Official Game Preview: Hawks at Kings

[lethalweapon3]

“((COUGH)) Sorry! Just wolfed down too much Hot Chicken!”

You’ll forgive the dinnertime product placement but, until very recently, you ever heard of Nashville Hot Chicken? Certainly, not this new-wave carpetbagger.  Yours truly had achieved a fairly comfy existence for a decade or four, including a trip or two to honky-tonk tourist-trap Lower Broad, without ever hearing of this culinary contraption. Suddenly, Fast Food, Inc. is foisting this entrée onto consumers at every commercial-break opportunity. It’s a wonder that Dirty Grandpa isn’t gnawing on some NHC. But, is it real? Is it finger lickin’ good? And will it last long enough for me to care?

One other smoky-hot thing you may not have been introduced to heretofore? The Sacramento (Hot) Kings, coming off a Staples Sweep of the Clippers and Lakers. The Kings are poised to win on back-to-back nights for the first time since this season, if they can defeat the Atlanta Hawks (10:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast), who just outlasted Portland last night.

In so doing, Sacramento (18-25) will have won four in a row for the first time all season and, more significantly, would gain a foothold on the eighth-seed in the Western Conference playoff picture. But are these Hot Kings real? Are they genuinely good now? Will the good vibes last long enough for anyone outside of Sactown to care?

East Point’s Finest, former Olympian and Hawk All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim’s decent but brief NBA career was winding down when he finally got to taste the playoffs in 2006 (ending an NBA record drought) with Rick Adelman’s Kings. Led on the floor by Mike Bibby and an exiled Ron Artest, the Kings fell in the opening round to Nazr Mohammed’s and Mike Budenholzer’s San Antonio Spurs in six games.

The Kings enjoyed brief stays in the postseason just twice in their first 13 seasons in the California capital, before Adelman’s arrival. But by 2006, an eighth-straight playoff appearance was ho-hum, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately. In came former Lon Kruger and Mike Fratello assistant Eric Musselman, who could tell Coach Bud a thing or two about starting one’s head coaching career off on the wrong pedal foot. Out went Adelman, and with him went the last vestige of Sacramento’s playoff history. At least Reef hung around town for a little while longer.

In the decade since, Musselman, Reggie Theus, Kenny Natt, Paul Westphal, Keith Smart, Mike Malone, and Ty Corbin have all been run through Sactown’s coaching grist mill. The franchise itself was oh-so-close to getting snatched out of town until two madmen (Mayor Kevin Johnson and team purchaser Vivek Ranadivé) collaborated to save the franchise from the clutches of the Pacific Northwest and also build a new palace that the team moves into next season. How nice would it be, though, to exit the dusty Sleep Train Arena with a couple playoff games?

Don’t worry if you’re thinking that heads are getting too big here. Similar to the Pelicans of yesteryear, dreams of future championship contention can wait. Ranadivé has his fingers and toes crossed that by the time tax day comes around, his meddling maneuvers (including the reintroduction of George Karl to the sideline) and his team’s undying faith in the surly set of point guard Rajon Rondo and DeMarcus Cousins, will bear fruit in the form of a first-round playoff series. And not just any series, mind you: one that brings Norcal’s spiciest hoop star, Steph Curry, and his Golden State Warriors back into town.

By design, Sacramento’s offense has been Nashville hot (100+ points in 10 of their last 11 games) and the defense, like the aforementioned chicken, seems deeply coated in lard (100+ opponent points in 10 of their last 11 games). The one exception among the Kings’ opponents occurred last night, as Sacramento “held” the Lakers to 97 points. Coach Karl’s high-paced squad will graciously give up three-point shots (NBA-high 29.2 opponent 3FGAs per game). But if you’re hopelessly incapable of making them (LAL 4-for-25 3FGs yesterday), that’s not their fault.

Despite having the touted “best big man in the game” in Cousins (4^th in NBA in scoring and RPG, 1^st in Usage%, 36-and-16 last night at Staples), the Kings are still spread a bit thin upfront. Lotto rookie Cousins’ and Rondo’s Wildcat cousin Willie Cauley-Stein starts by default, since he can dunk and swipe at everything resembling a basketball. Meanwhile, it might take a week before anyone realizes Kosta Koufos (10^th in NBA in O-Reb%) swapped unis with Tiago Splitter. Quincy Acy and Rudy Gay have timeshared at the starting 4-spot (shifting Cousins back to center) and, well, just no.

Karl, Vivek and the Kings’ competitive philosophy seems to be, “Hurry Up and Shoot, So We Can Hurry Up and Score.” A league-high 16.3% of Kings buckets (incl. 11.8% of their 2FGs) come with 18-22 seconds still left on the shot clock. It’s Reno Bighorns Basketball, writ large. Unfortunately for the Kings, the “Shoot” and “Score” roles get interchanged on many nights. Even yesterday, the Kings could not muster more than 6-for-20 from outside, even as guys like Kobe and Lou Williams presented as little resistance as possible.

Defensively, the bigs will cluster around the paint, working like a co-op, striving to keep lanes clogged for 2.9 seconds at a time, and leaving it to Rondo (1.8 SPG) to provide a modicum of pressure to the opposing ball handler. While opponents are encouraged to swing the ball around and snipe away from the perimeter, Sacramento is susceptible to waving the white flag when said ball handler (0.86 opponent points per possession, just below Brooklyn and Portland; 48.0 eFG%, 3^rd-highest in NBA) gets past Rondo (or Darren Collison) off a pick.

The frenetic but limited frontcourt situation results in Sacramento allowing the fewest shots around the rim (34.5 opponent restricted-area FGAs) but a league-high 63.7% of those shots going in. Cousins (1.3 SPG, 2^nd among NBA centers; 1.3 BPG) plugs just enough leaks to keep the Kings from giving up more than their league-high 107.9 opponent PPG. Perhaps, in a season like this, that’s all they’ll need.

With last night’s win over the “Lackers,” DMC is back above-.500 (17-16) with the Kings in games played on the season. DMC was 9-6 last season, too, before he got injured at Vivek got crazy with Malone, but that’s neither nor there at this point.

 

 

To stay winning, of course, Cousins has to maintain his on-court composure, such that it is, and not cost his team and himself by throwing ‘bows at sleeping almost-giants like Al Horford. Doing that back on November 18 marred his own 24-point (13 in the 1^st quarter), 12-rebound performance at Philips Arena, and enlivened both Horford (mostly in the first half) and Paul Millsap (23 points, 16 boards) enough to halt, similar to tonight, the Kings’ incoming 3-game winning streak.

The wet-nap that Dennis Schröder’s play reliably brought to clean up Atlanta’s messy starts lately finally dried up in Portland last night. His defense on Blazer guards was superior to Jeff Teague’s in the first half, but by the second half he proved a menace merely to courtside photographers, as he struggled to find the cup (3-for-13 FGs, 5 assists, 5 TOs).

Teague Time (6 second-half dimes) arrived just in time to help Atlanta pull away, but Schröder’s limited floor time (under 20 minutes in the past four games) will be useful on the second night of a back-to-back against Rondo (11 points, 17 assists @ LAL yesterday; 12 points, 12 boards, 10 assists, 7 TOs @ ATL on Nov. 18) and Collison.

In place of an injured Teague, Schröder contributed 22 points and 6 assists (1 TO) in Atlanta’s 103-97 win back in November. Millsap referred to his team’s reserves (9-for-26 FGs, incl. Schröder; 1-for-7 3FGs) as “elite” in the postgame commentary, and we’ll need to see more production from them tonight to know Sap wasn’t merely speaking with tongue-in-cheek. The defensive rebounding (14.3 bench D-Rebs per game, 5^th in NBA) and steals (NBA-high 4.3 bench SPG) this month suggest notions of the reserves’ potential impact is more than a non-starter.

The Hawks prevailed in that November meeting without not only Teague, but Kent Bazemore (3-for-6 3FGs @ POR, matching Millsap’s 23 points), as both starters rested ankle sprains. Baze and Thabo Sefolosha will be instrumental in thwarting the Kings’ fast breaks, disrupting outlet passes from Cousins and the guards to finishers like Gay and Ben McLemore, and to sharpshooters like Omri Casspi (7^th in NBA for 2FG%, 4^th for 3FG%) and Marco Belinelli. Forcing Sacramento to resort to Plans B and C later in the shot clock will slow the tempo and work to Atlanta’s advantage.

The Kings need to take better advantage of opponents boarding the Sleep Train on the back end of back-to-backs. They’re 1-5 in those scenarios thus far, including losses to their last two opponents (New Orleans and Golden State) before embarking on their successful three-game road trip.

Meanwhile, the Hawks (26-17) have won here in their last seven trips going back to 2009, have won 15 straight in this head-to-head series, and are 7-3 (incl. their last 3 tries) on the back half of back-to-back sets this season. Extend those streaks with sound play at both ends tonight, inch a little further up in the East standings, and who knows? Maybe we even can market the thing. “Atlanta Hot Wings”… sounds tasty to me!

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

 

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[lethalweapon3]

He'll probably play, but...

Also an OT: Former Atlanta high school dropout and local hustleball star-turned-longtime NBAer Anthony Carter is in his first season as an assistant coach, working under George Karl. Carter spent the past two seasons with Austin's D-League as an assistant. Coincidentally, his last big NBA hurrah came against Rondo and the Celtics back in 2011, as the 35-year-old guard tried in vain to help the Knicks avoid a playoff sweep.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/184468-carters-survival-instincts-not-enough-to-keep-knicks-alive-vs-celtics

Quote

During his down teenage years in Atlanta – he’d later earn his GED, play at a junior college, then at the University of Hawaii – Carter often participated in pickup games organized by neighborhood drug dealers. They’d put thousands of dollars on the line; he’d use the winnings to buy food or shoes. He once described those games as “like blood out there. Game point? You ain't going to get no layup."

~lw3

[Alex]

Should win this one, but Hawks are 1.5 underdogs according to Vegas.   Anyway the Kings have been playing well this month amassing a 6-3 record and have won three in a row.  Short flight from Portland down to Sactown.  I hope Demarcus is wearing his cup tonight.  Dennis is coming for you bro.

[Guest]

Awesome game thread lw3! When Vivek took over the Kings and hired guys like Vlade Vlade we likes to party and Mully I thought that the Kings would either rebuild and get better or get better with vet guys. Neither has happened as they are on the treadmill. Speaking of Vivek, he's got a pretty cute daughter. (She represented the Queens in the draft lottery). I loved the Lackers reference lol. You mentioned that the Queens give up the most 3 pointers attempted in the league. If this is the case, they are in deep doo doo not only against us but if they happen to make the playoffs against the Warriors, some playoff records could be set. As you mentioned, we've won 15 straight against them and 7 straight at Arco (sleep bus arena).  I think if we execute tonight, we will dominate.  The strange thing to me is that I would have thought we would be favored by 3.5-5.5 but the Kings are -1 favorites to win. This excites and scares me at the same time. I'm itching to throw down on it. Oh, and thanks for all that chicken talk, by the end of the night I'll be wiping my greasy hands with wet naps and looking into an empty bucket. :-(

 

LETS GO HAWKS!!!!!!

[lethalweapon3]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

He'll probably play, but...

...

~lw3

Welp, no more ambiguous Gay status tweets! (sorry, Ace and Gary!)

 

~lw3

[Guest]

I hope Al doesn't get elbowed in the face tonight!

[pimp]

12 minutes ago, hawksfanatic said:

I hope Al doesn't get elbowed in the face tonight!

The replay clearly showed that Horford threw his face at Cousins's elbow . Like this ... 

[SalvorMallow]

Life as a hawks fan

 

 

[BigDog90]

Al showing up now.

[capstone21]

We were terrible tonight ... Just terrible

we need a rebounder ... I am tired of giving up so many offensive rebounds

both point guards were pitiful tonight

DMC is doing his best Josh Smith imitation with his facial expressions, crying to refs and not running the floor when things don't go his way

[High5]

We have to have the worst buzzer-beating possessions in the history of the NBA over the last few years. I say this all the time because it happens all the time. We're lucky to even get a shot off on most occasions. It's pathetic. So was the rebounding tonight (more than usual). When we weren't giving them up outright we were fouling or fumbling the ball. That was an annoying loss.

[Lurker]

Not even going to win a playoff series because of the comical rebounding unless the defensive scheme is fixed to allow them, or Horford is replaced.

[Sarcatic1]

I'm convinced Kyle has some pics of Bud in a compromising position because I see no other reason this dude gets to play so bad on both ends yet other guys see pine.

 

Both point guards were bad again tonight. Would be nice if we could get both to play well at the same time.  And it looks like Jeff was pissed for being benched and I cant blame him when you consider our starting sg can stink it up and continue to play

 

At least Hardaway Jr  played well

 

Bud and his out of timeout plays are smdh worth.  And nice job adding a center that does not rebound despite how bad we need rebounding

[rd79]

They stole us the last shot, because Kyle never touched that ball and the clock started running. 

Dennis had a bad game and didn't take care of the ball, but at least he hit that cluch 3 and did this

 

[Lurker]

A loss in Sacramento on a SEGABABA ain't bad anyway, but lord, you hold a team to 35.1% shooting and lose? Rebounding is a serious problem.

Since they lost in Sacramento, can they end their long losing streak in Denver on this trip?

[rd79]

Dennis, Mike and Tim are +12, +17, +18

[Lurker]

Really need to consider removing both Teague and Korver from the starting lineup and trying more of the Schröder with Korver/Bazemore/Millsap/Horford lineup. Or at least running more of Schröder with those 4, as there are serious differences between how the team plays with Teague in or with Schröder in.

[lethalweapon3]

I'd quibble about "We lost to the Kings without Rudy Gay!" but Rudy would've found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and get us a W.

~lw3

[BigDog90]

38 minutes ago, High5 said:

We have to have the worst buzzer-beating possessions in the history of the NBA over the last few years. I say this all the time because it happens all the time. We're lucky to even get a shot off on most occasions. It's pathetic. So was the rebounding tonight (more than usual). When we weren't giving them up outright we were fouling or fumbling the ball. That was an annoying loss.

Bud got to get more creative. Teams have figured out they like to give Korver the ball in those situations.

[BigDog90]

39 minutes ago, Lurker said:

Not even going to win a playoff series because of the comical rebounding unless the defensive scheme is fixed to allow them, or Horford is replaced.

Horford did his thing. It's the scheme. I was shocked at how the SAC commentators trying to give excuses for Splitter's bad performance against Cousins, saying Horford played against him more...