The Sacramento Kings have come home after a 3-1 road trip and with their Election Day break behind them must take on the opponent responsible for their only loss while they were away – the young and hungry Raptors. Will the “start Doug McDermott” strategy be in play tonight? Will Chris Boucher transform yet again into prime Kevin Durant? Are we certain that there’s no celebration for Vince Carter this evening?
Let’s talk Kings basketball.
When: Wednesday, November 6th, 7:00 PM PST
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBCSCA – Mark Jones (play-by-play)
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
40 Years of Ror: We’ll get to the game in a second here, I promise, but I’d be remiss not to mention that a long time commenter on Sactown Royalty, The Kings Herald and Kings Twitter, Rory Cornell (also going by the handle RORDOG, @BigRorDawg on Twitter) passed away last month, just prior to the start of the season. I can’t tell you how he passed or why, but I do want to talk just for a second about him. Rory moved to the Philippines for work last year and he immediately set about turning his section of Dumaguete City into Kingsland, bragging at times about how he was teaching various people in his life over there about the Kings, or installing purple lights in his koi pond, or yelling at people in the street over their choice of NBA jerseys when they passed. The thing about Rory – he was an obsessive. If the Kings took back cash when trading away a second round pick, best believe that Rory was going to talk about it, in the comments or on the timeline, until he had his fill. Rory famously bet the entire Kings fandom a billion dollars a head that Kessler Edwards would never touch the floor for the Kings, and somehow he ate that punch for all 76 games that Edwards played over the course of two seasons. Early in our tenure at The Kings Herald, I had to lightly mention to Rory that he could scroll past my tweet without commenting or unfollow me if I annoyed him that much after he got a bit passionate over me praising Rico Hines, and guy that he is – he unfollowed, then blocked, then pulled his monthly Patreon subscription in protest, making me the pariah of The Kings Herald ownership group for a short time with that final act. Sure, he unblocked and we refollowed each other a couple months later and there were zero hard feelings, but I can never say that the guy didn’t stick to his guns. I always appreciated that. Rory was who he was, and he owned it completely, something that is rare for anyone nowadays, especially sports fans. Rory was the fan that never took a break or a moment to breathe and calm the hell down. He was passionate: his love for the team clouded his judgement, led him into arguments and places I wouldn’t have gone with a gun to my head – and all the while, he never lost his senses of humor, irony, or the moral high ground he knew he stood upon. That tender mix of madness, that sits in the corners of knowledgeable and over zealous – he was a model Kings fan, in that way. Rory was that quintessential Jerry Reynold’s “shitbird”, but know when I call him that, when I say he was a pain in the ass, what I mean is, he was our shitbird, he was our pain in the ass and I can think of no higher honor to can bestow on the guy. RIP Rory. You’re greatly missed.
The Small Stuff
Raptor Rematch: It’s the night after the election so forgive this section for being brief. We all watched the Raptors game, we all know what needs to be done. Don’t start Doug McDermott. Don’t allow Chris Boucher to score a point a minute and let him get hot enough to play 25 minutes. Don’t record sixteen steals and then turn the ball over eighteen times. Don’t play Fox and DeRozan 43 minutes a piece and then wonder why the former goes 0-11 from deep. The Raptors are a young team, but they’re playing hard for Darko up there in the great white north. Don’t underestimate them and find a bench that’s functioning and the Kings can win this one going away.
Prediction
The old world is dying. The new world struggles to be born. Sabonis with a triple double.
Kings: 119, Raptors: 111
Revenge game. Demar goes off for 50 with a perfect 25/25 from midrange.
Bloody refs!
Seriously. Bunch of Foot Locker wannabes!
Let’s retire Demar’s number and Carmichael Dave can tweet that he will climb up and tear down Davion’s number if we ever retire it!!!
It’s the Raptors we have coming in,
So this time let’s get a good win.
Play defense the whole game
And don’t let Boucher flame.
A loss will bring widespread chagrin!
+1 Flip the script on the Raptors!
These should be a coffee table book someday. You can do a book release with a slam style reading!
I see what you did there.
And thanks for the section on Rory.
Agreed with Rik on all of it, and thanks for including some of the off-site stuff that I didn’t know about in regards to Rory. The man was who he was at all times, and it’s truly unfortunate that he didn’t get a few more decades to be that guy.
Alas, today more than ever, take joy wherever you may find it.
And from his obit, just a fantastic closer.
His celebration of life will take place at the Assyrian American Civic Club in Turlock at noon on Saturday, November 16, 2024. Track suit attire is encouraged, but not mandatory.
Agreed. I argued with Rory a lot over the years, and he drove me crazy sometimes. He was a vocal and passionate part of our community. I’m going to miss him driving me crazy.
I was so hoping to meet Rory someday, only having conversed with him on StR, TKH, and twitter. He made me laugh a lot, especially with his stories and his slogans like “Murray > Curry”. What a memorable guy. When I read his obituary on twitter part of it said
He is “survived by his parents…..” I just about lost it when I read that part.
Rest in peace, Rory.
I’m gonna miss that guy. I loved his banter and passion. My heart felt condolences to to his loved ones.
I believe the game is at 7:00, not 5:15, fyi…
Thanks for that… was working off of the previous game’s template and didn’t get much sleep last night.
No worries, I figured it was just copied over.
Solid help for the community!
Well done WG. Rory’s contributions over the life of this group of fans back to the dark times deserved a worthy mention. He really was an absolute pit bull on certain topics, and very entertaining. I always appreciate smart people, and quite enjoyed how he managed to apply quite a bit of intellectual rigor to his perspective on topics, even if that perspective happened to be remarkably obscure. I will definitely miss that guy. Thanks for taking a second to make sure he was recognized, and to Rik as well for mentioning in the comment section a few days ago.
I’ve been interacting with Rory for years since the STR days.
The Kings fan community lost a good one. The dude had a larger-than-life personality, full of passion and humor!
He was one of the original members of the unofficial STR fantasy basketball league, which continues at present. He was all in this season and I was communicating with him in early October with no indication of anything out of the ordinary. His passing was a total shock! We will be doing something to honor him, perhaps naming the championship title after the RORDOG.
Everyone needs to hit up a 7-11 and make themselves a RORDOG in honor of Rory.
You will be missed!
Also, life is short so hug your loved ones, be kind, and savor every Kings win!
I’m going to need more information about this RORDOG at 7-11. It sounds like food, but then, I think that most stuff sounds like food.
Is Huerter good to go tonight?
Going to be a shoot out again.
He participated in shootaround, but remains questionable.
Upgraded To Questionable?
DNP-CD?
Is he Built To Spill his talent on the Raptors?
Huerter to start
Glad he is back. We need the offense against these guys!
Hopefully the Raptors regress to their normal 3pt% tonight. Can’t have random players going wild from 3.
Also, Keegan will have his hands full with RJ Barrett. They gotta get the ball out of his hands, or make him go right and not get to his left hand.
The defensive plan should be solid after seeing them very recently.
Can they do it?
hoping to see Mike Brown empty his bag a little bit more in tonight‘s game. Would the influence of a couple more players that haven’t been used change the way things are going? How about taking a look at Isaac Jones and Isaiah Crawford? How about giving us an update on the injury status of Devin Carter and Oscar Robinson? Seems like mums the word these days as far as keeping injury updates close to the vest.
I meant Orlando Robinson, lol.
RIP RORDOG. I remembered his most from the “Here We Billboard” days. Great guy.
Ugh.
Going to the game tonight for National Critical Thinkers Depression Awareness Night.
good thing I don’t drink.
Buddy I’m going with says Toronto sucks and the Kings are getting a big win.
He just jinxed it.
Return of the Rabid Raptor –
It was a high pace game on VC Night and it is to expect both teams to run again tonight. Davion will be all over Swipa and see if he can Off Night him again. Jakob Poetl (rhymes with Wordle and there was an NBA Wordle named after the former Utah Ute. The Austrian plays Domas smartly if unspectularly – it’s a tough match up.
It’s a 3 Point League:
Grady Dick is 23/60 (38.3%) on 3 pointers over 8 games. RJ Barrett is 14/37 (37.8%). Jamison Battle and Ochai Abaji throw some long ball at a decent clip. Expecting Boucher to flurry or Davion to improve (shooting a Fox like 26.5% on 34 3PA – Fox is 14/47 or 29.8%) resists the laws of averages.
The Raptor OT loss was the most disappointing of the season, IMO. The only thing more disappointing would be to lose to the Barneys again.
If the Kings can just turn up their 3pt defense a bit, they should easily win this game. Kings need to hold their opponents to their 3pt attempt averages. Toronto averages 32, when healthy. They shot 37 without last meeting while missing 2 starters.
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