What a weird, wonderful ending to a weird, not-so-wonderful game. Let’s celebrate for a few minutes, shall we?
Chimezie Metu wins the game at the buzzer and Golden 1 Center ERUPTS!
???? ???? pic.twitter.com/qdYadnts0u
— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) December 30, 2021
METU FOR THE WIN‼️ pic.twitter.com/wKLWYQT1gF
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) December 30, 2021
Chimezie Metu with the game-winning three ???????? pic.twitter.com/nFU2nksxoU
— NBA TV (@NBATV) December 30, 2021
Chimezie Metu for the win.
Kings 95, Mavericks 94 pic.twitter.com/HS5h6ltMAK
— Jason Anderson (@JandersonSacBee) December 30, 2021
Now, let’s take an important moment to ridicule.
Chimezie Metu three-point attempts are always a win for the opposing defense.
— SactownBabyGiraffe (@TimMaxwell22) December 30, 2021
Tonight’s contest against the COVID and injury-depleted Dallas Mavericks was a weird one. Missing several starters and rotational players, including the very-okay Luka Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr., Reggie Bullock, and Maxi Kleber, the Mavericks put up a fight behind Jalen Brunson’s huge performance, but Sacramento used a balanced scoring attack and a miracle buzzer-beater to win their second game in a row. Both teams will get a one-day rest before facing each other again on New Years Eve back at the Golden 1 Center.
Quick Stats
Sacramento Kings: 95 points, 48% FG, 38.5% 3P, 13/15 FT, 21 assists, 38 rebounds, 14 turnovers
Memphis Grizzlies: 94 points, 46.9% FG, 37.5% 3P, 9/13 FT, 36 rebounds, 23 assists, 11 turnovers
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The Good
- Tyrese continues to shine: Although tonight wasn’t Tyrese Haliburton’s best shooting night, as he shot just 4/13 from the field, he was still able to make a major impact on the offensive end of the floor through his play-making. Haliburton recorded 10 assists on the evening for Sacramento, and he’s averaging 10.3 per game over his last seven appearances.
- Davion Mitchell returns: It was wonderful to see Sacramento’s rookie stud back on the court after missing several games due to health and safety protocols. Mitchell was a key component of the first comeback in the second quarter, and he ended the night with 14 points on just nine field goal attempts.
- Marvin Bagley plays a role: For the last season or two, many have asked Marvin Bagley to adapt to more of a support role, rather than that of a wannabe star, and he’s seemingly accepted that place this season. Tonight, he enjoyed a personal 8-0 run amidst a larger Kings run, and he ended the game with a solid 11 points, 7 boards, and two steals. His hard work on the defensive end, on the boards, and in the cleanup game has been a refreshing sight to behold.
The Bad
- Buddy no-Buckets: Buddy Hield put up one of his worst performances of the season after playing quite well on Tuesday evening. In 23 minutes of play, he scored just 3 points on 1/5 shooting from the field, including 1/4 from deep. He was absolutely invisible on the floor.
The Ugly
- Another awful third: Sacramento’s inability to perform in the third quarter is becoming far, far, far too common of a narrative this season. After taking a double-digit lead going into the half, the Kings allowed themselves to be outscored 26-19 in the third. At one point, they committed five turnovers in five minutes, and later on, Tyrese Haliburton turned the ball over on an unforced eight-second violation. The Kings aren’t going to find themselves anywhere near the postseason if they can’t put together twelve solid minutes coming out of the locker room.
The King of Kings
CHIMEZIEEEE METUUUUUUUUUUU
Up Next
Thursday, Tuesday, December 31st vs. Dallas Mavericks – 3:00 P.M. (PT)
New drinking game: every time Kayte says, “Right there”, take a shot. You’ll be dead in an hour.
Overdose every time Kyle says “SKRRRR!!”
Take a drink of beer every time she stops talking and you will have 4 left in the six pack!
I drank too much that I don’t have a six pack anymore.
What a strange game…I found myself wanting Bagley back in the game when he was on the bench…
Congrats Metu
FIFY.
Sorry to be the Debbie Downer here, but a just- barely win at home against a depleted team is no reason to start thinking about the postseason.
Or is it? ????????
I hate you, and envy you, for posting this.
Agree. You know how I know this is NOT a playoff team? It took a Metu 3 to win at the buzzer!!!
The west is so bad that the Kings are only 2 games out of the 7 spot.
And Vivek will give Monte another year to do nothing….
Again ..
The last three point buzzer beating win in that basket was in 2018 from our very own Bogi. I was at G1C for both.
Clearly I am the key here.
We’re you at the Cavs game last season for Barnes game winner ?
That was the same basket? My mistake, I was not.
I was thinking that not many NBA rotational players have a game winning buzzer beater on their resume.
Happy for the guy and the team!
Which was right around Christmas time.
We also know who is the problem:
Loved the King-Kong chest thumping antics as he approached the scorers table.
Kings doing a great job staying in purgatory.
Bagley was fun to watch in this game. Was rooting hard for him.
Hard?
The fact that we barely won the last 2 games against depleted teams tells you everything you need to know about this team.
This false sense of momentum is the worst thing possible for the idiots who run this team.
Over their last two games, the Kings are on pace for a 61-21 season, thank you very much.
61-21 is the best record we had in the Sacramento Kings era. Coincidence?
Dammit. We’re going get beaten in the WCF by the refs again.
If they counted moral victories, we’d be a top 4 seed.
It’s also the best record in franchise history. In fact the 02 and 03 teams hold the distinction of having the 2 best records in franchise history. That era team has 4 teams in the top 5, there’s also another Cincinnati team (64 I think?) that won 55 games.
This team has lost a lot of games in 4 different cities a lot of years.
Cincinnati won 55 in an 80 game season in ’63-64. Arguably the best record in franchise history is a tie between the first two seasons in franchise history. The ’48-49 and ’49-50 Rochester teams both put up .750 winning percentages (in 68 and 60 game seasons, respectively) compared to ’01-02’s .744. Add in the fact that the next season (’50-51) was the “Kings” only championship and I think we’d have to say that era was the most successful in franchise history. Now, we just hav to find our Wanzer, Risen, Johnson, Davies
Fair or not, I discount that era because it was pre shot clock. Your points are fair, I just don’t really agree.
Either way, the 00-05 trans is at worst the 2nd best era depending on how much you value the mid 20th century teams vs the early 21st century teams. Mileage will absolutely vary on this one, no doubt of that.
It would also help in winning a NBA title to be in an 8 team league !
“What I want, what’s most important to me, that I have a guarantee.
No more attempts for a play-in”
That’s before he goes to the restroom, got a ball and posterized Vivek with a slamdunk.
I stayed home for this one (again), but was it really as full as it looked or was the upper bowl empty. If it was a good crowd, then why? Was there some giveaway, or lots of groups in attendance?
It’s a week off for a lot of people, so midweek games aren’t a problem like other weeks.
Kings extend their record as the lottery team with most buzzer beaters in NBA history.
I tweeted to Beau Estes to consider putting Chimezie’s game winner on his always amazing NBA top 10, and he came through!!!! (well, turns out his editor chose it, but still!)
Beau is the greatest TOP 10 dude of all time. If you’ve heard him rhyme.
I want to transcribe his rhyme for Metu, but don’t want to spoil it. Watch it and revel!
That was a beauty.
It wouldn’t be right if Puke Man wasn’t in the building to watch this. Hope he was able to see it.
That was a nice little pass by Fox there at the end, made the play possible for Metu to seal it. Disclaimer, I’m in the camp of trying to shop Fox, if we can get a key piece to support Hali and company, like a scoring wing.
Also, Metu’s shot is looking better lately, so the coaching staff must have a lot of confidence in Metu to take that shot. That was a nice drawn up play.
Oh great, another fluke win against a depleted, barely-average-even-when-healthy opponent to feed the organization’s delusions of impending competence.
(a) I am just going to enjoy Metu’s fun game winner and ignore the fact that the Kings needed that shot to not lose the game! (Also, let’s just ignore that Fox kicked that out despite having what appeared to be a pretty easy game tying layup available to him! 😉 )
(b) Tim Maxwell ignoring the existence of Isaiah Thomas in his recap tells you all you need to know about his cold, dark, and depraved heart and mind!
Fox did not have that burst, despite his preseason assertions that he was quicker, when season started, to get into the lane and zip that ball to the corner. He was 10-15 pounds overweight. You could see it in the roundness of his face.
He posted a workout photo on social and his abs were not shredded. I have better abs than him and I dont get 30 million to take care of my physique. At least Fox got rid of the excess relatively quickly, but it never should have happened in the first place!
For all the couch potatos out there you may not be aware that you do want to be slightly hyper caloric when adding muscle. So if your maintenance is 3000 calories per day, you may want to be 3300 calories per day. My guess is Fox was consuming 4000 calories per day or 1000 calories over maintenance and justified it because he wanted new muscle.
And if he was 1000 calories over maintenance, he did not boost his workout intensity and duration enough to keep the extra calories from conversion to body fat.
This is mistake by the player but a bigger mistake by the training staff. Are you kidding me? Our franchise guy is turning into Porky Pig, his cardio and hops are suffering, and the alleged professionals idly allow it to happen?!
Heads need to roll! Oh wait, they did roll. Fluke had a chopping block appointment a few weeks ago. Indirectly and directly related, I would say to Fox suboptimal conditioning.
There should be more executions, er, consequences. If members of the training staff are oblivious to big things, their best player getting fat, how much attention are they paying to the little things?
One of the reasons MIA and GSW are consistently good to great, is their training is elite. They are meticulous and militant about body fat percentage. This is the way it should be. Not only do you maximize player potential this way, you reduce the risk of injury.
When Metu caught the ball in the corner, the Mavs had about a 75% chance to win! Since Metu is shooting 26% on 3s.
It helped Fox put zip on the pass and fired it right into the shooting pocket. The heat with which the pass was delivered gave Metu less time to think, let his motion flow, let muscle memory take over, minimal to no mental interfence on the magnitude of the moment and… BANG! I guarantee if Buddy was spotted in same corner in the same situatuion….BRICK!
Fox could have tried to finish at the rim but he may have had the CHA game in the back of his mind and not wanting to go back to the free throw line.
Though it worked out beautifully you could say Fox made the incorrect read throwing it out to a 26% three point shooter. It is debatable, but I give Fox the benefit of the doubt that he did not see he had enough of a crease between the two defenders to try to finish himself draw a foul or an and-one.
Upon reflection on this, I have seen Fox attack against this level of resistance at the rim, so I do think the idea of having to go to the free throw line did play a factor.
The Mavs botched the ending with a foul to give. They only took 0.5 seconds off the clock when Ty caught the inbound and was going away from the hoop. The defender ideally wants to foul under 3 seconds, take 1-2 seconds off the clock, make sure you are not fouling in the shooting motion of course.
Having a foul to give then simply fouling on the catch and taking only half of a second off the clock is SO pointless!
Think about it. If the defender on Ty allows a little more time to go off before the intentional foul, the shot from Metu leaves his fingertips after the buzzer.
It looked like Old Man Gentry called an audible after the foul where they decided to inbound to Fox and switch places with Ty. Ty went to the other side of the half court. What the defender on Ty could have done is front Fox so he was guarded 2-on- 1 to force the inbound to another player or throw it all the way to the opposite end to Ty.
It helped that the opponent was coached by Jason Kidd, not the brightest bulb!
I am not going to go into it on the heels of a walkoff win, but this coach is below average. A newb coached circles around him, better sideline presence, better substitutions, better vocal leadership we need versus excessive complaining and pleading to the refs.
Do not get me started on the melodrama and histrionics after the MEM game. That is called diversion and deflection. Coach returns, team gets trounced. Coincidence or nah?
Gentry was feigning indignation to deflect from the fact he did not have his team prepared and his in game adjustments failed. I do appreciate his bluntness in the post game, that is refreshing after the former coach, but this act came off as less than sincere given the MEM game was not even Top 5 in terms of ugly Ls, and this is the most disappointed he’s been in 34 years. GTFO!
Part of his disappointment was Buddy was not doing what he was supposed to do on defense. But you know he’s not going to do what he’s suppose to do. So who’s the idiot?!
TD was DNP-CD while Buddy is trucking around playing the clown. Inexcusable! Buddy played 23 useless minutes. 1-5 FGs. Running around getting nothing done. Give those same 23 minutes to TD and you do not need a buzzer beating three! The sad fact is 1-5 FGs is actually good for him because at least he did not shoot you out of the game so you had a chance at the end. But if that is what it has come as a key rotational piece, you are going nowhere as a team.
By any chance do you have a yacht and lots of girlfriends?
I certainly hope so.
Outstanding and Elaborative post. I believe we share the same blood lines.
But do you share the same shredded abs?
Wow! What didn’t I just read?
I can hear Gentry now. Metu and Bagley need to be more aggressive on offense. Fun Times. I wish there was a reason to be optimistic. These 2 wins are fools gold. Dallas missing more than half their starters. OKC rebuilding and missing half their starters.
These 2 games only further stalls the process of rebuilding this team. The front office has tunnel vision. a very Myopic one at that. This team is not good. A healthy Dallas team would have torched this team last night. Despite the fact, I am not a Kidd fan.
When this team usually faces a good squad that is mostly healthy, they rarely have a chance. Looking at their quality wins. I see 2: Charlotte back on Nov 7th was mostly healthy and The Suns on Oct 27(Before they woke up and realized they can kick everyones Azz)
Every Single other win in the season has come against a team dealing with multiple injuries to starters, Rebuilding disasters, or something COvid related.
4-16 Against teams .500 of Better
11-5 Against teams below .500
I can’t listen to Kayte’s shill or whoever is beside her that particular night. Thank God, I have League Pass. I always listen to the opposing teams broadcast feed.
Same here !
Why does it say Memphis Grizzlies in the Quick Stats.
MEZIE 4 TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So many things I liked about that play, but my favorite is that it happened without a timeout and after Dallas used their foul to give. De’Aaron and Chimezie just did what they typically do, and Dallas made a clear choice: Make Mezie beat them. And Mezie did just that.
There are plenty of issues with this team as there has been all along with this group.
Buddy Hield had another stinker, and mainly at this point needs another team. The question is whether or not the Kings can move him, and I suspect they can. It’s just a question of what (and not just what the cynical ‘the Kings have nothing of value to anyone else’ sect of fans atm) at this point. I also don’t think the answer is as simple as benching Buddy either. It’ll be interesting to see whether McNair can move on from Hield because it’s pretty clear that Buddy isn’t likely to work with this iteration of the Kings often enough.
To piggyback off a comment from catterj in another post, Ricky Rubio and Dylan Windler (or whomever Cleveland wants to stick in there to make the money work) works for Buddy. The end result is you probably waive Woodard, but I don’t think that matters much here. The only issue is if Cleveland cares about losing Rubio’s Bird Rights because the Kings probably waive Rubio in this deal. And who knows about that one? But the bigger issue may be Cleveland doesn’t like Buddy’s 2 years after this year on his deal.
Terence Davis didn’t play, and I didn’t hear any mention as to why. I’m sure there was a minutes distribution issue between Mitchell, Hield and Davis. It’s also possible the Kings didn’t want Davis playing on a b2b because of his testing positive for COVID.
It’s a win. It won’t inspire anyone who didn’t like the organization, and it’s not very inspiring for those who thought the team was better than they’ve performed up to this point like yours truly. But…it’s better than losing so I guess until the losses happen I’m going to be happy for Mezie and hope maybe this team a corner has truned. Or, hell, maybe the Kings will actually play well against Dallas tomorrow in the early matinee game. I mean, why not? Crazier things have happened.
The race for the #10 seed is heating up, on pace to pick #9 in the draft for the next decade.
Badge Legend