Well, here we are again! The Kings are looking to avoid a four game losing streak for the third time this season, it’s, like, 15 hours into December 15th and no trade for a superstar has occurred – it’s chaos.
(It’s not, this is just a regular Wednesday)
The Wizards are in town, looking to turn things around after an incredibly strong start to the season and hoping to do so using the player package that would have gone to the Kings for Buddy Hield, if it hadn’t have been for some other random, totally irrelevant point guard that suddenly jumped on the market. Can the Kings avoid another prolonged losing streak? Will Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell hurt the fans ready to love them? Am I going to get my chance to coach professional basketball tonight??
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Wednesday, December 15th, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBCSCA – Kyle Draper (play-by-play)
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
A More Conventional Preview: First off, I think before we jump into the game, I want to mention that it’s quite likely that any luck the Kings have been willing to muster this season is about to end. If you’ve clicked on this preview, you should already know that interim head coach Alvin Gentry tested positive for COVID-19 today and that’s never been a harbinger of good news for any team. We obviously all wish him well and hope his symptoms are mild. Given the likelihood that he isn’t alone in this, this franchise might have more tough waters to sail. As for tonight, Sam Amick reports that Doug Christie will be acting head coach:
Source says Doug Christie will serve as acting Kings coach tonight’s game. Alvin Gentry is out after testing positive.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) December 15, 2021
Alright, on to the game. As previously mentioned, Washington’s gone through a pretty rough stretch of late with their sole win in their last six being a three point victory over the Detroit Pistons, who have won a league low of four games this season. Bradley Beal’s scoring average this season has dropped 9 points, their second leading scorer plays 26 minutes off the bench… whatever mojo they were playing with at the beginning of the season they started 10-3 is gone, dead and buried. They’re also two games over .500 so, who the hell am I to judge?
Some things that stand out about tonight’s game: the Wizards are a slow moving, low scoring team this season. They’re bottom seven in the NBA in scoring and pace and they’re just below average in both opponent point per game and defensive rating. This is a team I’d expect to shoot the hell out of the ball from deep, with gunners like Beal and Kuzma and specialists like Bertans and Kispert on the roster and well… they ain’t. The Wizards take the fourth least amount of threes and shoot the fifth worst percentage from deep in the league at 32.8%. The aforementioned Bertans, who just two years ago averaged 15.4 points per game off the bench for the Wiz, is in the first of a four year extension that’s costing Washington $16 mil a year and averaging 16 minutes a game off the bench and scoring just 6.1 points.
On the defensive end, the Wizards are decent. They’re 7th in the NBA in defensive rebounding, 11th in the league in both blocks and player fouls, so they get after it, but they’re also 30th in the NBA in steals. Their bread and butter is running teams off the three point line – teams playing the Wizards shoot the least amount of threes in the league and shoot a very pedestrian 34% when they do get those shots off. This also means they give up the most two point shots in the league but they’re 4th in league in opponent shooting percentage as well.
The Kings are playing a better team tonight – never a good sign for a team in the middle of a three game losing streak and just after a player’s meeting.
This has been your more regular and nuanced preview. Bitching may commence shortly!
Prediction
De’Aaron Fox is going to go for 50. Don’t ask me why or how.
Kings: 117, Wizards: 109
Skull, please!
If the roster contracts COVID, it will be from each other – they don’t get close enough to their opponents to catch anything.
They don’t listen to their coach, so how could they catch anything coming out of his mouth?
About that:
Current streak comes to an end at 5. 22 remains his all-time consecutive games played streak.
Oh, is this a contest?
Marvin:
dunking on a guy who got covid lulz
Add another to the list.
Wow, that is a quick turnaround for the virus.
Any idea of the vaccination percentage of Kings players?
Very nice!
AG gets it from Hornets and players don’t get it from him unless forced to sit next to him on plane. “Oh Marvin, let’s look at tape and all your defensive lapses”
(I’ll move this here because … jokes!)
The Doug Era Begins!
I’m not surprised. I just wonder how the other assistants who have been at it for years feel about getting shoved aside by the owner’s favorite rookie coach, and of course player from the glory days.
Doug could have declined/begged off in favor of one of the veteran coaches but I guess “team” is just an empty catch word when opportunity knocks at the door of an individual.
Agreed. My comment from the Gentry thread:
After the other night, I was really hoping for Kenny Thomas.
Naw. Let Matt Barnes do it. He could really be a valuable guide/mentor for TT with those family/woman issues too!
I agree, that is a shame, Christie over Longabardi. Seniority be damned. Maybe the Kings think highlighting Christie might fill a few more seats in their empty arena.
I wish Doug the best, but this is a bullshit decision.
yes
Jokes?
I don’t believe it. He looks too happy in those photos to be a Kings fan.
Prediction:
Kings win by 1 on a wild full-court 3 at the buzzer. Vivek responds by firing Gentry and signing Christie to a 9 year/$90M head coaching contract.
Matina demands Doug get 10 years at 100 million similar to Popovich !
Will Tristan be here or with lawyers?
“It seems there may be a new chapter in the never-ending saga that is Tristan Thompson’s romantic escapades. According to the Daily Mail, Thompson allegedly fathered a child with his personal trainer Maralee Nichols, who gave birth on December 1. And how, do you ask, does the Daily Mail know this? Why, a paternity lawsuit, of course.”
Thompson: DNP-L&D
Most prolific scorer on the team. Really knows how to finish at the rim.
Tristan Thompson:
“My hope is that my child can play on the Sacramento Kings team that breaks the playoff drought.”
Grandson.
He really knows how to penetrate and go to the rack.
I still don’t understand how every opposing fanbase doesn’t razz him in every arena for this Kardashian ridiculousness.
I still don’t understand why this team traded for him.
Points at an injured Richaun and Holmes and
…the team has lost damn near every game Holmes has been out.
So that Thompson trade sure looks prescient. Not to mention the five other bigs on the roster.
Who among us hasn’t fathered a child with a personal trainer? They’re all insanely hot.
I got myself an impersonal trainer. I have enough friends.
Deshaun.
The Wiz have enjoyed some success
While we dwell in despondent distress.
They stole Monte’s big trade—
Long past time one gets made—
How long till we clean up this mess?!
You will write an epic poem before we clean up this mess.
The longest poem ever written is the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic with over 1.8 million words.
Coincidentally, 1.8 million is also how many days away we are from the Kings making the playoffs again.
Remember all the thumbs down I got when I posted nothing but torture and pain for Vivek. Well he deserves even more now.
Yeah, still gonna have to go with not ever wishing pain and torture on any human and living creature, period.
Now you took all the fun out of it. I would even have all of the past and present season ticket holders first swing of the bat. Either that or the NBA CRUSHES his ego and forces him to sell the team. That would be his only free pass.
Put the bat down
Take the cannoli.
Perfect game for the Kings- just getting started on a long losing streak, meeting a team that has been losing (Kings love those teams, almost as much as the depleted ones) and there is no head coach. I like DC but it is insulting to have him take the reins at this point. Longabardi or Rico Hines- why not? This is as bad as Angeli Ranadive.
oh, yea, MB3 is out- another form of “injury”. His last absence, I had heard was non COVID related which is NBA code for side effects from the booster. Now he either has COVID or exposure- more likely a positive test. I guess he and AG must have been close.
Unless I am wrong, no other Kings will get COVID from any other team because, as has been duly noted, they do not get close enough to breathe opponent air, unless it is exhaust as they whiz by to the hoop.
If the players have a “plyers only meeting” can the fans have a “fans only meeting”
I predict no more than half full, a continuation of the losing streak and a trade of Buddy + MB3 for the last guy on the Pistons bench- #15. Oh, and Kings give up two first rounders- unprotected.
I think TKH is the “fans only meeting”?
Or one of the meetings, at least.
There’re also lots of meetings on twitter, like the SPACES where Kings fans talk to each other, like a group phone call.
Hell yes let Doug coach. We’ve already had someone puke on the game, let’s keep 2021’s embarrassment going, full steam ahead friends.
Can’t wait to hear Doug in the post game presser after they lose by 30.
It’s not like losing another game is going to sink the Kings. that ship has already sailed. Throw Doug out there and see what he’s got as a coach. They lose, no harm no foul.
This is where I’m at. What a freakin’ joke. This organization is a bunch of jesters. May need a name change soon.
Doug rolling with the Fox/Hali/Davion 3-guard starting lineup. Interesting.
I’d imagine and hope that this was with consultation with Gentry and not some fly by the seat of your pants coaching moment for Doug. The Wiz basically roll out a three guard lineup so this does make sense. It’s either Mitchell or Buddy and Buddy makes more sense coming off the bench for offense.
That’s a lot of very bad shooting. Maybe Davion’s defense and Hali’s offense will cover all three.
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