Spurs @ Kings

[pillwenney]

Scratch that last one. I'll be at this game too. Another one that's winnable for us if we keep playing like we've been playing. But it won't be easy. I think we generally do better against teams whose success is based purely on talent than we do against well-run, veteran teams.

So I'm mostly just looking for a good effort.

[perezident]

Spurs are pumped from that huge win last night! I find a win really hard right about now but I hope we do pull it off.

Key players: Evans Cousins Casspi and Beno. If they all can get in double figures, this will be a wonderful game to watch!

I really expect Beno to torch this team; revenge is so sweet. Lets Go Beno! (fantasy points too )

[Dustin5566]

Anyone elses CSN say the game is blacked out?

[SacKingZZZ]

What the heck do these guys do during their practice days??? I never see this team look more unorganized than after a day or two between games.

Wonder if something is up? Haven't seen this team look as disinterested as I have tonight.

[SacKingZZZ]

Anyone elses CSN say the game is blacked out?

Nope, but I'm about to go on a voluntary blackout.

[KF10]

The Kings look like the ones that were in B2B game. They look very sluggish so far.

[SacKingsPejaFan]

Pretty terrible defense right now. Offense is just one-on-one. I might turn this one off pretty soon.

[Dustin5566]

No more blackout!!!!! 34-19, hell I might go back to watching the house bunny.

[SacKingZZZ]

I guess on one hand it's good that this team shows up most nights, but this is just awful. The energy has picked up somewhat but....yuck.

[twoolfork1]

A team of veterans vs. a team of young players and it couldn't be any more obvious who is who

[perezident]

I stopped watching after the first quarter....started watching some clips of our church band clips on youtube. "Bahama Brass Band"...Check us out

[RIPskaterdude]

I blame this loss on Mitch.

[Nicky Nix Nook]

I blame this loss on Mitch.

[SacKingsPejaFan]

At least we're not the Cavs.

[SacKingZZZ]

Hopefully Cousins is OK, why did he sit for almost all the second half and come in at the end?

[pillwenney]

Hopefully Cousins is OK, why did he sit for almost all the second half and come in at the end?

He started visibly not giving a s**t in the second half and Westphal pulled him. It was the right thing to do, but it sure didn't help our offense to go with a Jackson/Dalembert lineup for a while.

Anyway, like I was saying earlier, execution kills us a lot more than talent, and man was that clear tonight. The Spurs just never stopped doing the right thing.

There was a mentality that Adelman used to have that pissed me off and I've seen it elsewhere too, of "Well we know they're going to make a run. So we just have to be prepared for that and be ready to respond." The Spurs tonight showed how that concept is crap. The other team will only make a run if you play worse--plain and simple. We kept trying to get back into it tonight, but when the other team doesn't stop being excellent, there's really nothing you can do if you're the inferior team.

I would put the blame for this one on our defense, but I just don't know what we were supposed to do differently. Offense in the NBA essentially boils down to getting an advantage and then doing the right thing when you get that advantage (and in the playoffs, often succeeding despite the lack of an advantage). The interesting for the Spurs I think moving forward will be to see if they can consistently get enough initial advantages. Because if they can, I think they could win it all this year. Because Christ are they well disciplined. But anyway, point being in relation to tonight, we just didn't have the guns to keep them from getting an advantage. Tyreke flat out couldn't guard Parker, and it started there. But point being, there was just no making up for it because every time they're up on you in any way, boom. You're dead. Little late chasing someone off a screen? Boom. You're dead. One guy doesn't get back and you have a 5 on 4? Boom. You're dead. Turn your head from your man for 2 seconds? Boom. You're dead.

So again, it's hard for me to blame the defense because there wasn't much we could do. There was a lot more we could do offensively. The obvious one there is simply making shots that these guys can make. This is more of a mental thing than a skill thing. The Spurs got inside our heads tonight simply by being really good. Like I've said a few times now, things have such a tendency to snowball with this team. Demarcus' slow start wouldn't have hurt him and the team so much if the Spurs didn't really make us pay for it. But they did and then they just plain didn't let up and there wasn't really much we could do about it. This plagued us throughout the whole game. It's no coincidence that when things are going better with this team and there's a generally positive feeling or positive momentum, that everything else falls into place. Donte starts making his jumpers. Sam starts making his otherwise seemingly ridiculous little fadeaways. Beno makes his 3's. Landry scores better inside. Demarcus plays under control. The whole team makes free throws like they can.

Tonight things went badly, and again, it was so mental. Sam was missing easy finishes, as was Darnell--probably 8-10 points missed on easy finishes like that around the basket. Along with that, nobody was making outside shots (which is one of the more blatant things that hurt). Now unlike the other parts, this had to do a little more with personnel and decision-making. As we know, we're simply not a good outside shooting team, but part of it also falls on Tyreke. Tyreke has fallen into a bit of a habit of starting games shooting jumpers. When he stopped doing that and worked on penetrating tonight, things went so much better. But it's a lesson he has to learn over and over. Just because he is slightly improved with his J doesn't mean it's a good shot within the offense. Catching and shooting is one thing, but the only guy on this team who should be pulling up for a mid-range J is Beno. Otherwise, it's simply not an efficient shot--especially from Tyreke still.

[KF10]

The surprising thing from tonight was the sluggishness from the beginning (1st quarter). It was almost like they said to themselves, "Man, this team is 42-8, there's no way in hell we can beat them". It's frustrating to see them falter like they did tonight, considering the fact that the Kings did not show any sluggishness in the Lakers & Hornets game from the get go. This team isn't mentally ready to transition themselves to a good team yet. To become a good team requires discipline & consistency in all facets of the game. The Kings are neither. I don't know when they will make the leap but one thing is for sure, the Kings have a long way to accomplish that goal.

And +1 to everything mitch said.

[ADoaN17]

I never been to a game where the Kings got blown out .
It was still fun tho.

[SacKingZZZ]

He started visibly not giving a s**t in the second half and Westphal pulled him. It was the right thing to do, but it sure didn't help our offense to go with a Jackson/Dalembert lineup for a while.

Anyway, like I was saying earlier, execution kills us a lot more than talent, and man was that clear tonight. The Spurs just never stopped doing the right thing.

There was a mentality that Adelman used to have that pissed me off and I've seen it elsewhere too, of "Well we know they're going to make a run. So we just have to be prepared for that and be ready to respond." The Spurs tonight showed how that concept is crap. The other team will only make a run if you play worse--plain and simple. We kept trying to get back into it tonight, but when the other team doesn't stop being excellent, there's really nothing you can do if you're the inferior team.

I would put the blame for this one on our defense, but I just don't know what we were supposed to do differently. Offense in the NBA essentially boils down to getting an advantage and then doing the right thing when you get that advantage (and in the playoffs, often succeeding despite the lack of an advantage). The interesting for the Spurs I think moving forward will be to see if they can consistently get enough initial advantages. Because if they can, I think they could win it all this year. Because Christ are they well disciplined. But anyway, point being in relation to tonight, we just didn't have the guns to keep them from getting an advantage. Tyreke flat out couldn't guard Parker, and it started there. But point being, there was just no making up for it because every time they're up on you in any way, boom. You're dead. Little late chasing someone off a screen? Boom. You're dead. One guy doesn't get back and you have a 5 on 4? Boom. You're dead. Turn your head from your man for 2 seconds? Boom. You're dead.

So again, it's hard for me to blame the defense because there wasn't much we could do. There was a lot more we could do offensively. The obvious one there is simply making shots that these guys can make. This is more of a mental thing than a skill thing. The Spurs got inside our heads tonight simply by being really good. Like I've said a few times now, things have such a tendency to snowball with this team. Demarcus' slow start wouldn't have hurt him and the team so much if the Spurs didn't really make us pay for it. But they did and then they just plain didn't let up and there wasn't really much we could do about it. This plagued us throughout the whole game. It's no coincidence that when things are going better with this team and there's a generally positive feeling or positive momentum, that everything else falls into place. Donte starts making his jumpers. Sam starts making his otherwise seemingly ridiculous little fadeaways. Beno makes his 3's. Landry scores better inside. Demarcus plays under control. The whole team makes free throws like they can.

Tonight things went badly, and again, it was so mental. Sam was missing easy finishes, as was Darnell--probably 8-10 points missed on easy finishes like that around the basket. Along with that, nobody was making outside shots (which is one of the more blatant things that hurt). Now unlike the other parts, this had to do a little more with personnel and decision-making. As we know, we're simply not a good outside shooting team, but part of it also falls on Tyreke. Tyreke has fallen into a bit of a habit of starting games shooting jumpers. When he stopped doing that and worked on penetrating tonight, things went so much better. But it's a lesson he has to learn over and over. Just because he is slightly improved with his J doesn't mean it's a good shot within the offense. Catching and shooting is one thing, but the only guy on this team who should be pulling up for a mid-range J is Beno. Otherwise, it's simply not an efficient shot--especially from Tyreke still.

What? If that's the reason then Westphal is going to be back on my bad side, because NOBODY gave a rats *** until well into the game. Cousins was actually starting to play better and only came out initially because of his finger. I figured he was done and going back for an x-ray, but he sat on the bench the entire time.

I'm going to bet Westphal just didn't want to risk it until he felt better.

[SacKingZZZ]

The surprising thing from tonight was the sluggishness from the beginning (1st quarter). It was almost like they said to themselves, "Man, this team is 42-8, there's no way in hell we can beat them". It's frustrating to see them falter like they did tonight, considering the fact that the Kings did not show any sluggishness in the Lakers & Hornets game from the get go. This team isn't mentally ready to transition themselves to a good team yet. To become a good team requires discipline & consistency in all facets of the game. The Kings are neither. I don't know when they will make the leap but one thing is for sure, the Kings have a long way to accomplish that goal.

And +1 to everything mitch said.

I haven't seen a team come out this sluggish in YEARS. Seriously. That's why this team lost, goes beyond X's and O's. Whoever bought a ticket tonight should get a refund paid by the players themselves. Getting blown out isn't a big deal, but to really look like you'd rather be somewhere else at the start? Every player looked horrid from the tip to about the middle of the 2nd quarter. I haven't seen that in so long I can't remember who, where, or when in regards to the last time it happened.