After two horrific losses to the Memphis Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Laker over the last few days, the Sacramento Kings handled their business against the short-handed Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday evening, winning the night 124-115. The Kings were led by a trio of guards. Terence Davis enjoyed his best night in a Sacramento uniform, putting up 23 points on 14 field goal attempts. De’Aaron Fox scored 22 of his own, and Davion Mitchell added 20 off of the bench. Luke Kennard and Terance Mann were the best players for the Clippers, both scoring 19 points off of the bench for Los Angeles.
This was a game that the Kings needed to win, not for their own unrealistic playoff expectations or to prevent a panic trade from the front office, but more from a pure pride-in-job standpoint. The Clippers were down their two superstars in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the latter of whom simply chose to rest against a bad Kings team, and their leading scorers remaining were Reggie Jackson, the most average point guard who’s ever existed, and Eric Bledsoe, a semi-washed guard who’s putting up 9.9 points per game on the season. Thankfully, aside from a late fourth quarter run that saw the Clippers pull within eight points a couple of times, the Kings dominated a much less talented squad.
Quick Stats
Sacramento Kings: 124 points, 38 rebounds,52% FG, 40% 3P, 85% FT, 11 turnovers, 28 assists, 8 steals, 1 block
Memphis Grizzlies: 115 points, 49 rebounds, 47% FG, 29% 3P, 75% FT, 11 turnovers, 35 assits, 8 steals, 6 blocks
After a relatively close start to the game, Sacramento began to build an advantage late in the first and early in the second quarter, eventually reaching a 52-32 lead halfway through the second quarter. However, rookie Brandon Boston spurred the Clippers to a 20-10 run over the final five minutes of the first half. The Kings walked into the locker room with a 10 point lead behind 13 points from both Davion Mitchell and Chimezie Metu, who combined to shoot 9/15 from the field in the first half.
The Clippers late first-half run understandably had Kings fans a bit nervous after Tuesday night’s debacle against the Los Angeles Lakers, but for perhaps the first time this season, the Kings came out and punched the opposing team in the mouth to start the second half, rather than the other way around. A quick 8-0 run over a 90-second period pushed Sacramento’s lead back up to 18, and the game was never particularly close from there. Davion Mitchell dominated the third quarter, Terence Davis finally knocked down some shots, and the Kings blew open a 20+ point advantage which was never in danger aside from a late fourth quarter run by the Clippers, which still never had them pull closer than eight points with a couple of minutes remaining.
The Good, The Better, & The Best
Normally, this section is reserved for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but tonight’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers doesn’t really warrant heavy criticism.
The Good
Third quarter security: If one thing has scarred Kings fans over the last 15 years, it’s been this team’s inability to perform in third quarters, no matter who has been coaching the team, or playing in the game, or running the team. To date, this season, Sacramento had been outscored by an astounding 84 points in the third quarter, but this squad wasn’t allowing a collapse tonight. The Kings won the third 37-24, and more importantly, every time the Clippers made a mini five or seven-point run, Sacramento responded with one in kind.
The BETTER
Starter Contributions: Since Harrison Barnes and Moe Harkless went down, the Kings have struggled to find any meaningful contributions from 40% of their starting lineup, namely Chimezie Metu and Terence Davis, but both of those players, along with De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, and Richaun Holmes, played to their strengths tonight. Every starter scored in double-digits, every starter recorded at least one assist and one rebound, and every starter, outside of Richaun Holmes, knocked down a three-pointer. Davis and Metu combined for 36 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals on the night. After multiple games of watching the opening unit get smacked in the face, it was a relief to see everyone perform at a relatively high level.
The BEST
Shot-takers, shot-makers: For the entire 2021-2022 NBA season, the Sacramento Kings have struggled to make open shots. Coming into Wednesday night’s matchup, they ranked 27th in the league in overall three-point percentage and 30th in accuracy in wide-open three-point attempts. Tonight, the Kings were able to take advantage of a short-handed, poor Clippers defense, as they knocked down 15 of their 38 three-point attempts, as well as 17 of their 20 free throws, including an 8 of 9 performance from De’Aaron Fox.
The King of Kings
Davion Mitchell: Although Terence Davis is also very deserving of recognition tonight, Davion Mitchell was incredible on both ends of the floor. He regularly tripped up LA’s ball-handlers, including multiple possessions of full-court, manic defense, and his shooting was unreal on the other end of the floor. Sacramento’s rookie finished the evening with 20 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals, and he knocked down 7 of his 10 shots from the floor, 3 of his 4 attempts from deep, while also making all three of his free throw attempts.
Up Next
Saturday, November 4th vs. Los Angeles Clippers – 7:00 P.M. (PT)
Yay!
Trade everyone, build around TD!
Next game, he’ll go back to making poor decisions with the ball and jacking up bricks.
Lol good one
Good win Reminded me of the Charlotte game. Keep hitting those 3s and you can’t lose.
What happened to Marvin Bagley? He got some run, then he’s inactive for the last two games.
I know… I haven’t heard anything, didn’t see him listed on an injury report yesterday, and saw that he wasn’t listed in the box score as “DNP – CD”. Can someone answer this question?
He was listed as being out due to non-covid illness for the Lakers game.
https://imgur.com/SlqlZRM
This team has two personalities
This win is either a vaccine (booster) or a band-aid,
Band-aid to the old wound that is Vivek.
Dance!
Sixers now own the 11 seed. Maybe they get desperate, too?
Yay, they finally beat a team missing its superstars… Is this actually good in the long term? Just helps us get back to crappy draft position.
PG preferred to have the night off rather than have an off night.
Nice win but I’m not going to get too excited. This team will go back to what they always do…. Follow an impressive win with a string of poor games. Consistency is an issue with this squad. Hopefully, some players can raise their trade value so we can start a full on rebuild.
Where my Doomers at?!?
Doomer be like “nooooooo….muh narrative is melting…..”
I thought the team was broke?
How can the team being broke when we just replaced the worst coach in the NBA?!? And replace with AG, a very impressive man, straight shooter and lucid thinker, just like yours truly, game recognizes game, and exactly what this team needs. That is not a team that is broken, per se , but in the process of being fixed.
McGenius strikes again!
Do you know what is broke? Buddy Yields game. Total trash player, down from 60% TS% to 55% TS%, consorting with the enemy, throwing hook passes to the opposition like handing candy to a baby, but I will get to him in a moment.
This headline is misleading because Kawhi has been gone since last playoffs, old news, and PG offsets HB, two best players off respective teams, that is even tradeoff, so quit trying to minimize our dominating win!
Let me help out those engaging in misguided punditry:
What we are bearing witness to is performance volatility, 3-3 overall in the AG Era, up and down, bad and great quarters. We played one of best halves of basketball vs LAL then followed up with our worst.
Volatility is not unusual when there is significant change, in this case change in form of a new voice, a new sheriff in town, laying down the law, distinguishing between the model citizens and lawbreakers. It takes a while to clean up the mess of Fluke the Flunky, or if your prefer, His Luke “Has Run Out” Walton.
As aside I have a new moniker for Fox, when he plays bad, I am surprised none of the critics have thought it up. But now is not the appropriate time to unveil it, have to wait untill he delivers a stinker.
I contend TD had a better game than any game Buddy has played this season. I am not just talking about the shooting. He plays great defense on the ball and collapsing into the post.
The previous coach had a misguided notion pairing TD with Buddy would give the team this formidable 1-2 scoring punch off the bench. For some reason he was fond of this duo on the floor together. Just another vacuous meandering from the Fraud.
The formidabble duo that piques my attention is Davion with TD as defensive harassers. You put these guys on the floor together and you can scramble and rotate and really make the opponent work. They are undersized but they are all over the floor with quick hands and quick feet.
Their energy combined can be so contagious and inspiring!
The Caucasion Comet was (is) ready to throw in the towel on TD. Not just the towel but all the linens in the closet, the bed sheets, dish rags and toilet paper rolls. Why, Jerry, why?!? Have a little more faith and discernement. You saw Bobby Jackson in his prime, you don’t see the resemblance? C’mon now, Jerry, I believe in you, come to the Light!
This defensive intensity and effeciency led by TD and Davion, Fox too, correlates to your offense. I do NOT think we just had one of those nights in terms of making our 3s, that it was an inexplicable blip for a team of bricklayers. We made shots predicated on defense leading to offense, something AG has preached.
By contrast, this cohesion and synergy falls apart when Buddy Yield is at the top of the key trying to make a play. Or trying to rotate defensively, Or trying to keep his man in front of him. Is there any position or time and place on the floor the Best Friend of AD is not a Train Wreck?
Buddy Yield has a 49% TS% in 14 losses. He’s 63%% TS% in 9 wins. Look at that variance.
Buddy is shooting 33% on 10 3s per game in our losses. Thats not winning basketball unless you do a lot of other things on the floor. He proactively leads the team to defeat about 60% of the time, coinciding with our loss rate, over the last 2-3 years with dubious shots, dubious everything, enabled by the previous coach, brushes it off and repeats. What is the definition of insanity again?
It is not a coincidence Buddy brings a good version of himself around 2 out of 5 games, generously quantified, since it is more like 1 out of 5 game, and our win rate since 2018-19, when he used to be a good player, is around .400.
Here’s the kicker, Buddy going 0-3 from 3s last night was a relatively good game! Unlike the norm, he did not use up too many possessions that instead went to others shooting the ball in the context of smart play sets.
30 minutes for TD , 28 for Davion and 21 minutes for Buddy. Woo! I like it and need to see more of this please. If the previous coach was still in charge, we do NOT see this minute distribution, and in fact, we may not have seen this outcome. The previous coach often allocated minutes for players regardless of effectiveness, substituting on set schedule.
AG will pull a player back from the scorers table if deemed prudent based on real time data processing.
Thats called real coaching!
What we beared witness to last night is replicable. LAC 9-14 FGs 23 points
TD was our leading scorer in the preseason. Here are some of TDs game logs from last year:
UTA 8-14 FGs 20 points
OKC 9-15 FGs 27 points
SAS 10-16 FGs 24 points
DAL 9-12 FGs 23 points
MIL 10-14 FGs 27 points
Now you do have to discount end of year play to a degree but not completely. You dont have these type of games, by accident. I contend this player still exists, his best baasketball is ahead not behind him, he just needs to be nurtured, same way Metu needs to be nurtured and coached up. We have the coach who can do that more than the previous coach who brought his bias and distorted perspective and lack of intuition to every time and situation.
As a rookie in 1200 minutes, TD had a 59% TS%.
As a second year player with TOR and SAC in 1000 minutes, TD had a 55.5% TS%.
In 200 minutes this year, 200 minutes, TD has a 46% TS%.
Hmmm…what is the outlier? What is the true representation of said player effeciency?
Is it the 2200 minutes around 57% TS% or the 200 minutes played at 46% TS%?
What do you put more credence into, 90% of the data or 10% of the data?
The other variable that is important is TD shoots 57% of his shots from deep. That is aligned with Curry in terms of his shot distribution inside and outside the arc, unlike Buddy who shoots 75% of his shots from deep, a ridiculous number. Unlike Buddy as well, TD has the spring and juke moves to attack the paint and try to finish.
Ah yes, it is all coming together. The “broken” team is on the mend!
The coaching staff will be reviewing the tape, nothing wrong with reviewing the tape in and out of itself, and it will become more futile the minutes of Buddy Yield. If he is not hot pull him, 10-15 minutes out to be enough to see if he has it or does not. And if it is not one of those 1 out 5 games, 2 out of 5 games if I am generous, of course you want his minutes going to Davion, Ty and TD, who will make more plays regardless if they are hot from deep.
One of the biggest tests for AG on the horizon is what do you do when HB returns? You are going to start him of course, but then how do you divide up the minutes between TD and Buddy? Do you really want to Buddy running around effing up left and right? Been there down that!
Even if TD reverts to shooting blanks, and we know he is streaky AF, as long as he brings that defensive intensity, attack mentality, getting us out in transition, all aspects of the game so important to a bottom ranked defense and independent to shot making, there is a place for TD on the floor. I cannot believe that AG will not respond appropriately. He just had a first hand view of a coach getting fired for misplaced confidence in Buddy, he’s not going to make that same mistake.
It makes so much more sense when you read some members as if they are parody accounts!
Was thinking the same thing! It has to be! The praise for TD (even comparing him to prime BJax) after one solid game while omitting he’s thrown up over a dozen stinkers is laughable.
This is gold:
An even trade off? Ha!
He’s best read with a Russian, wannabe hip hop accent. Although I usually tap out after the first paragraph.
So many words
hey Kings4ever dont listen to these guys….your coments are awesome…you say a lot of shit too, but, who cares?
You write with enthusiasm, you sincere, ano have good analysis. Last year you wrote something about Bagley being hurt and its relation with his psyque/state of mind that was gold, man….keep typing man
Whatever ails K4E, confidence is not it. The guy will never be short of opinions or his confidence in them.
I don’t always agree with him, but I don’t mind his willingness to state his opinion regardless of whatever the overall temperature the fanbase has towards something at that particular time.
I love that she adds a diversity of opinion to the forum and the length of the posts are no problem for me.
It’s the arrogance and hyperbole that takes away from sometimes valid and astute points. Also, the good points are too oft a nice and well cooked burger wrapped in mud soaked buns.
That and the selective data that often leads to objective wrongness on exceptionally passionate points. For example, she uses Buddy’s minutes in a one-game sample size to evidence a perceived difference in Walton’s and Gentry’s approach to a player she does not like:
And yet, go no further than the previous game and you find that Gentry played Buddy 8:21 minutes in that disastrous third quarter, wherein he posted a team worst -21 on an 0fer from the field.
What did our “real time data processing” coach do? He started and played Buddy another 9:31 minutes in the fourth quarter, wherein Buddy continued to put up a donut from the field and posted an additional -6.
Hurray for our newfound sense of accountability!
She? We know it’s a she? Okay, whatever, makes no difference to me.
I think there’s a huge difference between both nights where the Kings played really badly in the 2nd half of the Lakers game vs the way they played against the Clippers. Particularly when one of those players is Davion Mitchell who played much better than Buddy Hield did last night.
In otherwords, I don’t think there’s that much of a pronounced difference, and while I agree this isn’t a big deal, I don’t think it’s the hyperbole that takes away from the point. I just don’t think it’s a big deal to begin with regardless of the emphasis placed on it.
I thought at one point someone said the member was female.
I don’t know one way or the other, I just have a possibly mistaken recollection of such.
the state of being seriously mentally ill; madness.
Nice fucking model, McGenius!
I don’t agree with everything you say nor should I, ever. That would be weird. Great commenting, I love the enthusiasm and point of view. You do make some solid points that I think are spot on. Buddy needs to be traded ASAP. That change is a move that could lead to more wins/ a better team. TD more minutes, no Buddy ding ding mistakes plus whatever (hopefully talented) player or draft picks you get for him in a trade, just do it.
I think a full trade off of every player outside of Holmes, Burt and Mitch is the best idea but starting with buddy shipped in a trade and testing that experiment could make a HUGE difference. The stats and points you make reinforce that observation.
Yippee!
Bad enough to miss the playoffs but not bad enough to get out of NBA purgatory!
Don’t care much about the win, but loved how Mitchell played. Stellar performance.
It’s good to know the Kings finally beat the Memphis Grizzlies…..
On a more serious note:
Player A)
TS% 51.9%
USG% 15.8%
AST% 23.7%
TOV% 9.7%
WS/48 .080
ORtg 105.8
DRTg 108.5
Player B)
TS% 51.3%
USG% 27.3%
AST% 24.9%
TOV% 10.8%
WS/48 .042
ORtg 109.7
DRTg 115.3
Player C)
TS% 45.5%
USG% 18.6%
AST% 20.9%
TOV% 7.4%
WS/48 .014
ORtg 102.
DRTg 106.7
Player D)
TS% 54.6%
USG% 23.1%
AST% 12.4%
TOV% 8.7%
WS/48 .060
ORtg 1081
DRTg 111.6
Player A is Tyrese Haliburton. Player B is De’Aaron Fox. Player C is Davion Mitchell and Player D is Buddy HIeld.
You cannot win when your main creator in the offense is A) so inefficient and B) your main creator of offense spends half of the possessions off the ball dilly dallying off the ball twiddling his thumbs.
If Alvin Gentry does anything, he needs to get De’Aaron to play off the ball more effectively and use his energy that way. Because it damn sure isn’t being expended on defense unless you count waiving the red flag at Russell Westbrook like a goddamn matador and daring him to dunk and then flex on you afterwards. I wasn’t playing that much attention to the Clippers because, well, Reggie Jackson ain’t never gonna be Westy. I’ll pay more attention when Paul George and Kawhi Leonard is on the court.
Either way, the Kings cannot win with De’Aaron being so wasteful on the offensive end. They cannot win when Tyrese Haliburton who is the best creator in the halfcourt for other players but not for himself cannot strike that balance of shot creating for others via the pass vs shot creating for himself. Since Tyrese has always struggled with shot creation at times, partly due to stylistic issues and partly due to mentality, this is always going to be an issue.
Davion Mitchell is the guy I’m not remotely upset with. I knew offense would be a struggle for him early, it’s been a struggle for him early, but it needs to be better (even a 51 TS% on the season would be a huge improvement for Davion) for the rookie for the Kings to be better. That’s the reality of when you give a rookie so many minutes. Either he’s productive with them, or he isn’t. Mitchell is productive…defensively, but on a team so bad it’s a bit like expecting your spit to stand out when you stand on Santa Monica pier and spit into the water. It just doesn’t work that way.
Buddy’s shot selection stinks. His TOV’s are what they are (not as bad as they seem but because they are live ball TOV”s they always seems to lead to points for the other team), but it’s not like they are any different than De’Aaron’s horrible live ball TOV”s. Or Tyrese’s. They’re all bad. It just seems to fall on Buddy more than the other 2, but Buddy does have 52 total assists to 37 turnovers. That isn’t horrible. Especially for how often Buddy dribbles, unfortunately. I’m amazed Buddy doesn’t turn it over more with all the dribbling he does.
That said, what ails this team, first and foremost, is it’s shot selection. They aren’t great defensively, but there’s more than enough effort, IMO, to merit improvement to being simply bad, possibly average/mediocre, instead of just really bad (or historically bad if you really want to take it that far which I don’t agree with). But there are two main serious bugaboo’s for this team. One is the defensive rebounding which was not addressed nor easily fixed. The second is the shot selection. This team takes a ton of ‘dumb ass you’ve got to be fucking shitting me’ shots. It ranges from the role players creating too much on their own (Metu, Davis) to some of the more effective and efficient guys (Holmes, Barnes, Haliburton) not taking enough shots to bad shots (Buddy) and then there’s De’Aaron Fox.
I’m not really mad at Harrison Barnes, he’s given this team everything he’s got and that’s far more than anyone could expect. It’s certainly band-aid’d some of the real underlying issues that have plagued this roster for years (defensive effort, shot selection). That goes the same for Richaun Holmes. Flaw’d, but talented vet’s who give you what they’ve got. Their decision making and the fact they know the difference between a great, good, okay and bad shot is important, too. I wish a few of their teammates understood that.
Hoo buddy, where do I start with the Swipa’d one? For one, his defense is fucking atrocious. And his off ball movement is pathetic, too. But that’s not the primary stuff that bugs me with him, it’s just the stuff that keeps him from moving into the elite territory with the best players in the NBA IMO. Those are his two biggest flaws outside of his shooting. This is what bugs me: He’s your best and most effective shot creator, and when the other team goes on a run he’s rarely stopping the other team from going on their run by keeping the team in the game. He does it on occasion, but not nearly that often. Ball movement is fun in theory, but when things break down you need a Hero Ball creator 1 v 1 type who can create on their own. It’s why superstar/franchise players matter so much. They can create things that others can’t.
That’s the biggest problem with De’Aaron Fox. And this roster needs him to be better in all those area’s because so much of the success of this team is predicated on him. Was this predictable? Of course it was. But at some point, you have to take a risk on iprovement, and it just can’t be solely trades for an established star. You have to bet on your young star talent to improve. Sure the Suns traded for Chris Paul and that really matters, but it’s also true that DeAndre Ayton, Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges grew up a bit (or a lot in Booker’s case) too.
The Kings just don’t need another star player, they need the one that has the talent to be that to play like it every night. And if De’Aaron Fox doesn’t grow up, it doesn’t matter if they nab Pascal Siakam, Ben Simmons let alone a better talent than those two. You need talent on the roster outside of a star or two, and this roster has plenty of talent. 45 win’ish talent IMO. Not necessarily likely to get there and it won’t get there if Fox just doesn’t learn what it takes to win. He has the worst Net Rtg of any of the Kings starters (Harrison Barnes has the 2nd worst so that’s always noisy as a metric) and it seems right. His uneven and largely effective play has cost this team at least 5 wins this season, and that’s the difference between being 14-9 and 9-14. That’s how small the margins between winning and losing are.
Hopefully Alvin Gentry can get through to Fox and a few other guys mainly Haliburton. If he can, that will improve this team a lot. If he can’t, it won’t matter. Sure Metu and Davis take too many shots, now, but that’s largely a function of not having an effective and functioning offense. Because you don’t have your best players at their most effective and functioning power. Tyrese I will grant a pass just because he’s in his 2nd year and he’s trying to figure out that tricky balance of creating for himself vs others. It’s tough for Chris Paul, it’s going to be tough for Tyrese, too. He’s good enough though, and while I don’t see All Star, he’s a really, really good player. Certainly the Kings aren’t worse off for having him. This goes for De’Aaron Fox, too, but I’m not feeling so warm and fuzzy towards him these days.
This team isn’t doomed because growth is always possible even if logic deems it unlikely. But damn, this team is frustrating to watch. And there’s no greater frustration than watching a very talented player scuffle for no especially real reason (and I’m not buying the whole packing it in the paint shit that Kayte keeps lobbing up there during the broadcasts either). What ails De’Aaron Fox, IMO, is his approach and his method of attacking. When he’s balanced, and uses both the middle part of the court and getting to the rim, and learns how to use screens better (a real problem), he will improve. The two man game between Tyrese Haliburton and Richaun Holmes is wonderful, and I’m a fan of it, but you cannot build an offense around it. There just isn’t enough total shots created overall to make that a primary set of your offense.
Hopefully a few days of practice helps. But I’m getting ever so more doubtful, and every game that passes makes it that much worse. I’m hoping we see growth in the halfcourt, or at least running sets with De’Aaron as the primary creator,
Now I feel better. If nothing else I puked out 1500 words of frustration with this team. Yay?
I so missed Pookey!
Welcome back! 😉
Pookey’s dead. I stabbed him in the heart with an icepick deep in the heart of Texas. I got receipts, too.
in the part I watched, Haliburton was aggressive, and his 11 assists in the box score reflects that. This is a different team with him playing that way. Everyone on this site talks about lack of leadership, but I see it in Mitchell. He always brings it. Mike Bibby mentioned once the effect playing with Artest had on him, that they all would see him playing hard on D and it inspired the team to play harder. Is it similar with Davion Mitchell?
I think I haven’t seen Kings players running “Give and Go” for a long time, and pretty surprised they run this simply offense..
If Metu can hit some mid range, he can really play some more “Give & Go” with teammate.
Good to see him played well this game.
Badge Legend