Game Day: Kings (23-16) @ Suns (21-18), Tues 1/16/24

[Split T]

Nurkic still has by far the best +/- and on/off net rating on the team. Hard to defend him being their biggest problem.

I didn’t say he’s our biggest problem. I said perhaps his slowness has been part of the problem, especially in the 4th quarters. I would be curious what his fourth quarter ratings are like. Whether it’s been helpful or not, it seems like Vogel has benched him a lot in clutch time.

Fair…I’m not sure how to get just 4th Q data, but I’m sure all the suns players are bad

[Cap]

Nurkic still has by far the best +/- and on/off net rating on the team. Hard to defend him being their biggest problem.

I didn’t say he’s our biggest problem. I said perhaps his slowness has been part of the problem, especially in the 4th quarters. I would be curious what his fourth quarter ratings are like. Whether it’s been helpful or not, it seems like Vogel has benched him a lot in clutch time.

Fair…I’m not sure how to get just 4th Q data, but I’m sure all the suns players are bad

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/nurkic ... rter-stats

+7 on the season. Durant is -97. Book is -2.

[ShelC]

Funny thing about Nurk tho, I've never questioned his effort during the games.

[Kryptonic]

Funny thing about Nurk tho, I've never questioned his effort during the games.

100%….

Only one person could take a good win and try to find a way to on it. Thanks for keeping us humble JG.

[Shabazz]

He was actually pretty good yesterday. Had a tough time with Sabonis, but still gave us 10/15/3/1 on 5 shots in 27 minutes.

Add in Grayson’s production and, yep, we don’t win that game with our former “fast” center.

[JeremyG]

Funny thing about Nurk tho, I've never questioned his effort during the games.

I seem to remember the entire team’s effort being questioned in recent weeks.

[JeremyG]

Funny thing about Nurk tho, I've never questioned his effort during the games.

100%….

Only one person could take a good win and try to find a way to on it. Thanks for keeping us humble JG.

That’s not what I’m trying to do. Obviously it was a great win but as others have been trying to do, I’m trying to figure out whether it was a fluke or whether it’s sustainable, with the current roster construction.

[Split T]

I’m turning it on to watch now, but going small can work against certain teams…The Kings are already kinda small so it works. Nurk out there gives Sabonis someone to guard

[Superbone]

[Mori Chu]

Keep it in the All Things Nurkic thread, guys!!

[Split T]

Just got to the start of the 4th Q run

[Split T]

Kings took Sabonis out?

[Split T]

Oh he’s back, nvm

[Split T]

I rewatched the 4th and it was very fluky if the statistics didn't already make that obvious. The Kings had a horrible whistle even if they were way too casual. It was very reminiscent of the 1st quarter of this game in reverse that reflects one of my favorite coachisms, "you make your own luck".

I mentioned shot making early on and I still think that was true for this game, everyone but Allen was off tonight and that should be a rare occurrence. If just one of those guys has it going throughout, we're looking at a much more competitive game that the Suns eventually screw up and lose in the 4th quarter.

The shot making was probably flukey but I think the whistle was fine. Suns were aggressive and the refs let them play. The out of bounds call was the only clear miss from the refs

[Split T]

With 5:11 left we went to Book/Beal/Allen/Gordon/KD trailing 113-96. Outscored them 23-4 from there. That lineup has played 12 minutes this year and has a 146.2 offensive rating and an 84.6 defensive rating. Obviously very small sample size, but I want to see more.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I rewatched the 4th and it was very fluky if the statistics didn't already make that obvious. The Kings had a horrible whistle even if they were way too casual. It was very reminiscent of the 1st quarter of this game in reverse that reflects one of my favorite coachisms, "you make your own luck".

I mentioned shot making early on and I still think that was true for this game, everyone but Allen was off tonight and that should be a rare occurrence. If just one of those guys has it going throughout, we're looking at a much more competitive game that the Suns eventually screw up and lose in the 4th quarter.

The shot making was probably flukey but I think the whistle was fine. Suns were aggressive and the refs let them play. The out of bounds call was the only clear miss from the refs

Some of the moving screen offensive fouls were pretty bad, IMO.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Kings took Sabonis out?

On the Kings broadcast it showed Mike Brown and Sabonis laughing about something that seemed related to Sabonis being benched. Kinda seemed like Brown wanted to experiment against the Suns small lineup with a "comfortable" lead. I think the Kings turned it over and KD or Gordon hit a 3 and Sabonis was right back in the game.

I had a laugh at that sequence and thought about how this place would be so pissed at Brown for the blunder.

[Split T]

I rewatched the 4th and it was very fluky if the statistics didn't already make that obvious. The Kings had a horrible whistle even if they were way too casual. It was very reminiscent of the 1st quarter of this game in reverse that reflects one of my favorite coachisms, "you make your own luck".

I mentioned shot making early on and I still think that was true for this game, everyone but Allen was off tonight and that should be a rare occurrence. If just one of those guys has it going throughout, we're looking at a much more competitive game that the Suns eventually screw up and lose in the 4th quarter.

The shot making was probably flukey but I think the whistle was fine. Suns were aggressive and the refs let them play. The out of bounds call was the only clear miss from the refs

Some of the moving screen offensive fouls were pretty bad, IMO.

There was only 2 that I recall, one was a blatant one by Barnes on Booker and then the Len one on Beal which was a bit iffy…it was also really before the run started.

I went back and looked at the play by play and Len had 2 basically back to back, one looked like a pretty legit call screening Okogie, the other one was questionable on Beal. There was also one called on Monk. Not a lot there, but he kinda bumped Metu as Metu was trying to chase his man on a cut. I think it’s a foul.

There was also later a play I thought Sabonis should have been called for an offensive foul that he got away with. Overall seemed fine to me.

[Split T]

Kings took Sabonis out?

On the Kings broadcast it showed Mike Brown and Sabonis laughing about something that seemed related to Sabonis being benched. Kinda seemed like Brown wanted to experiment against the Suns small lineup with a "comfortable" lead. I think the Kings turned it over and KD or Gordon hit a 3 and Sabonis was right back in the game.

I had a laugh at that sequence and thought about how this place would be so pissed at Brown for the blunder.

That’s funny…it’s the point when Barnes was used as the screener and he committed an offensive foul

[Flagrant Fowl]

My own rule is that if I go back and look for the foul because I missed it in real time, then it's probably a bad (or soft) call.

It doesn't happen often, but I had to do it 3 times in that 4th quarter.

My point was that the Kings got a bad whistle at that time and it affected their focus, but like you said, the Suns were more aggressive and reaped the reward.