<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Roland Hood:</div><div class="quote_post">True enough, but we're talking 20pts in the 4th quarter of a playoff game, right after we gave up a 20pt lead in the game before (in the 2nd half, too, I think) But yeah we're inexperienced and the Kings have some guys. I don't expect the Kings to roll over but like Nate said in the postgame we stopped moving in the 4th and didn't run our stuff and that certainly doesn't help minimize the inevetible runs.</div> Kings put their bench after they went down by 26. Seattle starters got lax and stopped working as hard at either end of the floor. Key was that they DID close it out when they realized Sac was actually making a REAL run. I not as worried about this run as I was about Saturday's run. Somebody had a sign up in the lower level that said... King James IS in the playoffs. Boy, it felt like we had another star last night. JJ gave credit to Nate for making the call that made the points last night. He told JJ that they were using a different man to double team Rashard (in response to JJ's breakout on Sat) and told JJ to drop down to the low block and use the jumpshot on the baseline last night rather than the high block roll to the hoop of Saturday. Ok, JJ, great for Nate to notice and make the adjustment, but you still hit every shot but 1!!!! Nate didn't hit those shots! Man. Lewis missed a few open shots, but man they double teamed him even harder and faster than on Saturday. Good decisions made by him passing out of the post. Two complaints heard here I thought got answered last night... 1) Nate's coaching decisions: I thought Nate adjusted, across the board, great last night. Yes the players made his adjustments work, but I thought the timeouts were WELL timed to keep Sac's momentum from building. I thought he switched brilliantly 90% of the time between JJ, Danny and Vlade from a matchup perspective. With JJ playing so well he could have been on the floor longer, but Nate pulled him out when he thought Aldeman countered and punished him with Vlade, then put Danny in when Aldeman countered that, then put JJ back in when Aldeman tried to counter again. He made Sac FOCUS on that 5 spot and that hurt the rest of their game. They didn't get ANY momentum until Aldeman pulled the starters and let the bench play without any coaching in the end of the 3rd through the fourth. Nate essentially took Aldeman out of the game. 2) Luke's defense: Ok, he still couldn't find his shot consistently. He still is no Bruce Bowen/Larry Hughes kind of defender. However, early in the first he was SO glued to Bibby on the break and then around screens (ALL IN ONE POSSESSION) that he must have turned Bibby back 3 or 4 times and then forced him into a bad pass that led to a steal. Many times Bibby jacked up bad shots or threw bad passes as a result of the harassment. Nate also made a change here where the big switched on the pick and roll instead of showing like they did on Saturday, which meant Luke had to guard a big a couple of times. In fact, he scared Brad Miller into a pass from the high post at one point (Brad must have thought Luke had grown a foot and added 100 pounds.) He blocked another shot from behind when he got beat on a possession. He forced the guards out of their comfort zone again. Bibby's shot was really back tonight. He hit some tough shots, but he only had a couple of open ones. Bibby was NOT going to put up 30 points and lead the Kings to a win.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pwn3d!:</div><div class="quote_post">New York will lock him up on a max deal. It's their way of doing things.</div>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pwn3d!:</div><div class="quote_post">New York will lock him up on a max deal. It's their way of doing things</div> rofl. I was thinking the same thing. Funny thing is Isiah had just about the same kind of player in Nasi Muhammad and dealt him away for a 6-5 PF making 8 million/yr. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pwn3d!:</div><div class="quote_post">Whole JJ has done it for two games. Big Joel has consistently had monster games this season, if you offered me him for JJ I would kiss you.</div> Well I stated that I was referring to the the 5 and 3 JJ, not the 18 and 12 JJ of the last 2 games. Hell if it was the 18-12 JJ he'd be top 3 Big Joel I think before this season was like 5-3 also, and I think what he's done this year isn't a fluke. But you never know sometimes with these big guys when you throw big money at them. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting psheehy:</div><div class="quote_post">2) Luke's defense: Ok, he still couldn't find his shot consistently. He still is no Bruce Bowen/Larry Hughes kind of defender. However, early in the first he was SO glued to Bibby on the break and then around screens (ALL IN ONE POSSESSION) that he must have turned Bibby back 3 or 4 times and then forced him into a bad pass that led to a steal. Many times Bibby jacked up bad shots or threw bad passes as a result of the harassment. Nate also made a change hear where the big switched on the pick and roll instead of showing like they did on Saturday, which meant Luke had to guard a big a couple of times. In fact, he scared Brad Miller into a pass from the high post at one point (Brad must have thought Luke had grown a foot and added 100 pounds.) He blocked another shot from behind when he got beat on a possession. He forced the guards out of their comfort zone again. Bibby's shot was really back tonight. He hit some tough shots, but he only had a couple of open ones. Bibby was NOT going to put up 30 points and lead the Kings to a win.</div> He had some good moments on D for sure. Those instances you mention and he had a couple nice strips on some guys going for layups. I don't know about the switching, I mean you have JJ on Cuttino and Reggie on Bibby isolated on the wing and they were finding lanes quite a bit for layups in the 1st half. When teams play our pick and roll with a shooter (say Ray Allen) they usually double him hard and rotate their defense. I guess our philosophy is different. Whatever works though, and it seemed to well enough the past 2 games.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pwn3d!:</div><div class="quote_post"> Big Joel has consistently had monster games this season, if you offered me him for JJ I would kiss you.</div> Ro Hood, that isn't really saying much. If you offered Pwn3d! a cup of coffee from Starbucks you probably would get the same results.
Couple other things as I recall the game last night and reading the morning paper: -Props to Ray Allen. He made a couple big 3's in the 4th to step the tide as well as a tough driving lefty 3pt play. That's what our leader is supposed to do. I think he dished to BGJ a couple times as well. -I like the play of our 4's right now - Evans, Collison and Fortson are very active and all over the glass. Collison especially has been finishing very well around the rim. Maybe it was because Roy Williams was in attendance. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">Ro Hood, that isn't really saying much. If you offered Pwn3d! a cup of coffee from Starbucks you probably would get the same results. </div> I've been as hard on JJ as anybody but like I said I couldn't name 10 better 5's in the league. Or maybe it's 20 guys who are worse. Hell who knows maybe he's just one of those guys like Robert Horry who sleepwalks in the regular season then gets serious in the playoffs
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Roland Hood:</div><div class="quote_post">rofl. I I don't know about the switching, I mean you have JJ on Cuttino and Reggie on Bibby isolated on the wing and they were finding lanes quite a bit for layups in the 1st half. When teams play our pick and roll with a shooter (say Ray Allen) they usually double him hard and rotate their defense. I guess our philosophy is different. Whatever works though, and it seemed to well enough the past 2 games.</div> No doubt we will NOT see the bigs switch in the next game. I saw it more as a Nate tactic to throw Bibby off and leave them confused. What I liked was that Nate didn't get gimicky, he just made very specific defensive and offensive changes, but kept it simple by running the same strategy throughout the game. I think it accomplished its goal which was to make any adjustments by Aldeman less effective. I just remember thinking that Bibby looked like an awfully crafty and mobile chair to me on a couple of possessions.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">Ro Hood, that isn't really saying much. If you offered Pwn3d! a cup of coffee from Starbucks you probably would get the same results. </div> I thought you couldn't bring yourself to type 'Pwn3d!'.
<div class="quote_poster">Pwn3d! Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">New York will lock him up on a max deal. It's their way of doing things.</div> Sorry to bump this incredibly old thread but I just wanted to point out Desmond's uncanny foresight. I don't know how I stumbled across this thread but whatever.
