Detroit (20-35) @ Sacramento (18-38)

[aznkillabeezZz]

what i see in the team when i watch them play is there are many young players who are trying to get their own stats..Landry is probably frustrated because of that. I see landry capable of getting 16-20 pts a game easily. And he looked like the only one boxing out effectively, defending and scoring with his power and skill.

[SacKingZZZ]

I didn't think the comments Spence said in the paper were that bad. I think something else is going, especially for Westphal to be so outspoken about it. In the past he has been more politically correct if you will about answering questions. He was very much that way about KMart. He definetly seems pissed, which surprises me.

Dunno, I hope it gets resolved because Spence is a big part of this team going forward IMO.

This is something that I agree with. Paul Westphal made it seem like Hawes raped him in the shower or something. The paranoid part of me is starting to think Westphal just doesn't like Spencer or the way he plays. Sad thing is, he could be getting a hell of a lot out of Spencer.

[SacKingZZZ]

The one major positive tonight was that unit on the floor at the end of the game. Tyreke, Cisco, Omri, Landry, and Dorsey is a well balanced and tough defensive team.

Tonight Dorsey showed the type of defensive impact he can make on the floor. I look forward to seeing him play a lot more. Can't wait to see that Brockman/Dorsey frontline. Landry and Dorsey is probably our most balanced frontline we can put out there with Tyreke running the show.

Carl Landry is a LOT better offensively than I expected. He really can get his, and do it quite efficiently. 7 shots though!? Yeah, he needs to get way more than that. We need to run things through him or Tyreke 99% of the time. Everybody else can spot shoot.

[RekeHavoc]

I didn't think the comments Spence said in the paper were that bad. I think something else is going, especially for Westphal to be so outspoken about it. In the past he has been more politically correct if you will about answering questions. He was very much that way about KMart. He definetly seems pissed, which surprises me.

Dunno, I hope it gets resolved because Spence is a big part of this team going forward IMO.

This is something that I agree with. Paul Westphal made it seem like Hawes raped him in the shower or something. The paranoid part of me is starting to think Westphal just doesn't like Spencer or the way he plays. Sad thing is, he could be getting a hell of a lot out of Spencer.

Spencer has had 3 different coaches and none of them have ever gotten anything significantly different out of him than we're getting right now. Maybe he just DOESN'T WANT IT BAD ENOUGH? Maybe he just DOESN'T CARE ABOUT DEVELOPING HIS GAME THAT MUCH? I'm sorry I'm sick of making excuses for the guy. Yeah he's only 21, but this is his 3rd year in the L, and he had plenty of opportunities to work on his game this summer and get stronger and he didn't do either. If he really wanted it he'd work on his post game in the summer, add 15-20 pounds of muscle, and go train like a guy like Kevin does with a guy like THorpe or he'd work out all offseason in Sac like Donte did. I just don't think he cares that much, the guy has always had a huge sense of entitlement, remember when he was drafted and we all heard about his family? How they had always had money and were supposedly smart people, and he was conservative and thought he knew everything about politics, etc. The guy has always seemed like a straight up snob to me. I'm not about to diss a coach who has gotten a team to the NBA finals and for most of the season has been letting guys learn and trying to teach vs a guy who has shown me nothing.

And what pisses me off is yeah, Spencer could be really really good if he wanted to. He could be a top 5 center in the NBA. But he doesn't want it that badly. He has access to the best trainers in the world, dieticians, the best coaches, etc. He should've been working in Sac all offseason, instead his excuse for not going to the Vegas summer league was he wanted to go to his friend's wedding, Then he didn't show up to camp in shape and he didn't show up early like everyone else. He didn't lift weights or try to get muscular. He doesn't like playing in the post and he doesn't like contact. It's become pretty apparent to everyone besides the Hawes homers that the majority of him not being a better player is on himself. If he were stronger he wouldn't be getting worked every damn time we play Chris Kaman or Kendrick Perkins. If he were stronger and more dedicated, we wouldn't have to take him out of the game vs teams like Orlando because he just backs away from the rim and doesn't battle for any boards.

I'm just about done with Spencer. Give me someone like Cole Aldrich over him anyday. Or give me a Perkins or a Marc Gasol anyday. They don't have to have the 94353953 skills Spencer supposedly does but hasn't used, they just have to play TOUGH, HOLD THEIR GROUND, DEFEND THE POST, REBOUND, AND BLOCK SHOTS. Every dang time I see you posting it's about how we're not using Spencer enough, or how JT is stealing his minutes and doesn't have the amazing skills Spencer does, or how Westphal is player hating on Spencer despite having started him over 2/3 of the season and playing him 25-30 minutes a bunch of times. Give it up already. Spencer could be way better than he is but he just appears to not give a damn so whatever.

[JSrose115]

The one major positive tonight was that unit on the floor at the end of the game. Tyreke, Cisco, Omri, Landry, and Dorsey is a well balanced and tough defensive team.

Tonight Dorsey showed the type of defensive impact he can make on the floor. I look forward to seeing him play a lot more. Can't wait to see that Brockman/Dorsey frontline. Landry and Dorsey is probably our most balanced frontline we can put out there with Tyreke running the show.

Carl Landry is a LOT better offensively than I expected. He really can get his, and do it quite efficiently. 7 shots though!? Yeah, he needs to get way more than that. We need to run things through him or Tyreke 99% of the time. Everybody else can spot shoot.

i agree to this, i've been wanting westphal to play dorsey more for his defensive presence and size in the paint, him and landry work well together on the court. i hope he gets more action because to be honest with JT and Spence, our frontline is soft. JT is cool, but he gets overly frustrated on the court which really diminishes his game.

[pillwenney]

Detroit deserves some credit for tonight. Their defense really was quite sound through stretches and they played smart offensively--really taking what the defense gave them. And even when we gave them nothing, Rip or Tay hit a tough shot.

Still, we sure could have played better on both ends. We didn't "give them nothing" nearly enough. The lack of awareness is understandable for a young team, but it sure doesn't stop being frustrating.

And given his numbers tonight, this may seem ridiculous, but we didn't run things through Tyreke enough. I think that was one of the problems at the beginning of the 3rd quarter mostly, but at other times of the game too. I mean I guess you have to understand wanting to develop the young guys, but in terms of trying to win, we simply shouldn't be posting up Donte Greene. We just shouldn't be. If he has a mismatch, it still often doesn't matter, because if the D is smart, and they crash, he's terrible at passing out of it. Donte Greene in traffic is a disaster waiting to happen. But it wasn't just this. Why the hell are we running Ime Udoka off of screens? How the hell is that in our playbook? The issue for the most part isn't that guys aren't good enough scorers to have things run through them. The issue is that they're not good enough passers/playmakers. Tyreke and Spencer seem to be the only guys on the team that are good enough passers to have things run through them in that way. That's why I like isolating Landry, but I couldn't imagine running things through him, really. You can see why he's an ideal bench scorer.

[king125]

no offensive system on this team whatsoever

players need to play their role and by the looks of things nobody on the team knows what there role is......and that is a coaching problem.

[darkadun]

Once Tyreke and Landry develop a good chemistry together they will be a good combo IMO. It's not Landry has played horrible. He struggled in the first game, but scored 18 in each of the last 2 games. Thats 2 points above his season average.

With that said, its readly apparant he can have more of a impact. Honestly I think Landry is a big piece for us going forward. I like him ALOT. I think the Evans/Landry/Evans combo can be our Paul/West combo. Landry reminds me alot of David West actually. Once everyone gets more familiar with each other Landry should have more of impact. Last night was rough though, he got some really cheap calls on him, which basically took him out of the game while the game was still up for grabs.

[Ballings7]

Never have been consistently sold on Spencer... and kinda seems like he won't be my type of big man, nor the type of main big man this team needs. I haven't seen as much of the team as I used to (no LP anymore), but from what I've gathered the honeymoon from last season and earlier in the season, is on the fence.

And I second that I'd rather have a center like Gasol/Perkins/Aldrich/Lopez over Hawes (at least at this point).

[Wolfay]

I think they want to lose on purpose to get more ping pong balls, like ICMTM said above. There's no way they're this bad. They're making sure Tyreke gets his though so he can get ROY and they'll use that to sell more tickets next season.

All of this screams that they're not trying hard until next season when they think they have all or most of the pieces to compete.

LOL you guys cant be serious. This team has had ONE practice with all these new guys and garcia. It's going to take a while for us to improve. Right now this team just isn't that good and you guys are coming up with random reasons why we lost? Were just going through an awful stretch that every young team goes through....period. They aren't trying hard?

I thought this before the trade.

Ad as far as effort goes these guys were TIRED! They look tired. All the main contributors looked gassed.

It seems like we have had a crazy number of back-to-backs. I haven't really paid attention to this before, so I don't know if it's normal, but it feels like we have one or two each week.

[SacKingZZZ]

Uh, Spencer was playing pretty damn good lately when he was starting. Jason was playing pretty damn good off the bench. Like I've said before, why fix what isn't broken!? This is a different team and any coach in the world should be able to get a lineup of Evans, Cisco, Casspi, Landry, and Hawes to work.

I'll give Westphal some time. I mean, he was trying to work Martin in, he's gone, and now it's time for him to try and work Landry in. At some point though it does come down to whether or not he is capable of doing it. Was the early season play nothing more than a mere oddity? Maybe a young team surprising teams??? We'll see, but saying what Westphal said last night was just not right. He gets all over Spencer for talking in the paper (I'm going to assume it's what it is since it's all we know, and he essentially quoted Spencer's line about "roles".) and then he proceeds to make a very vindictive front pager? What's up with that?

[ICMTM]

Uh, Spencer was playing pretty damn good lately when he was starting. Jason was playing pretty damn good off the bench. Like I've said before, why fix what isn't broken!? This is a different team and any coach in the world should be able to get a lineup of Evans, Cisco, Casspi, Landry, and Hawes to work.

I'll give Westphal some time. I mean, he was trying to work Martin in, he's gone, and now it's time for him to try and work Landry in. At some point though it does come down to whether or not he is capable of doing it. Was the early season play nothing more than a mere oddity? Maybe a young team surprising teams??? We'll see, but saying what Westphal said last night was just not right. He gets all over Spencer for talking in the paper (I'm going to assume it's what it is since it's all we know, and he essentially quoted Spencer's line about "roles".) and then he proceeds to make a very vindictive front pager? What's up with that?

People had roles at the beginning of the season.

[SacKingZZZ]

Hmmm...I'm not too sure about that anymore. They were outhustling teams, I don't even think anyone really pinpointed what they were doing. The idea was more that the hustle play would only be a positive in the acceleration of finding a system. Honestly even then I knew this team wasn't really playing any certain way, they may very well have just caught teams by surprise. It makes sense because this late in the season we still have no system, or anything resembling one, and teams are taking the few strengths we have away night after night.

[RekeHavoc]

Uh, Spencer was playing pretty damn good lately when he was starting. Jason was playing pretty damn good off the bench. Like I've said before, why fix what isn't broken!? This is a different team and any coach in the world should be able to get a lineup of Evans, Cisco, Casspi, Landry, and Hawes to work.

I'll give Westphal some time. I mean, he was trying to work Martin in, he's gone, and now it's time for him to try and work Landry in. At some point though it does come down to whether or not he is capable of doing it. Was the early season play nothing more than a mere oddity? Maybe a young team surprising teams??? We'll see, but saying what Westphal said last night was just not right. He gets all over Spencer for talking in the paper (I'm going to assume it's what it is since it's all we know, and he essentially quoted Spencer's line about "roles".) and then he proceeds to make a very vindictive front pager? What's up with that?

Spencer has 4 rebounds in his last 60 minutes of play. That is not "pretty damn good". He started in GS and should've been able to exploit their small ball team and get some boards and he came up with 11 points and 2 rebounds. He played well vs Boston and that's pretty much it. Don't get me wrong I would LOVE for him to get better and get a significant role on this team but he needs to get serious first and I haven't seen it yet. Theoretically his skill sets work really well with guys potentially but when he goes out there and even when he gets a lot of minutes his good efforts are sprinkled few and far between dude.

[pillwenney]

Once Tyreke and Landry develop a good chemistry together they will be a good combo IMO. It's not Landry has played horrible. He struggled in the first game, but scored 18 in each of the last 2 games. Thats 2 points above his season average.

With that said, its readly apparant he can have more of a impact. Honestly I think Landry is a big piece for us going forward. I like him ALOT. I think the Evans/Landry/Evans combo can be our Paul/West combo. Landry reminds me alot of David West actually. Once everyone gets more familiar with each other Landry should have more of impact. Last night was rough though, he got some really cheap calls on him, which basically took him out of the game while the game was still up for grabs.

Double-Tyreke