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Author Topic: Not to interupt the Laker vs whomever threads  (Read 3062 times)

Offline JoMal

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Not to interupt the Laker vs whomever threads
« on: March 07, 2006, 12:28:44 PM »
While the Kings have yet to crack into the playoff clubs, they do plan on making things at least interesting for the last twenty-plus games of the regular season.

At present, they trail the Lakers by 1 1/2 games for the final spot in the West, and the Hornets by 2 1/2 games for the seventh spot. Normally, this would not pose a problem to the teams ahead of them, but things have changes - slowly - in Sactown since Artest has arrived.

Currently on an Eastern road swing, this would have earlier in the year guaranteed the Kings losing some ground to the other teams ahead of them in the standings. But so far they have won three of the first four games of the five game trip, assuring them of coming home still in contention.

The main things to notice about the Kings of late has been the overall improved offensive play of the main players, the return to form of Bonzi Wells, and how Ron
Artest has forced the other Kings into a much improved level of defense.

Offensively, the Kings have been moving the ball around like the days of old. The assist totals per game has gone way up to the high twenties, as everyone is passing the ball much better to open shooters. Who now seem to be making the shots more consistently.

The return of Bonzi gives the Kings back their best rebounder, and their most determined interior scorer. He and Artest on the court together also give the Kings an extremely tough defensive force. Ron Artest is causing other team's best players into sub-average games, and this has shown up most in comparing their first half point totals to their second half totals. He just shuts them down completely, not unlike what he did to Vince Carter last night agains the Nets.

What has most improved this team is unquestionablythe better defense they now play. It gives the team the confidence to at least compete with any team and leads into their transition offense, where they pour in points from the paint regularly where before it was jump shot after jump shot.

Don't know if it will be enough to get them a playoff spot, but it certainly puts them in contention to do so.
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Offline Reality

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Not to interupt the Laker vs whomever threads
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2006, 01:05:51 PM »
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Don't know if it will be enough to get them a playoff spot, but it certainly puts them in contention to do so.
This is obviously an attempt by you to take away from the night Michael Finley had.
A night that has never been surpassed in NBA history and which obviously proves he could never return to the previous 30+ games this season he shot under 40%.

 
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Offline westkoast

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« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2006, 01:10:11 PM »
The Kings are right there and if they continue to play well could get higher than even the 8th spot.  Everything is such a tight knit race for those last 3 spots that it is still anyones seed to grab.  Hopefully they can make their push and make things even more intresting than they are.  Its been one heck of a year for the Kings!  What does their schudele look like?  I know Utah and LA both play alot of +.500 teams the rest of the way.

The irony of Reality getting on people for overhyping efforts.  Aren't you the same guy who is obsessed with Flabs Obencho?  :D  Finley has a typical Manu-esque game yet is not being moved into the Justice League with the rest of the "Supers" ?
« Last Edit: March 07, 2006, 01:10:51 PM by westkoast »
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Offline JoMal

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« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2006, 01:26:55 PM »
Quote
Quote
Don't know if it will be enough to get them a playoff spot, but it certainly puts them in contention to do so.
This is obviously an attempt by you to take away from the night Michael Finley had.
A night that has never been surpassed in NBA history and which obviously proves he could never return to the previous 30+ games this season he shot under 40%.
 :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:

You know me so well, Reality. That was it exactly.
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Offline JoMal

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« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2006, 01:30:38 PM »
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The Kings are right there and if they continue to play well could get higher than even the 8th spot.  Everything is such a tight knit race for those last 3 spots that it is still anyones seed to grab.  Hopefully they can make their push and make things even more intresting than they are.  Its been one heck of a year for the Kings!  What does their schudele look like?  I know Utah and LA both play alot of +.500 teams the rest of the way.

 
Loaded with contenters. Dallas, the Spurs, the Lakers, lots of +500 teams left.

No question it will be a challenge. At least the Kings are now playing decent basketball though. Or I should say, playing more consistently decent basketball. They are putting more decent efforts back-to-back then they did earlier in the year.
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Offline msc

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« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2006, 01:30:49 PM »
The Kings have looked good.  I said when they got Artest I thought they'd make a push for the playoffs.  Honestly, at this point I'd pick them over the Lakers and Utah to get that 8th spot.  The Lakers haven't been able to show any semblance of consistency all year and dropping some of these games to Portland 2x, Atlanta, Boston, Sac and Memphis (when they were up 6 or 7 with under 1 minute) is going to really catch up with them as they have to play some tough opponents down the stretch.  

I for one am excited to hopefully see a race to the finish for the 8th spot.  Considering, the Lake-show isn't going to go far IF they do make the playoffs, I need some sort of competitive race to get the juices flowin'.  
 
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Offline JoMal

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« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2006, 01:36:48 PM »
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I for one am excited to hopefully see a race to the finish for the 8th spot.  Considering, the Lake-show isn't going to go far IF they do make the playoffs, I need some sort of competitive race to get the juices flowin'.
Yes, can't argue with that. At least these teams are playing for SOMETHING.

I was not sure I even wanted the Kings to make the playoffs back in Decemeber. They were just horrible back then. Now, the surprise I feel when the Kings blow out a tough opponent like the Nets at their place is a little less.

But maybe the Nets are not that great a team to compare to for the Kings. SacTown beat them badly at Arco earlier in the year (still the most points the Nets have given up to an opponent this year), and then gave them their worst home loss of this season last night (25 points), after the Nets had a stretch where they won 15 of 17 at home up to then.

The Kings may just have their number.
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Offline westkoast

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« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2006, 01:42:36 PM »
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The Kings are right there and if they continue to play well could get higher than even the 8th spot.  Everything is such a tight knit race for those last 3 spots that it is still anyones seed to grab.  Hopefully they can make their push and make things even more intresting than they are.  Its been one heck of a year for the Kings!  What does their schudele look like?  I know Utah and LA both play alot of +.500 teams the rest of the way.

 
Loaded with contenters. Dallas, the Spurs, the Lakers, lots of +500 teams left.

No question it will be a challenge. At least the Kings are now playing decent basketball though. Or I should say, playing more consistently decent basketball. They are putting more decent efforts back-to-back then they did earlier in the year.
I forget the exact stat they posted last night but it was something to the effect of

Lakers play teams that avg .560 in the win/loss column (sounds funny but they meant a combined avg of all the teams they face) for the reason of the season

Utah plays teams that  avg .540 in the win/loss column for the rest of the season

Seeing as all three teams are so darn close I thought you'd like to know that.  Thing is whenever the Kings or Lakers see a tough team chances are they are on a westcoast swing and will hit the other squad if they didn't prior to that.

You have to be somewhat happy with how the season has panned out with or without a playoff apperance with how bad it started out.  The team took a gamble on Ron Artest and its paid off...even with him not being anywhere near NBA shape physically.  You cannot ask a team to gel that quick when such a big change has been made.  I mean geez, Ron Artest has convinced this team to step their defensive game up...something Adleman was unable to do for years.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2006, 01:43:47 PM by westkoast »
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Offline Reality

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« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2006, 01:55:06 PM »
I'd like to see Kobe get schooled by Michael Finley in a #1-#8 matchup.
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Offline JoMal

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« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2006, 02:00:38 PM »
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I'd like to see Kobe get schooled by Michael Finley in a #1-#8 matchup.
Welll, geez, who wouldn't pay good money to see that?
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Offline Reality

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« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2006, 02:03:38 PM »
What is their record since 'Testy joined?

I say throw out the 1st week for adjustment period.

7-3 last ten....
« Last Edit: March 07, 2006, 02:04:15 PM by Reality »
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Offline JoMal

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« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2006, 02:12:02 PM »
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You have to be somewhat happy with how the season has panned out with or without a playoff apperance with how bad it started out.  The team took a gamble on Ron Artest and its paid off...even with him not being anywhere near NBA shape physically.  You cannot ask a team to gel that quick when such a big change has been made.  I mean geez, Ron Artest has convinced this team to step their defensive game up...something Adleman was unable to do for years.
Artest certainly was not in NBA shape at first, then he hurt his hip, limiting his lateral movement on defense. It has gotten better of late, though.

Now it is Bonzi's turn to get back into NBA shape.

As for Artest's contributions to the Kings, it does not end just on defense, where Ron introduced the novel idea that the Kings might play better on defense if they communicated more on the court. The "Duh, really?" looks of surprise on his teammate's faces soon faded when this turned out to be helpful information.

But our little coach, Pete Carril soon found Ron to be extremely useful in his offensive schemes as well. He started running plays through Artest that worked. But Ron's best contribution was with dealing with our young guys, Kevin Martin and Francisco Garcia. Carril had been trying for months to convince these guys to listen to his teachings. But it wasn't until he asked Artest to convert NBA coachspeak into rookielanguage that the light bulb came on over their collective heads.

Once Pete realyzed that Artest was actually getting them to understand what he had been preaching to them for so long, he let out a big laugh.

Not sure if there is some kind of postseason award that covers what Artest has so far accomplished with the Kings, but there should be.  
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Offline JoMal

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« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2006, 02:14:40 PM »
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What is their record since 'Testy joined?

I say throw out the 1st week for adjustment period.

7-3 last ten....
That's about right, and they were on the road for much of the early games as well, where the Kings won just once with Artest on the team before this latest five game trip. They are yet to lose at home since long before Artest joined the club.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2006, 02:15:08 PM by JoMal »
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Offline westkoast

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« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2006, 02:22:08 PM »
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I'd like to see Kobe get schooled by Michael Finley in a #1-#8 matchup.
Welll, geez, who wouldn't pay good money to see that?
Your money would end up in a box office total cuz that would only happen on a silver screen  :D

Ron Artest is still not in NBA shape and probably wont be until the start of the next season.  Once he is 100% and this team has a little bit more time to play together it should be a major turn around.  To think Ron Artest would be the catalyst for the Kings turning it around.  Who would have thought?
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Offline JoMal

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« Reply #14 on: March 07, 2006, 04:24:50 PM »
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Your money would end up in a box office total cuz that would only happen on a silver screen  :D

 
The underdog who had his day will always draw the crowd, WK. But I concur with you on who would actually win that upcoming "battle".

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Ron Artest is still not in NBA shape and probably wont be until the start of the next season.  Once he is 100% and this team has a little bit more time to play together it should be a major turn around.  To think Ron Artest would be the catalyst for the Kings turning it around.  Who would have thought?

His NBA "shape" is coming along nicely, though his offense is not always there. His moves to the basket are particularly awkward, but mostly affective. Sometimes he looks like a walrus dribbling the basketball through the lane, but then the ball goes through the hoop and he gets fouled. You have to wait for the replay to see how the heck he got away with it.

I think that Artest would have improved any team he was traded to, but perhaps none more dramatically then the Kings. From his actions and quotes since coming to town, he clearly was "image" conscious. He knows he has a career to resurrect. He might even be going overboard with trying to fit in, but that is great for us, and he has backed it up.

He also guaranteed....GUARANTEED....that the Kings would make the playoffs.

Whether the Kings do or not, that is a bold thing to say, and talk about challenging his new teammates to excel. But he really should not have had to do that. Guys like Bibby and Miller should not need to be challenged just to win basketball games.  
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