Counting Down to Rubio's First Quadruple-Double: Kings Game Report Card

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Ridnour missed a couple of early jumpers and his game fell apart shortly after. Not a lot to praise here, though I see he somehow had 6 rebounds – seems like a lie. It was bad Luke (can’t guard the opposing two, missing transition jumpers), and an especially inexplicable sequence where he had Chuck Hayes covering him on the wing and he danced for ten seconds before throwing a behind the back pass to a King. D+

Pekovic's positioning is the stuff of legend at this point – except it’s real. Only one of his shots was out of the paint, and it only happened because there was only a second left on the shot clock. Went on a nice rebounding binge to start the fourth, but the third quarter was a masterpiece. Spin moves, a half-court steal and one-man fast break, breaking through a DMC armbar for a dunk. One demerit for the dumb foul at the end, but overall: this is getting out of hand. A

Rubio missed some late free throws and shot too early on the last possession. He also did about 116 other things that led to us squeeking out the win. And about 58 of those things were even prettier than the last one. Took the ball from Tyreke Evans and flipped it up to DWill for the tomahawk. Poked the ball from Tyreke, dribbled it up at Rubio speed, a backwards between-the-legs bounce pass to a sprinting Pek for the dunk. Finding DWill for the big three. Oop to Wes. Almost caused a steal, dove for the ball at half court, recovered in time to force a Jimmer travel. Shoulda ended up with about 23 assists – conservative estimate. A+

Wes….was Wes, I dunno. Got that oop. Got another accidentally amazing alley-oop (alliteration): Rubio tossed it up for DWill, gets poked in midair and you think it’s a turnover when Wes comes up and throws it down - it was pretty nice. He hit a three. And...I dunno, it’s Wes. C+

DWill’s free throws are a concern and I am Captain Obvious. JPete said DMC was calling him Mr. 1for2. He missed one and you could hear a King yell, “Told ya!” You could hear the Kings yelling during most of the free throws actually, it was odd. But, other than that, DWill played very well tonight. Couple good drives, some big boards, some great contests, that big three at the end, and hey, he Gets to the line. Now he just has to Make the free throws. B

Tolliver was…awful. Couldn’t make a shot, seemed to be giving up/losing boards, and his passing was something you see in a horror film. He was hustling and moving, and had one big play towards the end of the game: failed in getting the charge call and, while lying underneath the hoop, gets a hand on the ball to disrupt the play, and then gets on his feet in time to block the shot at the rim and start a fast break. Great play really. Does not negate the rest. D

Miller hit a three. Dove on the ground at one point (surprised nobody stomped on his face – oh yeah, Love was out). Still getting his bearings. C

Beasley was around B+ territory for about two and a half quarters; a double-double and 5/11 shooting will do that. And that could’ve been something like 7/11 if he was making layups (ugh, what a sentence). And then…I dunno. Adelman or somebody or something decided posting up Beasley was a great way to end the game – after Rubio had shown that you should probably just let him find/make open players, not to mention Pekovic, who Cousins just gave up guarding on some plays. But Beasley put up some bad Beasley shots and shot the Kings back in the game. But some of them weren’t the worst shots (the little turn around in the lane he was making in Houston). But that really just reinforces the whole “inconsistent” thing, doesn’t it? Almost airballed a free throw, too. Still, great rebounding. C+

Barea seemed – key word, seemed – to be playing good defense on Jimmer, didn’t he? But whenever Jimmer got a sliver, he rose and hit it – on JJ’s watch. Nice quick missed-three during that King run, too. D+

Dunno why it was only a 9man rotation tonight. Maybe Adelman thought it’d be an easy game – looked that way after a 31-16 first and eight Rubio assists. Kings hung and there were some weird rotations (Tolliver hung around way too long in the fourth, Rubio took too long to sub-in in the fourth, the Beasley sets, sticking with Luke during his awful stretch, and 9man rotation? Really? Didn’t think AR could get some run? Martell?) But again, maybe he thought this would be easy and was saving some legs for tomorrow. But it’s Adelman, so of course he gets an A.