|
I
heard Adelmann had a talk with Webber about him not
trying to carry the team by himslef so that the other
players stayed involved. To me, it looked like Webber
tried to make sure he wasn't the focus of the offense.
I
wonder if the Williams deal was extremely overblown
sure looked to me like Jason was exactly on the page
he was supposed to be on.
The
Suns insistance that it was their offense sputtered
solely because of themselves is encouraging to me.
Hope they keep overlooking the Kings defense and thinking
the Kings can't stop 'em.
Game
2
kingme4
The
guys played a beautiful game tonight, and I was lucky
enough to be there to witness it in person. But still...I'm
afraid. Not of the road, where the Kings have proven
that they can win, but of the team's inexplicable
inconsistency at crucial times. Just as played with
great energy and execution on offense tonight, they
could come out sluggish, with poor ball movement and
defense on Sunday.I think this is mainly a coaching
problem, actually.I'm sorry, but it is a coach's job
to get their team ready, both mentally and physically,
to play.Yes,Even in the pros.Adleman knows his team's
propensity to take a night off, and he should circumvent
that by helping them stay focused by whatever means
necessary. Speaking of which, yeah,JWill had a great
game-I'm happy for him. But don't get your hopes too
high that he'll have another Sunday.JWill has a problem
with retaining what he's learned or learning from
his mistakes. He's an "live for the moment"
type of player. He's not gonna remember what he did
last Wed., good or bad. I'm sure this is frustrating
as hell for Adelman and the rest of the team. But
I don't want to take anything away from their marvelous
game tonight. They played like champions.
Milos
I
had to wake up at 4:30 AM to watch the game. No regrets
there
Great
game, another proof that Kings are unstoppable when
they play team bball. Everyone must be congratulated
but IMHO most of all:
1.
Chris Webber. When I first saw his face during the
warm-ups he looked much better when compared to the
previous games. The "I'm tired, sleepy, have
a headache and that second dish of soul food was really
too much" look seemed to be gone. Chris gets
my kudos because he gave up shooting the jumper and
played unselfish basketball. He adjusted his game
and deserves acclaim for that. He may have missed
a couple of easy baskets but his approach to this
game was excellent. What's better: being the MVP or
being the best player of the championship winning
team? I think the second and if Chris keeps playing
like that, he might be in agreement.
2.
Jason Williams. I like it when I am right, but sometimes
I really like it when I am wrong. You know I don't
have much faith in JWill, but am sure glad he played
a great game. He used his speed and caused confusion
in the Suns defense. Do it again JWill, I will be
glad to admit I was wrong about you!
3.
Bobby Jackson. He really has a big heart, was a true
warrior last night and some of his rebounds were quite
special. Bravo, Petrie. Maybe we'd like to still have
Delk on board, but not instead of Bobby, that's for
sure.
Did
I hear correctly, did fans chant "We want Nick!"
in the fourth Q? Looks like Adelman won't give him
any minutes though, no matter what.
What
is it with Suns poking Vlade's eye every game?
Kings
still have some reserves - unused potentials. Hedo
is bound to have a much better game (maybe Sunday),
Vlade is yet to play a game at a high level he has
averaged in the finish of the regular season and Peja
might have adjusted to the Suns defense enough to
start playing closer to his 100%.
The
Kings now go to Phoenix, they still haven't regained
the 'favorites' status so I hope they will not become
overconfident. GO KINGS and remember: TEAM PLAY, TEAM
PLAY, TEAM PLAY!!!
Bo
Kimble
After
Sundays game I posted how the Kings players needed
to play the way they did when Webber was out, WITH
WEBBER in there.
Move
without the ball, get your own shot, pass, cut, shoot
etc. Instead of just sitting there watching Webber
play.
Well,
last night was it. Webber scores 16, and the Kings
score 116.
I
was very proud of two players.
First
Peja, good/great players rebound from adversity. Marion
basically handed it to Peja in game 1, and Peja had
two choices, come out and surrender or come back pissed
and take the fight to Marion.
Well,
we learned a lot about Peja yesterday. It's going
to be fun to watch these two the rest of the series
(not to mention the next few years)
Second,
Jason Williams. Jason can get to the basket on anyone.
Anyone. Jason needs to play his game, let it loose
and just play.
Jason
needs to just be Jason, he needs to bring it on D,
but you could see last night, that when his shot is
falling and he is attacking offensively, his D is
much more active.
Plus,
if the Kings get 20 pts from the PG position (B-Jax,
J-Will) they are tough to beat, but when Bobby gets
16 and Jason gets 18 in the same game NO ONE will
beat them.
I
watched C-Webb a lot last night. He is still not moving
like C-Webb. He is slow a foot, especially defensively,
and not the EXPLOSION to the rim on offense. There
were a few times last night where he either would
have dunked it in the past or he gave up the ball
where it isn't usually a place he would give it up.
Plus,
he has looked heavier the last few games.
The
point I'm trying to make is that, C-Webb is as healthy
as he is going to be the rest of the year. (his words)
So the Kings NEED to play like they did last night.
C-Webb needs to be just one of the pieces. Not THE
piece. He just physically can't do it right now.
Example,
J-Kidd hustling and grabbing a rebound that basically
was right in C-Webb's hands.
But
that's okay. The other players just have to know that
they need to 'get theirs' and not rely on C-Webb to
do everything. Just like they did last night.
They
need to play 'Kings basketball'. The basketball that
got them 55 wins.
It
they play 'Kings basketball' and lose, then I can
live with it.
One
last thing . . . Bobby Jackson might just be the 3rd
best rebounder on this team.
Go
Kings!!!
Bonsy
At
Sunday's game, I thought the crowd was ok, loud in
spots, a bit louder than a regular game. But last
night, it was INCREDIBLE! Last night made Sunday look
like, well, like a Laker game at the Staples center!
I
got the feeling that the crowd felt it was on us to
make a difference. We started out from the tip-off
with LOUDNESS! And we kept it up, like we were trying
to SCREAM the team to victory. It was the greatest
crowd I've ever seen there because we imposed our
WILL last night.
And
we were fed... so much so that people were chanting
"We Want Nick" just because we wanted every
player to be a part of the moment. Barry got his "Barry!
Barry!" chants last night. It was love for everybody.
Well, except for the Suns.
I
sure was happy that I didn't see a Crawford walk onto
the court last night...WHEW!
And
I honestly thought the officiating helped our game
last night. They called fouls under the basket, especially
for Peja who was getting mugged on Sunday, and that
allowed the Kings to play their game, knowing that
they could go to the hoop and earn a foul if it happened.
I
didn't feel like the officials were overly involved
in the game like some who have to put their mark on
it, but they were quick and clear when they did make
a call and the game moved on. They did miss a few
fouls, on both sides, but on the whole, I was very
happy with their consistency.
Of
course, in that kind of game, where the officials
couldn't have changed the momentum anyway, they didn't
have the opportunity to change the game much.
The
Suns might feel they didn't play well, but the Kings
defense had a LOT to do with that last night. Just
as the Suns defense had a lot to do with the Kings
not playing well Sunday. I think the difference was
the defense in the games. The Kings on Sunday, seemed
to settle for letting the Suns control the game, especially
control Peja. But last night, our defense really set
up our offense. All our "Kings Style" fed
off the defense and rebounding.
JB
Even
though Webber is not going to have his normal explosion,
he can still be a defensive presence. He needed a
little help with Robinson turning into the lane, but
he had a couple of great blocked shots to prevent
layups. Something we haven't seen much of lately.
This series shouldn't give him too much trouble because
Robinson only has a few offensive moves. When he does
damage, it's with the three point shots. Despite what
the Suns said, they only got a few open perimeter
looks last night and that was a big difference from
the last two games against the Suns. That's all just
hustle on rotating to cover the shooters when they
pass around the perimeter.
It
shouldn't be too difficult to for the Kings to figure
out that the Suns are going to rely on their jump
shooting to win. While Rogers and Robinson can post
up now and then, they still work the ball around the
perimeter to find an open shooter. They will make
them if left open, but darned if they don't miss a
few when you stick a hand in their face. The hard
guys to defend are Marion & Delk. Those guys
can hit 'em even if you poke a finger in their eye.
Doc
The
Suns were humiliated by the Kings last night. They
had no answer for anything the Kings were doing. Jake
in the Webb-cycle added to the embarrassment of an
overall piss-poor showing at ARCO. But they're going
home 1-1. Skiles is a hard-headed, tough coach with
a lot of pride. He's going to have his team as well
prepared for game 3 as he can, and the Kings need
to be ready. If the Kings can get game 3, stick a
fork in the Suns. Go Kings!
I
don't know what adjustments Skiles will make other
than execution and demanding a better performance
from his players. I expect a very hard fought battle
by both teams on Sunday and a game that either team
can win in crunch time. Skiles will have the Suns
as well prepared as he can have them and they will
play their best basketball. The problem for the Suns
is that their best basketball is not as good as the
Kings' best basketball. The Kings have more talent
than the Suns as we saw last night, the Suns just
wanted it more last Sunday.
Hallama
The
Kings offensive sets were very crisp last night. If
Webber had the ball with no shot, he always swung
it to another player, instead of holding for cutters,
dribbling between his legs, and shooting an 18 foot
jumper.
JWill
played his best game since I can remember. I don't
care if he has 8 TO's if he's penetrating aggressively
like last night. He looked different from the start,
with that missed layup in transition that Vlade tip
dunked.
I
expect the Suns to get a big lead in game 3, only
to relinquish it to make a close game. No way will
the Kings get a freebie like last night in Phoenix.
The
Kings definitely had all the motivation in last night's
game: revenge, the crowd, pride. I even think the
ref's favored the home town boys a little.
Now,
the question is, what is their motivation for Game
3? Can they get up like they did last night? Can they
carry over confidence? Is that a good thing for the
Kings?
Sunday.
Critic
There's
an old saying about facing young opponents that you
need to "kill 'em before they grow teeth."
The Suns may have witnessed the Kings "growing
teeth" last night. The Kings may have had the
jitters on Sunday -- their first playoff game ever
with the mental burden of being the favorite. But,
as several of us said after Sunday's game, they didn't
play as bad on Sunday as all that -- their primary
stars just shot dreadfully -- and they lost by 3.
Last night, they made a few shots and they were very
determined to either run and gun or else pound it
inside where the Suns are weak. Hmmm, sounds like
a plan that can be repeated. You may not see Jason
Kidd dominated by Jason and BJ again, but they don't
need to kick Kidd's butt to beat the Suns, just not
let him completely kick theirs. If Jason plus BJ don't
get embarrassed by Kidd, the Kings should win. When
they do the embarrassing, last night's blow-out appears
to be the likely result. I think you will see Tsalkalidis
embarrassed again by Vlade as well as CWebb. He's
young and not as agile as they and that is a tough
combo. Peja vs. Marion is a cool match-up that I see
as a dead even matchup of future all-stars with slightly
different skill sets. Since they can't match up with
CWebb, that leaves Phx needing Kidd to dominate and
Marion to get the best of Peja to have a shot at winning
any given game (IMO). It can happen, but doesn't rate
to happen all that often. Kidd having a decided edge
but not total domination and Marion breaking even
gets the Suns a loss and IMO, that's what rates to
happen most often.
Fans'
moods sure shift fast, don't they? The early line
is dead even for the first game in Phx in most of
the books, Phx by 1 in one book. The professional
handicappers' moods don't shift quite as much as fans.
They said Kings by 7.5 last night despite Sunday's
loss and even in Phx despite last night's blow-out.
Those of us who picked the Kings to win in a four-game
series in our office pools join you Kings fans in
hoping for 2 road wins by the Kings.
Hutch007
Game
2 (Kings Vs. Suns) was a joy to watch. Great to see
the Kings playing their game. Some factors triggered
their transformation.
Keys
to the Kings' win:
1.
Webber takes less shots overall, and more in the paint.
Utilized passing skills and contributed to the team's
offense. More aggressive defensivly -- a warrior mentality
for a change.
2.
The point guard combo. of JWill and BJax comes through
and outplays Kidd. Williams' stong offensive performance
puts pressure on Kidd defensively. Jackson delivers:
great defense, clutch 3's, and mind-boggling rebounds.
Kudos!
3.
Peja was able to break free from Marrion and get some
clean looks. He found the rythem and eventually started
hitting shots that we know he can make.
4.
Kings as underdogs are always more dangerous; it helped
take the pressure off.
5.
Kings lost their last game. They almost always bounce
back.
6.
The hometown crowd was electric and played a major
role in the game (especially with carrying the team's
momentum).
|
