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the
only "man". We basically are in a lose-lose
situation. Chris wants to be on and star on a championship
caliber team, but he is unable to fulfill that roll
as the go to guy, so he will never be happy where
ever he is. But because he might THINK he can be that
man somewhere else if not here, we might lose him.
I
am not trying to run Webber out of town, but if the
Kings fail to get out of the first round, I think
the time might be right for a mutual parting of the
ways between the Kings and Mr. Webber. If he is unwilling
to give up his own glory (as Vlade has) for the TEAM,
and use his abilities in the best way to help the
team (and not force the use of his lesser abilities
in other areas), then maybe he shouldn't be here.
Just
one agonized Kings fan's opinion.
sbelmont
The
problem with the Kings is they need to find a dependable
clutch player. CWebb gets most of the shots because
he's the designated #1 option. However Webber consistently
plays his worst basketball late in games. He's a star
but he doesn't handle pressure particularly well.
Today he was 2-11 in the 4th.
Peja
during the course of this season has been the guy
to step up most often late in games but he's not there
yet in his first year as a starter. For the Kings
to win this series, he'll have to figure out a way
to solve the Sun's defense against him. He can get
by Marion on dribble drives but the Phoenix help defense
is giving him fits.
Time
to get back to the drawing board. Next game is of
course a must win and then they've got to take one
in Phoenix to send it back to Arco for game 5.
*Peja
vs. Marion - peja has to find ways to seperate and
score. can't let the matrix dominate this matchup.
seemed stojakovic wasn't even trying to get himself
open after a while.
*Webber
sluggish - got to shuffle those feet, uncle cliff
and rodgers were getting by him with ease. Despite
his points (27 on 32 shots), CWebb was outplayed by
the Suns duo.
*More
Bench Help - Jackson and Pollard were pretty solid.
Hedo is very scrappy but he's got to tone down on
quick jumpshots. get an easy bucket before letting
loose on the perimeter.
*Adelman
- seems like the Kings will need to go small to battle
the suns lineup. he made his substitutions too late
when the squad was down by nine.
should
go:
christie
vs. kidd
jackson/willaims
vs. ellie
hedo
vs. marion
peja
vs. rodgers
cwebb
vs. robinson
If
the team doesn't win this series then in my opinion,
webber should leave. It would be a pretty clear sign
that he isn't the guy that the team can be built around
if he can't elevate his play to a level to take the
team further in the playoffs. He might as well go
to a team where he can play 2nd fiddle to a true superstar.
Besides
Peja, the Kings don't have a pure shooter on the perimeter.
Hedo is still too inconsistent during his rookie year
and everyone else has been inconsistent throughout
their careers. It would help if the Kings utilized
better shot selection and get open shots instead of
forcing things.
Anyways
it's disappointing but it isn't over yet. Time for
a gut check. Everyone needs to look themselves in
the mirror and see where they can improve.
bawsor
This
is a devastating loss. The team just doesn't match
up well against perimeter teams. The team is also
too young and inexperienced. Is it our destiny to
be first-round loser? With or without the homecourt,
we just can't get over the first-round hump.
The
Suns also exposed our weakness. Beside Peja, we don't
have any other outside threat. We just have to keep
faith, play hard, and hope for the best.
Every
championship team needs two superstars. The Spurs
has all-stars Robinson and Duncan. Lakers has all-stars
Shaq and Kobe. The Jazz has all-stars Stockton and
Malone. The old Lakers (Magic, Kareem, and Worthy),
Celtics (Bird, Mchale, and Parish), Pistons (Thomas,
Dumar, Laimbeer), and Bulls (Jordan, Pippen) all had
multiple all-stars.
The
Kings had only one true all-star in Webber. Even though
Vlade was an all-star this year, he was an afterthought
replacement.
Beside
from Webber, no other player stepped up. Inasmuch
as I love Doug and Bobby, they could not get shots
on their own. Peja was exceptional during the regular
season. However, once the opponent zeroed in on him,
he had difficulty getting off good shots.
The
Kings are just too young and inexperience. (This is
the same liability that the Sixers are now confronting.)
This is just Peja and Hedo first real playoff experience.
In the Spurs' game yesterday, veteran Terry Porter
came up big down the stretch. There was just no veteran
to pick up the Kings today.
Inasmuch
as it hurts the fan, it hurts Webber as much, if not
more. If the Kings lost, I just don't know what he
will do. Beside Shaq, Garnett, and Duncan, I don't
know if one single all-star replacement (e.g., McDyess
or Wallace) can can help the Kings. Even Garnett alone
cannot get the Twolves past the first-round, let alone
have the record we had this year.
I
am relatively new Kings fanatic, just hitching on
the team bandwagon the past three seasons. However,
it is just one heartbreak after another every year.
As Webber said recently, ".. it just hurt too
much .." to be a Kings fan.
Which
brings me to the question: is it better to love and
lose, rather than never love at all?
OhSC
Well.....
CRAP!
Rebounds
(totals anyway) and some defence were there. Kings'll
need to score some.
Peja
can get free of Marion with some help from his big
friends.
They told Marion to guard Peja if he went to
the
bathroom. OK, so, Peja, crap on him!
I'm
still thinking that Jason can, should, and needs to
score...
not necessarily three pointers, but pop loose
for
the midjumper and make the Suns pay and pay for
collapsing
on Peja, Chris and Vlade. Deal the lumber
Scot;
get under somebody's skin.
Bet
that those of you who were at ARCO today are a bit
down
right now. Have a nice evening, go back Wednesday
and
witness the deliberate destruction of the Suns.
Not
that we'd ever really know, but can't help
wondering
how much Chris' long minutes late in the season
on
bad wheels was his own doing? Did he insist on "playing
through"
the pain/injury? If so, it doesn't look like
the
right decision now... How many times have I seen the
short
term/immediate goal take away the promising career
of
a young talent? Heh, well, *if* my memory worked,
it'd
need
to be upgraded to 64-bit virtual addressing to put
it
hyperbolically.
Hutch007
It's
put up or shut up for CWebb right now. Actually, compared
to his recent play (that which I have seen on TV),
this was an above average game for him. Unfortunetly,
CWebb isn't clutch and just about anyone could tell
you that -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist. And
I can't stand hearing things like: oh, it's o.k.,
he's injured, or he was triple teamed, or it was the
refs that blew the game. Winners never make excuses
-- Jordan, Bird, Thomas, Johnson, hell even Shaq.
Those are real "superstars" / "warriors"
and most importantly they are also winners and champions.
I
hate for this to seem like a Webber bashing because
of one poor performance. First off, to be honest,
I've had problems with Webber ever since he fell in
love with the 20 footer and stopped rebounding / playing
defense. And it makes me sooooooo mad that we HAVE
to give the ball to Webber in the clutch because of
free agency. We should all know that he won't hit
the shot -- history repeats itself, right?
I'm
100% Kings fan through and through, maybe that's why
it is so important to vent sometimes. This team is
exciting and fun to watch, but a Kings game can also
be an overly-suspensful, disappointing, and upsetting
thing to witness.
Here's
to a Kings victory on Wed.
Jeremydb26
I
am not really upset with the loss today. I am disappointed
but not upset. The Kings played good defense today
minus the few times they did not get back on transition
D. The Kings held the Suns to 86 points and created
numerous turnovers. The team wasn't in sync today
and missed a lot of shots. They came up with some
big offensive boards and battled hard. CWebb rebounded
well and him, Vlade, and SP were big on the boards.
The fact is CWebb took too many jumpers, JWill was
a little too wild, the offense struggled a little,
and Peja needs to get more open shots with the help
of some screens. Normally when the Kings lose, I can
point to defense or rebounding or lack of effort.
Today, they missed too many shots, maybe were a little
rough after not playing for a few days, and Rodgers
and Robinson hit some big shots and got a few offensive
rebounds when needed. To lose by three and shot in
the low 30s is nothing to be ashamed of. Just know
you need to keep up the work on the boards and on
defense and just play smart offensive basketball and
they will win.
To
play well on offense, the King smust pass the ball.
Not a lot of that today. A lot of standing around
in a half court offense just waiting on Webber to
shoot. A good team sticks to what works and has gotten
them there and makes other teams adjust to them -
playoffs or not. Sorry, Bawsor. The playoffs mights
be about half court offense but they sure wasn't the
game I was watching today. YOu may be right but the
Kings need to create offense with dribble penetration
and passing - not feeding inside to CWebb shot after
shot waiting for him to shoot. To be honest, if the
Kings are going to go to a half court offense the
ball should run through Vlade in the post and let
him shoot or find other players. At least mix up the
low post half court offense between CWebb and Vlade.
kingme4
Yes,
I was one of the crazies at Arco, but I didn't like
what I saw because I had to face reality. As a long-time
fan, i would love to see the kings go deep into the
playoffs, but sadly that will not be the case. The
suns will win this series simply because their star
player,Jason kidd, is not playing injured/hurt and
our is. Kidd is at the top of his game right now,
and it shows. Webber is flat out done. He is a shell
of his former self as a player - his defense is actually
horrible and his rebounding isn't much better. He's
spotty offensively, and yet, the man plays alomst
the entire game! He should be a 30 min player,tops.
And Adleman, the lazy bum, should stay up all night
devising a new game plan for the team that DOESN'T
include Webber as the go-to guy every trip down the
floor.
I
thought Plug brought up a good point when he said
Adelman is playing Webber so much to appease him and
make him stay next season, but it's having the reverse
effect and the kings are losing. And you can bet the
farm on this one - Webber will NEVER take the blame
himself for the losing. he will never acknowledge
that the kings were a worse team because Adelman pandered
to him so he could keep up his precious stats. And
Maybe Webb knows himself too well - that he's not
a born leader - not an Isiah or Michael or Larry or
Magic. As was also mentioned on here, Webber might
need to go to a team where he's not "the Man",
but just another necessary piece to the puzzle. Well,
I'm going on Wed. i only hope they do something drastic
to with their game plan because the Suns have them
figured out pretty good at the moment. Just another
footnote, i don't like the way the media handles webber.
they're very easy on him and don't challenge the sometimes
contrdictory things he says. I'm still waiting for
someone to go up and ask straight out if he's injured
and if so, why is he still playing all those min.
while not be as effective? McNeal kinda danced around
this issue and CWebb came across as very defensive
and arrogant, I thought.
bees
"We
told him, 'If he goes to thebathroom, you stay on
him.'" Perhaps Peja should have gone to the bathroom
taking Marion along with him. We might have won the
game then .
"Webber,
clearly limited by his sore ankles ...." I am
tired of Webber's sore ankles. Now this guy is nearly
7 ft tall and can hardly touch the rim. It was obvious
that he was not fit enough to play. What then was
he doing in the Grizz and Nugz games instead of nursing
his ankles? 10% more performance from him could have
changed everything. I see the coaching staff faulty
here. As repeatedly pointed out here by many people,
they should have rested Webber for at least one week,
even more if necessary. These kind of soft tissue
injuries only get worse by repeated strain, and it
was a massive blunder to play him. Doesn't this team
have any competent physician? The team was able to
win without him and it would not matter that much
to be a couple of spots down in the standings if what
we got in exchange was a healthy Webber. It now seems
that this agony will continue throughout the playoffs
(and probably not very long). He simply acts as if
he is defending but is almost totally ineffective.
Note that this has been the case for some time now
and as I had said before, many lesser players have
become superstars when playing against him. A player
of his caliber must dominate the paint and he has
been unable to do it for some time.
I
don't agree with most people flaming JWill. He did
make his usual errors but played more than his average
game today. 5 assists, 2 steals, 3 TO's and 10 points
in 4 of 9 shooting is better than the team average.
His defence was also not bad. Agree, the buzzer beater
was awful but he and DC are the only guys that can
bring some energy into the Kings' game. Unfortunately
DC wasn't in the mood today and was very tired towards
the end. Give credit to the suns for their defence.
Kidd, Marion, and everybody else played very well.
Rogers killed us once again. Also give credit to Skiles.
Remember, he was criticized in our comeback game for
not calling any timeouts. Today, whenever the Kings
broke loose he killed the momentum by his timeouts.
He also used his bench very efficiently and effectively.
I
don't buy the experience argument. A bball game is
a bball game, and all of these players, even the most
inexperienced, have played hundreds of very important
games under immense pressure. After all, this is not
the 7'th game of the playoff finals. I think it is
deceiving to blame inexperience for this loss. IMO,
the suns simply wanted the game more, and were more
prepared to win it. We'll probably win the next game,
but what next?
Critic
The
Kings did a lot of things well, but shooting wasn't
one of them. Marion beat Peja in the SF matchup and
Kidd dominated as expected. CWebb was inside a lot
and mixed it up okay and his outside shots were ones
he normally takes -- I wouldn't say he played soft.
His shot wasn't there, but he was on the offensive
boards several times. Not sure any strategy needs
changing. They need to make more of their open shots.
What can you do to fix that? Nothing really -- just
encourage CWebb and Peja to keep firing when open
and hope they can make them. The announcers seemed
to think their transition D wasn't good and maybe
they were right about that. Anyway, this series isn't
over. Two wins in a row and they regain their homecourt
edge. This isn't the 60's Celts -- this is the Suns.
Don't mean to put them down, as they played very hard
today and deserved their win, but I don't think it
was their D that put a lid on the rim for the Kings
and the Kings could break out for 120-120 in the next
two games with the same shots.
Ken
Looking
at the Kings' season schedule, in the month of April,
there were 5 home games. They won 3 of them. However,
the only one they actually played well at home was
the Portland game. The W's over the Clips (OT) and
Grizz were very hard-fought.
For
some reason, the Kings @Arco seem to have lost that
sense of dominance. Specifically, lack of ball movement
(too much one on one) on the offense and slow in rotation
on the defense. Too many wide open shots allowed.
Toaday, the overall team defense wasn't consistent,
and the smooth, flashy offense was totally missing.
They were just a step slow in everything.
The
officiating was good today and the Suns were missing
their FT's but the Kings couldn't capitalize. Nobody
can predict how good/bad the refs are gonna be in
the next few games and the series can only get tougher.
I hope it is a wake up call to the whole team and
they can get back to their A game on Wednesday.
Bo
Kimble
Is
the Chris Webber era two Phoenix victories from being
over?
Is
this the Kings last stand?
Are
they going to roll over and die?
I
hope not.
A
painful day of basketball.
Slow
rotations. Not much imagination on offense and Peja
getting worked by Shawn Marion.
But
still a chance to win.
These
are two very evenly matched teams and the Suns made
more shots.
That's
it. They made more shots.
Painful.
Wednesday
is another day.
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