I have to admit I’m happy we’re back to the noon time tipoff on Sundays; 6pm starts kill my whole day since I like to get the game out of the way, so I can spend the rest of the day yapping about it. The Raptors have two games left before the All-Star break, both are at home, and both are winnable.
First up we have the Kings. I’ll be honest, apart from their Über rookie Tyerke Evans, Kevin Martin and Jason Thompson, I know nothing about this team. So I decided to check in with one of the best NBA bloggers out there, Zach Harper from Talk Hoops, Cowbell Kingdom and Hardwood Paroxysm, if you haven’t been following him, now is time…do it:
The Kings started the season on a tear of sorts, what slowed them down?
Reality didn’t help them keep their early season pace, that’s for sure. With the Kings, everything was so new and Jason Thompson was playing extremely well to begin the year. In fact, you could have even made the case for JT to challenge for the All-Star game after the first month in just his second year. But ever since they choked away back to back games against the Cavs and Lakers in late December, the team has been on a free fall. The defense has been nonexistent (just four opponents held under 100 in the last 22 games) and they’re getting nothing inside in terms of consistent offensive production. Their best post defender the past month has been Jon Brockman, who is 6′7″ with lifts in his shoes. Combine all of that with the fact that they can’t win on the road and their inability to close out games and it’s amazing they’ve held up this well as of late.Looks like you have a player in Tyreke Evans; how good is he? What’s his ceiling? ROY?
The Kings franchise hasn’t had a young player this good with this high of a ceiling since Oscar Robertson and that’s not an exaggeration. Tyreke Evans is going to be a star in this league. He can dominate the game by driving to the basket and playing defense. And oh boy, his defense. He’s a really good defender and not just for a rookie. He can defend three positions. Now, if he learns how to knock down the three then we’re approaching dangerous territory. Rookie of the Year has all but been wrapped up for him for about a month now. He’s the only one putting together a full season so far. Jennings faded and Curry took too long to come on strong. Assuming he stays healthy, he should be unanimous for the ROY awartd.Kevin Martin looks to be on the outs with Sac, and also a rumoured target of the Raptors, what happens to him in the next two weeks?
I doubt he’s going anywhere in the next two weeks. Kings want to see what they have with him and Tyreke in the backcourt. I think they can work perfectly together but they can’t freeze out the rest of the team while playing together (which has unfortunately happened since his return). They’ll give Martin at least the end of the season to see what they have with him and Evans. And if they can prove to be a 50-point backcourt that helps bring wins then there’s no way he goes anywhere.Will Kenny Thomas finally prove to be useful for the Kings and bring someone back, or does he walk at the end of the year?
K9 had a couple of productive games sometime in late November or early December. And since then he’s disappeared. That might be because he sits behind Sean May and we can’t see him now because of it. I’m not sure. I don’t think the Kings will make any moves at the trade deadline. Martin would be traded for someone like Al Jefferson but that’s not going to happen. The Kings are better off doing a trade around the draft than this trade deadline. They’ll let K9 expire and unless a contender wants to take Nocioni, Garcia or Beno for cap relief, I doubt Sacramento does anything this season.Anything you want to add?
I’m not sure what Chris Bosh’s career high is but against this Kings interior defense, I can almost guarantee he’ll break it. From what I’ve heard, Omri Casspi should have a big fan base at the arena on Sunday. I recommend watching him play. He’s very competitive, fiery and finds a way to contribute without ever getting a play called for him. He’s very fun to watch and easy to root for.
A lot of nice pieces on this Sacramento team. Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes have been heaven-sent for me in two of my leagues, Tyreke Evans is the reason I’m in second in one of my drafts, and I picked up Martin a week before he returned from injury, and am starting to reap the rewards (those 30 point games really help me keep distance with the folks behind me). Now all that needs to happen for me is for these guys to perform well, give me my points, but for the Raptors to win.
Jack and DeRozan will have their hands full with Evans and Martin, although they will be able to return the favour on defense. Udrih is their version of Banks, and as the first point guard of the bench…well, I laugh at that – HAH! I always liked Francisco Garcia, but he will be facing the three headed 2-by-committee who have been playing pretty good over the last few games.
What has me excited is that if the Kings have no one to cover Bosh, that also means they have no one to cover Bargnani; it will be up to them to take advantage and capitalize. I’m guessing in the vicinity of 50pts and 23reb between the two…that seems reasonable.
What worries me is that the Raptors haven’t played since Wednesday, and they usually come lethargic and sloppy in these situations. A young, athletic team like the Kings can get up and down if you sleep on them, and with the Raptors history of playing down…I just don’t want to go through one of those games where the Raptors spot a 10 point lead, and claw their way back to eventually win by 7 or 8.
Turkoglu may or may not go, and either way, I think we can expect the same production form him – just saying…
The gamblers have the Raptors as 8.5 point favourites with an over/under of 215.5.
20 Raps
style points don’t matter – just win baby!
I know they really like Kevin Martin down there but,
“The Kings started the season on a tear of sorts, what slowed them down?”
Record with Kevin Martin in the line up,
2-15
Record without Kevin Martin in the line-up
14-18
Im not going to claim to be an avid Kings fan, but sometimes things stand out
What about Sacramento playing a 10 PM game at home Friday, travelling east to TO on Saturday, then tipping off at noon (9 AM PST)? Same sort of thing happened to Dallas…
It’s great that the sched has turned around…
trap. classic. like the NJ game, except the kings actually have offensive talent & likely won’t go into long dry spells. they just can’t stop anyone.
or not. whatever. saints over colts.
Casspi is an excellent player
He can score, 12+ a game in about 28 mpg and shoot the rock. He is shooting 39% on threes and he takes a little over 3 a game. Plays tough defense as opposed to most international players.
I don’t know why you’re being so hard on Beno Udrih, the guy is a pretty decent point guard.
case in point. Look at what he does to Kobe. Don’t think Banks could do this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWoXDWhmk6A
or not. whatever. saints over colts.>>
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A win for the Colts today will put Peyton one step closer to being recognized as the the greatest American football quarterback ever.
trust me, i’m a colts fan…i just don’t understand why the saints are being dismissed. i agree that manning is fantastic, but NO is really (really) good. two years ago, the giants were supposed to be fodder to the juggernaut pats…and, well, you know. i don’t think this year’s colts are as good (all-around) as the pats from ‘07 (though it’s fairly close), and i think the saints are much better than the NYG from ‘07 (not defensively, but NO’s offense is much, much more explosive than eli’s giants were). with freeney not close to 100%, and with wayne now hobbling (at least somewhat), i think it’s gonna be a tight game, with the saints pulling it out.
of course, i WANT indy to win. just like i WANT the raps to win today. hope i’m wrong.
who dismisses the Saints?
Vegas
The Colts are 4.5 point favorites.
I would not consider that as dismissing the Saints. But that is just me.
Hardcore Raps says:
Feb 7, 2010 at 7:31 am
I know they really like Kevin Martin down there but,
“The Kings started the season on a tear of sorts, what slowed them down?”
Record with Kevin Martin in the line up,
2-15
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The Lakers are something like 9 – 28 in Portland with Kobe in the lineup including losing their last nine in a row up there.
Last night without him, they whipped the T-Blazers butts good.
Does that mean that the Lakers should sit Kobe every time they play in Portland?
If it gets them the win :D …..but for some odd reason I don’t see Kobe willing to be a healthy scratch
Your samples for comparison are completely out of wack:
Sacramento has played numerous different teams, and both home and away games, over the course of a single season. With the exception of Martin, the rest of the team has stayed mostly the same. The results are as shown.
Your Kobe example is numerous different make ups (rosters) of one team (37 away games covers about a decade of basketball… assuming this covers playoffs aswell, if it doesn’t include playoffs then we are talking 19 years of basketball… ie. 2 games in portland each year), as well as numerous different make-ups of ONE opposing team (Portland over 10+ years), and only includes away games. Not to mention using 1 game as evidence out of 37 others is not a reasonable comparison.
The ’samples’ are significantly different.
Now if the lakers were 4-16 with Kobe in the lineup, and 14-14 without him in the line-up (in a season) I’d say the same about him…. the Lakers, however, are not.
Of course the comparison is ridiculous.
However, I was just trying to make a point. While the Kings might be better without Martin, the record comparison is ridiculous because no one player with his talent could negatively affect a team’s record by his playing as much as the record comparison that you brought might suggest.
Probably that in those games Kobe played , there was a SG opposing him by the name of Roy.
Kobe’s horrible record in Portland goes back to before Roy was even in college, yet alone in the NBA.
Hey guys can someone help me with the answer to my question: Why would the refs refuse to use replay on that offesnive goaltend that the Kings did? Evryone one in the arena saw what happened except the refs. They use replay for the dumbest meaningless calls, but an obvious important decision they shook it off! To boot, we get a T because of their uselessness, and the Knings get the ball. WTF? My question is, was it verrrrrry poor officiating, or is there a rule that game changing plays dont get reviewed if it may give the Raps the advantage?
Actually there’re some kind of plays that can be review and others that can’t. A basket interfernce is by rule a play that can’t be review by the refs.
Other type of plays like if a player step or not on the line during a 3pt shot, or if a basket was made before or after the buzzer can be review.
The Kings got the ball at the start of the quarter because the win the tip in the first, which means Toronto gets the ball at the start of the second and the third quarter and Sacramente in the fourth