not even Buddy’s shooting will give him an edge anymore.
Fixed:
Also bad…Buddy running the point in the second quarter with Mitchell on the floor. Why does Luke insist on having Buddy bring the ball up?
I don’t get that part either, but what’s with all the Buddy hate today? He played smart, had no TOs, hit his shots, was a game high +30, and looked like a solid vet 6th man out there. It was his best game in a long time, and if he can take something from it moving forward, he can be a huge asset to this team.
Based on my limited viewing, this seems right to me.
I don’t think Adam was digging at Buddy at all. You need to play to your strengths. Historically, dribbling is one of Buddy’s biggest weaknesses so if you have a better ball handler/playmaker on the floor, the coach should be using him. Play Buddy to his strengths and he is a legitimate weapon. Showcase his weaknesses and he becomes a liability quick. Tonight was a good game by him but it’s not fair to him to make him into something he is not (a ballhandler).
Simple, because Coachless Walton is terrible. But let’s keep him around.
Also, hoping these minutes-rotations aren’t going to be the norm…Haliburton and Mitchell hardly okayed together. O flows best w the 2. And Haliburton needs top minutes. 3 guards Hali/Mitchell/Fox most would be nice.
Lebron’s dominance was not the Kings’ fault. He might win another championship if the team stays healthy (and find an upgrade for Reaves). But Mitchell defended Lebron well. Barnes played solid D on him. And TD stepped up. I also thought Hield played well. Tyrese’s turnovers were uncharacteristic. Was he sick or something?
Maybe he’s still recovering from whatever kept him out of the previous game?
That was my speculation
Reaves is there 4th string SG/PG. He was only playing because of injuries and may not even make the final roster. The Lakers didn’t have Monk, Ellington, Nunn or Horton-Tucker. They’ll be a much better team with those four in the rotation. The Lakers didn’t have any floor spreaders yesterday.
They could have had one…
Indeed.
I was just looking at salary numbers to see if it is still possible. Sadly, I don’t see how it works.
Okay. Yeah, he got burnt to a crisp.
It is still hilariously sad to me that a team that consists of Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, Rajon Rondo, DeAndre Jordan, Russel Westbrook, and Dwight Howard just needs to upgrade one more player to have a shot at the chip.
Not a dig at you for pointing it out, just talking about the absurdity of it all. Any one of those players in the past could have possibly led their team to the Finals. Now they join forces in some geriatric Legion of Doom.
This Lakers team is giving me flashbacks to the 2003-04 Lakers (who lost in the finals, lol!):
They added Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Bryon Russell and Horace Grant to their core of Kobe, Shaq and Luke Walton!
Hell yeah!!
Based on the first half only (always early bedtime): the Lakers’ starting five is better than the Kings’, bigger, more skilled, more experienced. What do the Kings have going for themselves? When Davion, Buddy, and TT form the core of the bench mob, the Kings had a stronger bench, played really well. I thought I saw better play from Buddy, including on defense; he is much better coming off the bench. The Kings’ young core will only get better while the Lakers are old enough that injury is likely to be an issue for them again. Hali did not seem to have a good game, struggled on defense; but he will get stronger and better: learning curve.
Surprisingly, considering how huge their team is, especially in relation to ours, the rebounding battle wasn’t lopsided (56-49) and the Kings even won the offensive boards (12-10).
I have to say I was impressed with the way this coach coached this game, the guy our GM chose to retain…. McGenius strikes again!
Buddy needs to leave his hair like that, the ‘fro or half-fro. He needs a new start, a new year, fresh with a new look. Davion can wear the braids, look cool, not so with Buddy. TT without the braids looks like Joel Embiid, doppleganger?!
Both teams were treating this game as a regular season game, this has been the annual modus operandi of this coach as the preseason comes to conclusion. This lineup and rotation is what we are going to see vs POR. This means Marvin DNP-CD, everybody dance!
The weasel way out, which I feared, would have been to find to find a few minutes here and there for Marvin, underservingly granted, throw the dog a bone, treating million dollar athletes like little leaguers. Thank goodness this coach had the fortitude to make the correct call.
Should Marvin get meaningful minutes again? What is the point, his playing time is so futile. Even if TT is missing those chippies, which he should be making, he is still more trusted and capable to give us the interior and defensive presence we need. And when he receives the pass in the center of the floor, he’s not going be sped up and force trash , he’s going to make a better read.
This is invaluable compared to the indecisivness and impetuousness of Marvin as a decision maker with the ball. This coach is right to not trust him as he fights for his coaching life.
If Marvin cannot beat out Mo Scoreless as starter, who was rotting on the bench in MIA before we acquired him, though he had some injury issues too, you cannot justify making him a rotational player, especially when boards and defense and floor spacing are the priority and Marvin gives us none.
Now you can say Marvin may get some run situationally? What situation is that?! Up by 30 with 2:00 minutes to go? I don’t see it, or more precisely, I ve seen enough, and apparently so has this coach, hell yes!
Davion was unfazed going up against LeBum and LAL and destroyed Rondo, 0-2 FGs and minus 30 +/- in 20 minutes. Hey Rondo sorry about your Off Night!
I am curious if there is a stat called “forced turnovers”? Where the player is not given credit for a steal but his play leads to gaining possession, i.e. forcing a travel bad pass or stepping out of bounds, Davion was credited with one steal but it would seem he was responsible for about 5 forced TOs.
Davion should be starting, I knew it and stated it before I saw all three guards play together. Fox struggled, Ty struggled. Ty gains his advantage through pick and roll whereas Fox and Davion are more about burst and juke moves. With Fox and Davion you can run more 5 out sets , with the opponent not having two defenders who can keep both in front, and with Ty off the bench you can run more high and pick and roll.
The disadvantage I can see to making Ty 6th man is he does have that beautfiul chemistry with Holmes, but this should not be prohobitive, and Davion can drop sweet dimes too. His decision making is outstanding, something I was never worried about when others were.
And Davion even had a nice tear drop floater! If he gets that shot down , forget about it, future all-star confirmed! The lack of a midrange game is the only flaw I see to Davion’s game, but he maintains his dribble under durress when he does not see a high percentage play, this is a very good sign.
The beauty of the rapid emergence of Davion and the star quality of TD and our depth in general is Buddy is going to have to play smart or effecient or sit down. 24 minutes and 10 shots for Buddy, modest to low usage, including a left hand finish at the rim, hello, havent see that in 3-4 years!
Buddy destroyed any chance we had at the playoffs last year, he will not be allowed to do so because if he does not rise to the standard of his teammates competing for his minutes, he will not have that destructive power. I think that Buddy may be less inclined to force shots if he sees that he has more capable players like TD Davion and Ty vs CoJo and Bjelica.
The coach went small at the end with 4 guards and Holmes as we zoned up and tricked up LAL and also we were picking on Austin Reaves trying to force the switch onto him as a weaker defender. This is smart coaching and whether you want to give credit to the head coach or assistants lets hope this strategy is employed often. It is what real teams do.
Some nice talking points here. The 4-guard lineup was interesting and it worked. It did seem like Mitchell caused 5 turnovers, and he also defended Lebron well on a couple possessions.
Please don’t encourage him.
If he doesn’t, I will. I don’t necessarily agree with all of it, but it’s something I find entertaining if nothing else.
It’s all McGenius!
I just wish there was an executive summary attached.
But then Paula Cole would be left to wonder, “Where has all the BestHyperbole gone?”
From what I’ve seen there’s a lot of pretty spectacular hyperbole around here without me.
just sifting
You were doing so well, and then you decide to pin the blame for an entire team missing the playoffs on one player. Consider quitting while you’re ahead once in a while.
Ahead? His first thought was to praise “McGenius” for keeping Luke.
I’m trying to be more generous in my assessments, even though everything is stupid and always will be.
I see, so your love for me this year will be born of pity and self restraint.
&ct=g
It made me giggle that one post could simultaneously heap praise on Luke Walton’s coaching ability and blame Buddy for single handedly taking down the Kings playoff chances.
It’s almost like there are these things teams have called, “coaches,” that can exert some influence on how, where, when and how many times players like Buddy play and shoot the basketball. The Kings should have looked into that last year I guess.
On that note, Luke’s response prior to last night’s game when asked about Buddy jacking up 26 threes in like five minutes of preseason play was that he wants Buddy to shoot. That’s the role Luke envisions for him.
The less efficient volume chucking Buddy is Luke’s baby, so I don’t expect Luke to do anything to hold Buddy accountable for more bad shots this season.
Did you hear Mark and Kayte forcing “Buddy is an elite shooter” down our throats last night?
I did. It made me think of Damien Barling’s Buddy takes!
I hope they don’t get into this thing where they’re making excuses for poor play. It can both be true that Buddy is an elite shooter and that he takes bad shots that make him something less than that, if done enough.
Unfortunately they’ve started with ridiculous-non critical style. Maybe it’ll alter a tad.
I find it gross and unlistenable when announcers don’t at least present both sides.
It’s in line with Kings organization constantly trying to convince us this team is good, that it’s close. That it’s a contender. That Bagely will be great. Etc etc etc.
Morons. Viveked
My concern is that Kyle will be the only critical voice on the entire broadcast.
Kyle keeps it real though so AT LEAST there’s a critical voice. I agree with you though.
I mean, we can quibble about the definition of “elite,” but Buddy is an exceptionally effective 3-pt shooter. I mean, in a “down” year, he just shot 39% on 10 attempts a game. His 3pt numbers last season were almost identical to Lillard’s. Buddy has plenty of holes in his game, but we shouldn’t pretend he isn’t one of the very best 3pt shooters in the league.
He was elite, when used more correctly.
Again, I’d have to know how we’re defining “elite” here.
Well, consistency is part of it for me. So is impact on the team. I equate elitism with both reliability and impact.
It seems like these past couple of seasons we are trading three games of 3-13 in a row to get one game of 6-9!
Also, that 39% season average is pretty illusory for me. He was hovering closer to 35% for most of the season and only made a late push to get it back up to 39%
Not being reliable is not being elite.
Adding too (as my prior comment suggested), Buddy still possesses “elite” shooting ability. In the right role on a team, I still think he could be an elite NBA shooter.
Buddy is consistently worse than he used to be, likely due to being misused. I’m more concerned about him being worse for no reason than whether or not he’s elite. I’ve posted the same stats before but:
2018-19: 278 for 651 (.427) – 7th in the NBA
2020-21: 282 for 721 (.391) – 69th in the NBA
The extra volume is 4 for 70, or about 5.7%, so almost entirely wasted shots.
I would (and have) argued that the first line is elite and the second is above average. If Buddy is used right and takes better shots, “elite” is no longer a conversation.
It does mean something to my eyes ! The Kings are more talented than they have been for a decade and the Lakers look old and overhyped ! Pray that continues !
I think the Lakers are still trying to feel each other out. They have a lot of new players. They are still a title contender.
Agree, Lakers wanted that game pretty badly. They didn’t want to answer all the 0-6 questions in the post-game. They played a 9 man rotation for 45 minutes, then when it looked like they might embarrassingly lose to the lowly Kings, they emptied their bench with 3 mins to go. Vogel even said in nervous excuse voice, “Well we didn’t play our top guys at the end.” As if it didn’t matter because they weren’t really trying. Even the Kings starters were still out there at the end like, “Where the hell you cowards going? Let’s do this!”
Did Vogel really say that?! Hahaha!
That was the oddest preseason game I’ve ever been to… Typically, there is no energy in the building for the preseason and also one of the teams (or both teams) is trying to figure out their best bench players. Both teams were really trying to win the game and the crowd was loud. Loved seeing the improved Kings defense (other than the second quarter).
After watching Luke’s rotations last night the Kings are going to need 35+ minutes a night, damn near every night, of Harrison Barnes to succeed. Not only is he the best SF on the team but also the best PF. The Kings had to go super small with Harkless apparently being banged up a bit. That is a formula that might catch some team off balance for a few minutes, but is not a system to count on. I feel going small and quick against a much larger, slower, and older Lakers squad in preseason might have some flashes of success, but won’t work come crunch time in the regular season when these types of veteran winners are clicking.
All that being said, this team is desperate for another wing as any injury to Barnes or even Harkless leaves few options.
100% agree here. LeBron brutalized us at 57 years of age. Until we can get a legitimate wing defender, we’re gonna get eaten alive by 6’6″-6’9″ forwards all year. I love Davion, but I don’t want to see a rookie have to guard the best wing scorers on the planet just for the Kings to stay above water. Not a strategy for success.
That’s crazy, Lebron wiping the floor only with Sacramento players, and no one else. You can’t get into the Hall of Fame that way.
Me, an idiot: a bigger wing defender would be nice.
You, intelligent and refined: *farts in text*
destroyed by facts and logic by your mighty hand once again, sir.
My opinion falls closer to Andy’s, but damn if that wasn’t an excellent retort.
Also, kudos to Barnes for making both FTs after that atrocious hack by Dwight Howard
Yeah, basically 265 lbs of bricks collapsed on Barnes. Surprised he wasn’t hurt more.
Didn’t have the energy to watch last night, and I would have fallen asleep even if I had clicked over. I was more interested in seeing the Giants lose, and I didn’t feel like watching that either.
Either way, the regular season is here. WOOT!!! Very interested to see what this team does, but that was true regardless of preseason.
Just to want to know if you guys comfortable with Tyrese touching the ball for much less than before, and shoot the ball much less than previous season….
I still think the ball need to be in Tyrese’s hand, he can initiate the offense, and play pick and roll with Holmes…
But in this game, I can only see their connection for only once…
Ty didn’t have that great of a game last night and other guys such as Buddy and TD were playing great. That’s the beauty of having guard depth. If you’re having an off night, others can go in and cover your slack.
You will see a lot of Ty having the ball in his hands during the regular season. Walton even mentioned it in one of his interviews that he would like having Haliburton be the initiator most of the time. Just happened he didn’t have “it” last night. It’s preseason after all so I’m not worried one bit.
Tyrese had a great offensive rebound out of absolutely nowhere in the second half last night, just grabbing the ball from the hands one of the very tall Lakers who did not expect it to be contested at all. I don’t think that possession resulted in points, though (I may have had some beers, so details are a little fuzzy)
Yeah I’m not worried about Tyrese at all. He had some really nice opportunistic plays even though he didn’t have the best game overall.
For those that went to the game last night, how bad were the line to get in the arena with the staff checking vaccination status? One of my buddies went and said that it took a while for them to get in. Just wondering if that’s the experience that others had as well.
Shit, I’m still here waiting in line!
3 stops to get inside. First check is for vaccine status, next stop is for metal detectors, and 3 guy scans your ticket.
Can’t wait for the stop where we all get to climb into flame-proof, padded bubble suits.
It would be nice if people weren’t constantly proving the necessity of those types of precautions.
Regardless, it’s a minor inconvenience. The most surprising thing to me in all of these issues is how many people can’t seem to deal with the slightest of personal inconveniences.
But not how many people just want to let the Orwellian era begin without any pushback. FYI I’m fine showing vax status and going through detectors, but more is coming. Lots more, if nobody ever says anything.
From what I’ve seen, “Orwellian” is going through the same BS co-oping as any number of other terms recently (fascism, socialism, etc.). Where is being used so loosely and often outright incorrectly that the term is losing any actual meaning. At this point it the concept is just being used as a bogeyman to enrage, rally, and solidify political bases. For the most part, people using those terms have zero idea where they come from or what they mean (again, not talking about you. I have no idea how familiar you are with Orwell or his commentary.)
I have been minorly inconvenienced!
I’ll just assume that means you’re mostly cool doing what they say at the expense of future privacies. Anyway, I’ve taken the bait. Back to basketball for me.
Who are they? What are “they” saying? And what future privacies are being threatened?
Do you have a drivers license, by any chance? Maybe auto insurance?
Yep, literally signing up for this site, much less commenting, sacrifices more “privacies” than requiring and checking for vaccines in order to engage with a private company. The (scrolls up) Ralph Lauren Factory store (because apparently my consumer data pegs me fancy but cheap) ad fed to me at the top of the page is a bigger privacy issue than anything related to the pandemic.
Begin? If you own a smartphone and a smart speaker, every website you browse (including your porn), every search you make (every illness and fetish), every place you go, every social media comment you make, every group you’re a part of, every person you meet, everyone you call and text, video of you in public, every photo you take (in a somewhat limited way), and some of the stuff you say at home is recorded, processed and accessible to various companies.
Vaccine checks are the least Orwellian thing in the list, and at least have a point and some societal benefit. At best, the rest of it is used to manipulate you into buying shit or behaving in a certain way. There are a lot of worse uses of that data that have come to pass in various ways.
Don’t forget ID for alcohol, insurance requirements for cars, etc.
Wait till he finds out what they make you do to play HS football!
Talk about privacy invasion! 😉
I was so scared my mom would the read the helmet part they make her sign where it says YOUR CHILD CAN DIE.
100% this!!!!
The pants mandate is Orwellifasciocommunist, according to a guy I know.
Oh for fuck’s sake. I said I was fine with vax checks and detectors. But I am concerned for future privacies the way things are going. But by all means, do the cliche internet witchmob thing and don’t read. Quickly put someone in the adversary box so you can feel good about yourself.
I’m not trying to treat you as adversary, so if that’s the way you read it, that’s my bad. I’m just saying we’re way past the point of an Orwellian society, and vaccine requirements have little to do with it. You’re concerned about future privacies, which is fine. What do we even have left?
The robot dogs with machine guns care not for you privacy concerns!
I forgot Vivek’s security bot!
This is Rondo’s impression of Davion’s defense.
What breed is this?
It’s a Fascist Retriever.
I for one welcome our new robot dog overlords!
A. Mer. Ic. AAHHHHHHHHH.
Yep, exactly. Step 1: Stop signs. Step 2: Vax checks. Step 3: The Matrix. If only there were independent sports fan blogs in the early 20th century, we could have nipped this whole thing at the stop signs stage.
It was bad compared to the before times. We arrived in line at 655pm – in the door at 720pm. Just make sure to give yourself some extra time to get in. I’m sure they will get it smoother as time goes on. But I also suspect they, like everyone, are having trouble getting enough employees so who knows.
Sold my tix for last night, but just for reference…for the first preseason game it was super quick to get in because there was only a couple thousand people in attendance. Went to the Eagles concert (almost sold out) and the line to get through the status check was maybe 7 or 8 minutes, because people don’t get their shit out until they’re standing in front of the checker. That was frustrating as hell.
The metal detectors were about 5, because nobody apparently read the multiple purse/bag emails sent for the event, and were intent on on arguing about why they couldn’t bring purses the size of duffel bags into the event. This was complete with the “well what do you expect me to do with this now” arguing with security. Like it’s the he’s going to make an exception for just you, after he’s turned away the other 4 people that were in line ahead of you.
Ticket check was quick and painless. Even easier, honestly, which might be because the ticket barcode structure has changed. In know in the past when lanyards were still a thing for STHs, on the off night we forgot them and had to scan mobile, the square QR always seemed to take some finessing to get it to go. Whereas the new barcode style was pretty much like using the lanyard pass.
Side note. With the new bag policies, it would really behoove the Kings to put a locker area outside the arena for just that purpose. Didn’t read the policies ahead of time and don’t want to walk it back to the car? Stick it in a locker for $5.
It seems like there isn’t much of this anywhere any more. I’m guessing it’s terrorism related, sadly.
That very well could be.
The Pearl Harbor Memorial in Oahu has these exact lockers available. They don’t allow bags of any kind. Based on how many people I saw go to them they are making decent money on them.
This is why it’s so important to do some Sherlock Holmes-ing the people in line before you pick which Grocery store or Target line you fall into. Some people you know will wait until all the items have been rung up and bagged before they pull out their purse/wallet.
Yeah. If there are 10-15 people in line, I get my vaccine info on my phone and my ID out of my wallet the minute I step into it, so I’m ready to roll when I get up front. If there’s a short-to-no line, I stand aside and get those ready before proceeding. It just seems so easy, but apparently not.
Good advice. 🙂
If I see you in line in front of me at Target, I’m getting in your line!
Went to the game last night. Here are my observations:
Marvin Bagley is going to be traded. I think the Kings are not playing him so he won’t get hurt. Bagley never took his sweats off. He participated in the warm-ups and didn’t look to be hurt in any way. Kings need to move on from him and admit their mistake for not drafting Luka Doncic who is a superstar who can get a bellow average team to the playoffs. That’s something D. Fox can’t do. More on him later.
Tristan Thompson is going to be a valuable rotation player. I figured the Kings were going to buy him out after the trade. He played well against the Lakers who had so much size on the Kings. Lakers can get another ring, for sure.
Davion is a player. He guarded LeBron a couple of time and got his hands on some balls. He definitely has to work on on his 3 point shot. But he is solid defensively. The Kings have hit the jackpot 2 years in a row in the draftwith Mitchell and Haliburton considering their drafting position.
By the way, this was my first time seeing LeBron in person. This dude is huge. Anthony Davis is big at the 4 position. DeAndre Jordan has a limited game but is a serviceable center. Did I say that the Lakers were so much bigger than the Kings?
D. Fox is hesitant to shoot the 3. He had some wide open looks early and didn’t pull the trigger. He is a nice player but his lack of 3 point shooting hurts him.
Trade Fox for Ben Simmons. The Kings need size in the worst way. I love Richaun Holmes’ hustle but he is too small to play center. Simmons is a 3 time all-star who gets people the ball where they need it, rebounds, and plays great defense and able to guard bigger players. The Kings will not make the playoffs without Simmons on the team. It will be another year of disappointment.
Terance Davis played a nice all-around game. Harrison Barnes is solid and the Kings best all-around player. Halliburton didn’t play well but I already know his game. He will be fine.
The Bagley thing is just madness, at this point. Seems pretty clear that he’s now dealing with some type of a knee injury that the team is not wanting to disclose. The team is trying to thinking of every possible to discuss his status (or lack thereoff) in such a way as to avoid saying just flat out saying it, as they’ve been prone to do. So far we have rest, tightness, mild soreness, normally scheduled “treatment days”. Everything but available to play.
Yeah, they’ve been playing games with injury disclosure for a few years now. I don’t see the benefit, outside of “No one cares about this, so we can get away with it.”
I still can’t figure out if Bagley is hurt or about to be traded, but I guess the longer it goes on, it seems like “hurt” might be the answer.
If they disclose an injury, whatever minimal trade value he has left goes poof. They’ll have to trade him WITH a bag of chips, not for one.
I was at the game last night and there was a moment in the 2nd quarter when there was a switch and LBJ D’d up on Davion and the crowd got LOUD. All the Kings fans wanted to see the rook take on the King but he ended up passing it up. I told my wife that I bet that was an incredible moment for him to go 1 on 1 against one of the greatest of all time.
Hold the Ham on Rye?
New Kings sideline reporter?
So far it appears that we are just losing a lot of local coverage.
JJ is not doing the beat anymore for the Athletic. Ham appears out at NBC Sports.
I was surprised when I read that from JJ on twitter. I wonder what he is going to do for The Athletic.
Same thing he’s always done. Watch the Lakers!
Badge Legend