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Sactown Royalty

Kings 93, Jazz 96: Kings Comeback Falls Short at the End

Well, it wasn't a blowout, but the result is nonetheless the same. The Kings went into Utah tonight looking to win just their 3rd game on the road, and despite playing competitively, couldn't close it out in the final minutes.

Tyreke Evans was an absolute monster for the Kings, scoring 31 points and dishing 9 assists to go with 6 boards and 2 steals. DeMarcus Cousins barely missed another double-double with 14 points and 9 rebounds, and Jason Thompson and Jimmer Fredette also scored 14.

For Utah, it was the play of their wings that carried the day. Gordon Hayward led his team with 21 points, a season-high for him, to go with 5 boards, 4 assists and a couple steals. C.J. Miles came in off the bench and scored 20. Al Jefferson was the only other Jazz player in double figures with 12, but they received some production from everyone that played, unlike the Kings.

Aside from Isaiah Thomas (who went 5-6 and scored 13 straight points for the Kings in the 4th quarter), nobody on the Kings bench made a field goal or scored a point. Chuck Hayes, Francisco Garcia, J.J. Hickson and Donté Greene combined for 0-12 shooting. Considering how close the game was, that's a big statistic.

The officials let both of these teams play very physically, with few whistles being called. Unfortunately for us, we received the short end of the stick on some calls, as Utah only had 15 fouls called against them all night to Sacramento's 21. There was also a key moment in the 4th quarter when John Salmons stole the ball right at the end of a 24 second violation and was ready to sprint ahead for an easy layup that would have cut the lead to one, but it was ruled a shot-clock violation and the Kings received the ball out of bounds. Luckily they managed to score quickly on the next possession anyway, but it cost them a timeout they might have saved for the final, deciding possession.

The Kings managed to come back from an 11 point 3rd quarter deficit in the 4th thanks in large part to Isaiah Thomas and the continued excellent play of Tyreke Evans. As mentioned before, Isaiah scored the first 13 points of the 4th for Sacramento, going 5-5 from the field (3-3 from three) in doing so. Then it was Tyreke's turn, as he continued attacking the basket, scoring 9 in the quarter.

The end of the game came down to defense and hitting their shots. On one end, with the score 94-93, the Jazz gave the ball to Devin Harris, guarded by Isaiah Thomas. Harris pulled up at the top of the Free Throw circle for a long two, and Isaiah reached too far in contesting the shot and clipped him on the elbow, sending him to the line. Harris hit one of two, putting the score at 95-93 with 13 seconds left. The Kings managed to get the rebound and call timeout. The ball went into Tyreke Evans hands, but he was stymied at the rim going for the tie, and the ball was knocked out of bounds by Utah with 8 seconds left. This is where having that extra timeout would have come in handy. Instead the Kings inbound under the basket and get about as good a look as you can get: Jimmer open for three. Earl Watson did a great job of coming out to contest the shot, and Jimmer rushed it and faded away, and the shot wasn't even close, aiirballing out of bounds with 4 seconds left.

The Kings still had a chance, but Chuck Hayes couldn't keep up with Hayward and fouled him on a grab, re-injuring his shoulder and sending Hayward to the line for a free throw, which made it 96-93. It's a bad setback for Hayes, who has already missed a lot of time, and might have to miss some more now.

The Kings get another couple days off to regroup before heading to Oakland to meet the Warriors on Tuesday.

0 recs  |  169 comments

Comments

How It Feels to Be a Kings Fan

If ONLY this were analogous...

If the Kings were really Ben Henderson in this scenario, they would pick themselves back up and be right back in a championship match again. Right now the Kings are tomato cans.

Almost Almost

Good Hustle Gif - Good Hustle

Good thing she got all but 2 feet of air.

That could of been really bad.

The SF position was once again awful. Something needs to be done, and it needs to happen soon.

Either try moving Reke, or bring someone in. A change NEEDS to happen.

never foul a jump shooter kid
Did any other out of towners watch on NBA tv?

The Jazz announcers made it more painful to listen to than watch.

agree

The Jazz announcers really called game on both ends better than most opposing announcer but their voices made me want to fall asleep.

There old Color guy was terrible

Harpring wasn’t all that bad.

wasnt Harpring the color guy?
Is that Matt Harpring? THE SF?
yep
Ha. I forgot about him.

What a hustler.

yeah and he was a dirty player too.
Yeah, he was fun to watch when I didn't understand basketball

and thought it was cool that there was some football player in the middle of the court mugging people.

there were positives and negatives to take away from this game.

Reke, IT, Jimmer, JT = positives
Salmons, our whole bench except IT, the officiating and Chuck reinjuring himself = negatives

What about Cousins?

Or is that a neutral?

At least we're learning to lose close games on the road
So... does everyone still want to trade Tyreke for a bag of chips?
...

Reke blew the Jazz announcers away on a few ocassions, encouraging them to compare him to Lebron in the open court when it comes to speed and strenght.

All the Tyreke talk was really ridiculous...

The only thing that needs to be done is he absolutely needs to work on his jumpshot. I know we say this everyday, but Tyreke just needs to work as hard as he possibly can on it. Jordan developed a midrange and long range game later in his career which made him the greatest player of all time. Tyreke must do the same and while he’ll never reach Jordan’s greatness, he can become the star we need to lead us to a championship

How big a bag of chips are we talking?

i love those jalapeno chips.

On the days he scores in the single digits

That’s probably fair value. He just needs to be more consistent and bring his A or at least B game every night. Great player sometimes, disappearing act all too often. Smart is probably the best coach to get him to play to his potential.

Disappointing outcome, but nothing our guys have to hang their heads down about.
Reke needs to develop his midrange game.

The previous ROYs that averaged 20-5-5 all developed it and are stars. He can do that too if he works for it.

hahaa I just said this a couple comments above but yeah...

I just made the point about jordan developing a midrange and long range game. This development will determine whether we become just a playoff team in the future or a true contender

Heh, beat you by a minute;)

Agreed.

Tyreke demonstrated his version of MJ's FT line dunk this game...

maybe he needs to stop shooting & start his dunks from mid-range.

I love how he's moving without the ball now
^yeah let's hope it continues..

and rubs off on Jimmer and Thorton

Agree. That's all Smart.
We took one tonight just like this one.

If Isaiah Thomas fouled Devin Harris

Then Earl Watson fouled Jimmer Fredette on that final offensive possession. There was absolutely no difference as each player hit the player on the follow through. One was called, the other wasn’t. Pure BS.

Disagree

Watched the tape – Harris was hit before release, Fredette after.

Yep

Much as I hate it, it was a good call both ways.

I'll still argue it. Getting hit on the release effects the follow through, which does alter the shot.

Wasn’t called, but just like the shot clock violation with .5 ticks left, it leaves zero points on the Kings tally, which is unfortunate. I thought the Danny Crawford led crew was atrocious all night tonight.

Think Jimmer just got nerves, but agree on the rest

Bad officiating will happen. But that call on the 24 second violation was just abysmal.

I thought it was right

on replay it showed Salmons did not have a controlled dribble, hence no possession, = clock violation

They blew the whistle before the shot clock even expired and Salmons had already touched the ball

Refs need to let that one go.

Touch is not posession

The Refs would be wrong to let it go

I do wish BB would adopt the Soccer advantage rule

and not call a penalty when the offense retains possession and is in position to score, esp on breakaway fouls

Yeah...

Sucks to punish good defense that way.

Well a touch downward in a controlled dribble on a BREAK AWAY

SHOULD be a possession. The Jazz feed had a perfect angle of John starting to dribble the ball and the shot clock in the background was .5 seconds. In that situation, the refs should have let it be and allow John to get a clear basket.

Yep -

Right call – bad rule.

If there was any call that should have been argued, it was the 24 second violation that took away the Salmons breakaway.

Absolute terrible call. Otherwise the officiating was pretty good.

Dear Kings FO,

Please correct the mistake of picking up John Salmons. It’s not working. Bad idea. He hasn’t earned a minute of his playing time. I hate it when he makes a shot because then he feels like he needs to keep on shooting with his near 30% shooting.

Definitely. Salmons SUCKS

Pure and simple.

Let’s play Tyreke at the 3, Thornton at the 2 and Jimmer at the 1 as those are our 3 best players in the backcourt. Bring Isiah off the bench as the first guard. I don’t care if we play midget ball. We got to get our most talented players minutes on the court.

While I think Tyreke at the 2 is the best fit, I’m sick and tired of Salmons getting any minutes. His defense isn’t even all that good to warrant the supposed minutes he gets.

I can care less...

on how they facilitate the floor without Salmons. As long as it doesn’t include Salmons.

Agreed

Let’s take a page out of George Karl’s play book and have THREE guys that can create their offense. I think moving Tyreke to the 3 is our best bet to get out and run. We’re not stopping anybody with Salmons there, might as well try to outgun other teams and play to our natural advantages.

*Couldn't care less
When Thornton is back, I would bet this is generally our crunch time lineup
Only caught the last 6 minutes

sucky ending. Was the game overall entertaining though?

Yes...

I enjoyed it. Frustrating like our Kings our, but it was fun.

The officiating, or lack thereof, made the game pretty chippy and sloppy in my opinion.

But the effort was there and IT, JT, Tyreke and Jimmer made the offense palatable tonight.

Cousins will have some bruising on his forearms tomorrow.

I will say

That it was nice to see Cousins take that beating AND NOT complain all that much. You saw it in his face, but he didn’t yap hardly at all. But he did take some slaps with no calls.

Some is an understatement.
He got straight up molested on his spin-under move.
It was also nice to see Smart rip into JT after he got that T for complaining.

No reason he shouldn’t of dunked that.

par for the course for the season

big play or two, lots of “this is horse-radish”, a couple of our guys had big quarters (JT early, IT late), altogether an average game for this season.

Fuck the airhead sewage that sits in front of Utah’s microphones though. They should hire real announcers and not some dudes hawking rolexes on Main and Tenth.

Way to fix the Kings scoring and starting lineup?

Have Thornton come off the bench along side Thomas to be our scoring threats off the bench and keep Evans and Jimmer in the starting back court.

Sorry, but I’ve never been the biggest Marcus fan and his chucking ways, but off the bench I can see him fitting in much better along side the second unit.

Him and Evans in the back court just doesn’t work imo. Not enough shots to go around and Evans as of late has shown the willingness to find teammates more, Thornton is the very definition of a black hole.

Where's the GIF of Tyreke's dunk?
If we hadn't been losing so bad on the raod

this year this loss wouldn’t be so bad.

So Chuck apparantly subluxed his shoulder?
What does that even mean? Any idea how long he's out for?
could come back tomorrow even, just depends on how bad

either way, painful as hell. Had to have it popped back into place on the spot

Sublux is to shift out of the socket. The fact that he had just separated his shoulder, means he's probably out a while for precautionary reasons.
The Shoulder is the weakest joint in the body. You give strength for flexibility there

So it’s very easy injury to have happen. Poor Chuck

pretty much this

and once you dislocate it once, makes it more likely to happen again

Too bad. Hope he is able to come back soon.

He may not have filled up the stat sheet, but he played very well tonight. Great D, screens, etc. We need Chuck. He makes our team much better.

Yep

Hope he is okay for him and the team

I didn't think he did well at all.
C-Webb had this issue for a while

Salmons was terrible. I really can’t see why he’s playing so much.

Because benching him would admit

the epic failure that trade was.

My thoughts are that he can't play himself into any worse trade value

So maybe, by continually playing him, he can maybe improve on the season and up his trade value?

But he pisses me off so much, because I KNOW he can play better, I think he’s sandbagging it to get out this summer.

Thing is, he has continued to play with no improvement.

How long does Smart keep playing him? I wonder if Petrie is behind keeping Salmons on the floor, basically saying what StevenG says – that benching him would admit the trade was a failure.

Nobody has stepped up and taken the spot from him...

which shouldn’t be hard to do, as his numbers and play overall are abysmal. This is why I think we’re just better off getting more minutes to our guards and playing Tyreke at the 3.

Hopefully, he will be traded soon. This situation is dreadful. But, I see your point.
2 of his turnovers were just so effing pathetic.
Petrie's ego can't take that

so fire Petrie, bench Salmons

His play...

proves the trade was an epic failure.

So you think Smart is under orders to play him?

I don’t think so. I think it’s a simple matter of each and every one of our SF’s sucking…hard.

So true

I think playing JT or Evans at the 3 might be our best bets, but the 4 headed monster at the 3 is just atrocious.

Cisco has been the best so far and that’s not saying much.

Hehe you said sucking hard hehe
He must be superman in practice...

because with what he accomplishes with his current court time, even with good defense, would be 3rd string numbers IMO.

They all suck

Greene is inconsistent, Garcia seems to be somewhere else, and Outlaw is…well…Outlaw.

Make no mistake, I hated the trade that brought Salmons here, and probably enjoy watching him play less than Luther Head. But there is really no viable solution. Even the notion of playing small and running with Evans/Fredette/Thornton has to wait due to MT’s injury – and if you go with Evans/Fredette/IT you have virtually no backup on your bench.

Well at least we have 3 starters that can contribute.
I know they all suck...

I just think Greene sucks less. At least I feel his shots have a chance of going in. And his defense is good as well. It feels like Salmons has no effort in him.

Lesser of two evils?

I have no issue with Greene starting instead of Salmons, but we will still suck at the 3 on both ends of the floor. I like off court Donté, but on court Donté is a waste of time and talent.

Agreed.

But at least you’re rewarding the better player. And not the one you pay more.

I've seen no signs that Greene is the better player

Despite all of my hopes, wishes and dreams. He’s less toxic for me to watch, but I honestly don’t think that he is actually any better for the team.

I guess this is akin to asking if you would rather chew on tin foil or rub the top of your head with a cheese grater.

Agreed.

This is my feeling too. I’m not a big Greene fan or anything. I just think that when you suck, you sit. I don’t have stats for my opinions, I just feel more confident with the ball in Greenes hands then in Salmons.

We'd struggle to get 5 guys on the court

if when you sucked you sit.

True.

Name those under Salmons. I can name only Outlaw.

Strongly disagree that Donte would not be better for the team

He IS less toxic to watch, and less toxic to the team effort. Every game I watch, Salmons has at least two turnovers where he looks like he just can’t be bothered to give a crap. I can’t think of a worse message to send a team than trotting his sorry ass out night after night.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion

I can find nothing historical to support it, however. The guy has never been that good, and has never been able to sustain any sort of consistency.

I would prefer Greene over Salmons in the starting lineup simply because Donté does not make my eyes bleed as badly as when I watch Salmons. But it’s not going to make the team any better. Simply, each and every one of our 3’s suck when compared to even average NBA small forwards.

Think we can all agree Donte has been disappointing

And yes John has more skills than he’s showing right now. But he just brings the entire team down with his lack of effort and focus, you wouldn’t have to perform at a very high level at all to be less detrimental to the team.

I think that Salmons brings the fans down, but not the team

Not any more than any of the other SF’s, anyway.

The do all suck. And can't believe how long I held out hatred for Salmons.

It’s not just the he’s playing terribly, it’s that he’s not putting out much of an effort. Completely inexcusable. It makes Salmons useless. He can’t shoot or score. His supposed good D is not so great. He’s a ballhog. And he doesn’t play hard.

And that’s how bad Green and Garcia are.

I officially agree with all those at STR who have hated Salmons since the moment he returned to the Kings.

They not The.....
Even the Jazz announcers said that

They said Salmons looked like he didn’t want to be there and wasn’t happy to be on the Kings.

It’s very believable given his body language and how much his play has dropped off from last year.

I thought PW was terrible and was ready to give Salmons a clean slate along with everyone else. Salmons hasn’t improved at all. He may actually ant to get amnestied.

In all seriousness

Benching Salmons after the way he’s been playing would mean losing him totally. Starting him in hoping that he has enough good games that his confidence comes back is the best strategy to maximize him this season.

That

And the fact nobody else has stepped up and taken the 3 spot away from him, That’s the part that’s hard to swallow.

I just had a thought.

If Petrie is having any thoughts of trading Salmons, he would not want him to bench him, as that would lower his trade value. It would be much better to keep him as a starter.

Unfortunately, nothing lowers Salmons trade value more than

actually seeing Salmons play right now.

Because benching him would just put in even worse players.

We’re pretty terrible with regards to wing depth.

I'm on this bandwaggon...

I want him gone.

Salmons was terrible. I really can’t see why he’s playing so much.

looking at the box score it was probably his rebounding

I enjoyed this game.

Very frustrating as usual, but some fun basketball sometimes. Refs sucked on unfortunate occasions. And how epic would it have been if Jimmer hit that last three?

Still a fan.

I Feel a Great Disturbance in the Force...As if Some Dead Fish Is Disgracing my #5 Jersey...and Should be Suddenly Silenced.

Belinelli

Looks like a young Stallone in that pic.

Haha he does!

I was just focused on how pensive and Obi-Wan like Hedo was looking in this picture. There’s a treasure trove of jpgs of Hedo.

This picture clearly shows there was a foul on Jimmer's last shot.

Should have had free throws to tie the game.

http://static.deseretnews.com/images/article/midres/744486/744486.jpg

Yeah, that's actually clear as day. Jimmer was right to protest.
If the ball was still in his hand I'd be sold.
Still is a foul. Shooter is entitled to a follow through.

Doesn’t always get called at the end of games. But if the 24 second violation was “technically correct” even though Salmons had touched the ball and had a clear breakaway, then hitting the shooters arm on his follow though is also “tecnically correct.” FWIW.

Should have had free throws to tie win the game.

Ball was away

When you watch the tape Fredette had clearly gotten the ball away prior to contact. Sometimes they call contact after the shot, sometimes they don’t. This time they didn’t.

Good lesson for the rook. With still over 4 seconds left on the clock, Fredette should have let the defender fly by and then loaded it up. So blame the ref if you want, but a better decision by the youngster would have avoided the entire thing.

Thought the same thing

Pump fake, step to the right behind the line and launch it.

Or even step in a few feet and go for the mid-range and OT

It was a lesson learned.

Yeah

There’s clips on youtube from the old days where you’ll see Peja or Bibby do that – let one or two defenders fly by and fake them out when they’re coming at you like that.

Ah well. Live and learn, hopefully he takes the experience to heart and improves.

Either way

that ain’t getting called at the end of a game. Kobe doesn’t even get those calls.

Tough loss, but liked the way our stars played

Tyreke was a BEAST, DMC showed his all around game and the rookies played well. Now if we could get our 4th and 3rd year guys to play like our rookies, it would be awesome. Hickson has no confidence what so ever right now. Our SF’s played like our SF’s. We did a great job on Jefferson and Millsap. Tyreke was by far the best player on the floor tonight and it’s games like this where it sounds insane even talking about trading him(foot in mouth). If he ever develops a mid range shot or a floater he’ll be unstopable. It’s so unexpected when he all of a sudden does a jaw dropping dunk, because he plays under the rim 95% of the time. PLEASE GP GET US A SF!!!!!

Agree

And JJ’s regression is bizarre. He had a PER of over 15 the last two seasons playing on what were basically 2 different teams.

One with LeBron and Mike Brown, where he was playing within the offense and getting set up by James.

One with no LeBron and Byron Scott, where he was asked to create his own shots more often.

This season he seems to be getting worse as the season goes on. He can’t create for himself. And he’s struggling to finish inside when our guards set him up or he gets an offensive rebound. The kid has potential, so I hope Smart can figure out a way to use him that gets his confidence back. If the Hickson from the last two years showed up, he’d be a nice spark plug off the bench.

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