Kings @ Hawks 4:00

[Kingsforlife]

funny thing is that Omri would of been open at the top of the key if he waited a bit longer

[SacKingZZZ]

Not westphals fault, im sure the lob wasnt the first option, someone slipped trying to get open... but jesus christ that was an awful pass lol. Horrible foul situation with tyreke.. hate to end a game that way

I'd feel a lot better about the brains behind the operation if that's the case, but that had to be the call. During the timeout he pointed to Cousins and everyone started kind of laughing. Just saw some real bad coaching decisions these last two games. Westphals getting better, but I'm starting to see why he's a pretty average coach.

[KF10]

Someone here said it perfectly, "If the Kings are not hitting their threes, they have NO chance at winning". The Kings were 1-9 today in threes. As far as I remember, the Kings ALWAYS lose when they are NOT hitting their threes. This makes things much more difficult, essentially, almost everyone has to have great games to compensate the lack of shooting.

[SacKingZZZ]

Someone here said it perfectly, "If the Kings are not hitting their threes, they have NO chance at winning". The Kings were 1-9 today in threes. As far as I remember, the Kings ALWAYS lose when they are NOT hitting their threes. This makes things much more difficult, essentially, almost everyone has to have great games to compensate the lack of shooting.

When teams focus the entirety of their defensive approach around stopping Cousins and Evans we have a shot. Westphal's other mistake was taking Cousins off the floor when the Hawks were scared of him going off. He wasn't really dominating at the time, but there's no better zone breaker than throwing the ball down low to a big requiring the double team. The Kings had a shot today, just some errors were made in regards to the handling of the team.

[Wolfay]

A LOB with .6 left!!!??? WTF!!!! You only need a lob if it's less than .4 brainiac!! Goodness gracious. C'mon Westphal!!

I was curious as to how people would find a way to blame that on Westphal. Fascinating.

Uh, because it's COMPLETELY WARRANTED. Give me a break! You can catch and shoot with .4 left, a lob with .6 left???? Catch and shoot = at least a chance, and a decent look. It's called making the highest % call you can, and a lob is only the call when you can't catch and shoot. Anyone that doesn't agree with that I seriously question the reliability of their basketball acumen. A coach that can't clearly see it in a situation like this, well, I'll leave it at that. I'm cool with trying something neat, but there was a much better option than a cross court lob when there's plenty of time to get off a quality look.

Stop letting your biases get in the way of logic.

[pillwenney]

A LOB with .6 left!!!??? WTF!!!! You only need a lob if it's less than .4 brainiac!! Goodness gracious. C'mon Westphal!!

I was curious as to how people would find a way to blame that on Westphal. Fascinating.

Uh, because it's COMPLETELY WARRANTED. Give me a break! You can catch and shoot with .4 left, a lob with .6 left???? Catch and shoot = at least a chance, and a decent look. It's called making the highest % call you can, and a lob is only the call when you can't catch and shoot. Anyone that doesn't agree with that I seriously question the reliability of their basketball acumen. A coach that can't clearly see it in a situation like this, well, I'll leave it at that. I'm cool with trying something neat, but there was a much better option than a cross court lob when there's plenty of time to get off a quality look.

Maybe a normal catch and shoot, but a 0.6 catch and shoot has to be immediate and assume that you're in a good position to actually do it. Once you get past 0.7, it's not really a normal shot and the percentage is going to drop. It's not necessarily going to be a "quality look." The quality of the shot will be however immediately open you are when you take the shot, because you don't have time to do anything but catch and shoot it immediately.

The hard part of the lob is the pass. The shot itself is much more high percentage.

Oh, and it was there too. With a properly placed pass, the finish could have been there. But Demarcus completely blew it. Some things are his fault.

[YC42Balla]

Ugh, what the hell's up with these times? I'm use to us playing at 6-7pm. I've missed so many games . And if do get to watch it. It's only the 3rd-4th quarter. Dang-it!!

[sackings916]

Too much 3 guard lineup of Pooh/Udrih/Evans. I guess the logic is to have more ball handling, but there's not enough shooting on the court. Casspi should have been in there to space the floor or even Donte for his defense/rebounding.

[SacKingZZZ]

Stop letting your biases get in the way of logic.

Stop letting the use of the word "bias" support your entire argument against bad play calling. Might as well throw a "yo momma" joke, would have about as much relevance.

How many teams do you see making that call when there is PLENTY of time to shoot? Yeah, thought so. Such a difficult play to perform with any success. It just reaffirms some of my main concerns about coach Westphal. I've also really been in recognition of some of the good things he's done recently so don't act like this is "bias", look up the word hypocritical because if I'm being "bias" it goes both ways.

Once again, if you think that was the right call well.... If it didn't parallel some of the main issues with this team and his coaching it wouldn't bother me, but it does. Westphal really out "thinks" himself sometimes. The last few weeks he finally just let go a little and realized what should be going on the the floor most of the time, but there are still moments of destructive tinkering. However this call, if it was truly option 1, is just a stupid, stupid play call. As a 2nd option, eh, I'll take back what I said, but it didn't look that way and he didn't mention it during the post game.

[SacKingZZZ]

Maybe a normal catch and shoot, but a 0.6 catch and shoot has to be immediate and assume that you're in a good position to actually do it. Once you get past 0.7, it's not really a normal shot and the percentage is going to drop. It's not necessarily going to be a "quality look." The quality of the shot will be however immediately open you are when you take the shot, because you don't have time to do anything but catch and shoot it immediately.

The hard part of the lob is the pass. The shot itself is much more high percentage.

Oh, and it was there too. With a properly placed pass, the finish could have been there. But Demarcus completely blew it. Some things are his fault.

That's why you design a play to get that shot. Harder to design than a lob but the end result gives you a much better look. By the rule books 0.4 is plenty of time to get a quality look as has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout the course of NBA history. Even if it's a 20% look, it's better than the 5% look they got.

Yeah, like a half court shot is more likely to get you points than a travel. In one scenario, you will odds on get a shot up, the other, it's all hit or miss with the overwhelming majority leaning towards not getting a hit. It just wasn't the logical play.

The pass wasn't good obviously which in turn goes into my supposed "bias" against Westphal. I don't have faith in him to put these players in the best position to succeed (remember the locker room stuff awhile back, players basicially complaining about that very thing?) and it all goes back to simple logic a lot of the time. He's been much better as of late and I have acknowledged that, still, these problems keep creeping up. Very hard to get over a mole hill with that straddling your back, let alone a mountain.

[ADoaN17]

I dont care about Cousins pass. They got lucky that Joe decided to make the Ft than miss it. Thr foul is why we lost. Why didnt the Kings hold the ball for the last shot.

[SacTownKings4Life]

Surprised nobody's mentioning the fact that they CALLED a foul with 0.6 seconds left. Short of a blatant clothesline, you don't call fouls at the end of games. What ever happened to letting them play (I've seen a LOT worse than that uncalled)? Its a tie game for goodness sake! The worst thing that could have happened was overtime. You can't just HAND the game over to a team like that. Let the players decide the outcome...

[SacKingZZZ]

Surprised nobody's mentioning the fact that they CALLED a foul with 0.6 seconds left. Short of a blatant clothesline, you don't call fouls at the end of games. What ever happened to letting them play (I've seen a LOT worse than that uncalled)? Its a tie game for goodness sake! The worst thing that could have happened was overtime. You can't just HAND the game over to a team like that. Let the players decide the outcome...

Make no mistake about it, the Kings got boned on some plays. Like that clear flagrant on Beno that wasn't called. He oversold it a little bit, but seroiusly.

I like Beno coming out and saying that they (Jason and Cousins in particular I'd bet) need to quit complaining and suck it up. If and when Cousins starts getting calls like Amare got the other night he's going to score 25+ a night, but complaining doesn't do any good. I had fears that he and JT would become the whipping boys of the league with all their complaining, but they haven't been all that bad really up until the last few weeks.

[KF10]

imo Thompson has been the league's "whipping boy" for a while. Thompson perpetual balking at the refs can be traced back his first year in the league. His second year pretty much cements any chances of getting off the "black list" of the refs.

I remember saying to myself in MOST of Thompson's second year , "STFU THOMPSON!!! And play f'n basketball!" I commented about this quite a few times couple of years ago.

In Cousins' case it's a bit different. Cousins came to the league with a bull's eye in the back of his jersey. The refs kinda expected that Cousins will at times, "flare up" during games. Cousins can actually be ok in the longterm if he cuts down his complaining. Most refs knows that every potential star big men that arrives into the league has a tendency to balk at most calls. So they cut them some slack if they improve longterm.

[pillwenney]

That's why you design a play to get that shot. Harder to design than a lob but the end result gives you a much better look. By the rule books 0.4 is plenty of time to get a quality look as has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout the course of NBA history. Even if it's a 20% look, it's better than the 5% look they got.

Yeah, like a half court shot is more likely to get you points than a travel. In one scenario, you will odds on get a shot up, the other, it's all hit or miss with the overwhelming majority leaning towards not getting a hit. It just wasn't the logical play.

The pass wasn't good obviously which in turn goes into my supposed "bias" against Westphal. I don't have faith in him to put these players in the best position to succeed (remember the locker room stuff awhile back, players basicially complaining about that very thing?) and it all goes back to simple logic a lot of the time. He's been much better as of late and I have acknowledged that, still, these problems keep creeping up. Very hard to get over a mole hill with that straddling your back, let alone a mountain.

REALLY?

A good look? Or a flick towards the direction of the basket? You think Fisher's shot was a good shot? No, it was a prayer of a flick. Now, you don't need a flick with 0.6, but you really don't even have time to adjust your body if you're not open. No play will guarantee that you're open and if you're not, a jumper's percentage will go down a lot more than a lob's.

But the important part here is that the opportunity was there. The player was open and Demarcus blew the pass. I'll say this. If this is something they've never practiced at all and Demarcus isn't used to throwing passes like this, then it was a bad call. Otherwise, it was average at worst.

[SacKingZZZ]

That's why you design a play to get that shot. Harder to design than a lob but the end result gives you a much better look. By the rule books 0.4 is plenty of time to get a quality look as has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout the course of NBA history. Even if it's a 20% look, it's better than the 5% look they got.

Yeah, like a half court shot is more likely to get you points than a travel. In one scenario, you will odds on get a shot up, the other, it's all hit or miss with the overwhelming majority leaning towards not getting a hit. It just wasn't the logical play.

The pass wasn't good obviously which in turn goes into my supposed "bias" against Westphal. I don't have faith in him to put these players in the best position to succeed (remember the locker room stuff awhile back, players basicially complaining about that very thing?) and it all goes back to simple logic a lot of the time. He's been much better as of late and I have acknowledged that, still, these problems keep creeping up. Very hard to get over a mole hill with that straddling your back, let alone a mountain.

REALLY?

A good look? Or a flick towards the direction of the basket? You think Fisher's shot was a good shot? No, it was a prayer of a flick. Now, you don't need a flick with 0.6, but you really don't even have time to adjust your body if you're not open. No play will guarantee that you're open and if you're not, a jumper's percentage will go down a lot more than a lob's.

But the important part here is that the opportunity was there. The player was open and Demarcus blew the pass. I'll say this. If this is something they've never practiced at all and Demarcus isn't used to throwing passes like this, then it was a bad call. Otherwise, it was average at worst.

Once again, a lob when not completely necessary is not logical by the numbers period. I'd easily consider that less than average. It's like taking a half court shot with 5 seconds left on the clock.

[SacKingZZZ]

imo Thompson has been the league's "whipping boy" for a while. Thompson perpetual balking at the refs can be traced back his first year in the league. His second year pretty much cements any chances of getting off the "black list" of the refs.

I remember saying to myself in MOST of Thompson's second year , "STFU THOMPSON!!! And play f'n basketball!" I commented about this quite a few times couple of years ago.

In Cousins' case it's a bit different. Cousins came to the league with a bull's eye in the back of his jersey. The refs kinda expected that Cousins will at times, "flare up" during games. Cousins can actually be ok in the longterm if he cuts down his complaining. Most refs knows that every potential star big men that arrives into the league has a tendency to balk at most calls. So they cut them some slack if they improve longterm.

I saw Andrew Bynum huff and puff after a foul call worse than Cousins did last night, and he got no technical. Hmmm...I think you may be right.