Sacramento Kings: And then there was one

By Ryan Rodriguez

With Rudy Gay joining Isaiah Thomas on the inactive list, the Sacramento Kings’ “Big” 3 was down to an oversized 1, as DeMarcus Cousins was forced to battle the big, bad Thunder without much help. With Reggie Evans missing the game as well, the Kings were missing 3/5ths of their starting lineup, and, thus, staring their 51st loss in the face.

Predictably, the Kings seemed overwhelmed by the length, speed and most of all, the precision which the Oklahoma bring to the court every night, as the Thunder cruised to a comfortable 107-92 victory. Once again, this was a game for some fringe rotation players to test themselves against one of the association’s best, namely Quincy Acy and Travis Outlaw (Trout), who both saw ample opportunities to make an impact on the game last night.

These two produced mixed results, bringing a different energy to the court but succumbing to the desire, at times, to do more than their skill set can handle as they were presented with increased opportunities. The mantra all year has been about improvement, not wins and losses, and I saw this game as a way for Quincy and Trout to show improvement in not only their game, but also in how they understand their skill and work to accentuate them for both individual and team success.

This holds for Quincy especially, as he is still young in his NBA career and really needs to show he has what it takes to stick on an NBA roster. The energy he brings will always be there – that’s who he is at his core – but I’m more interested to see how he transfers this energy into positive production on the court.

Yesterday, he made the most of his 17 minutes, doing many little things that can be turned into winning basketball as the team improves. He did a good job of stepping up to the challenge of battling the power forwards on both offence and defence. The classic college power forward who stands 6’7″, he stood up to Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison, making them work for their shots and passes by being the constant pest that he can be and using his lower body strength to work them off of their spot. At the end of the first half, he showed off his athleticism as well, staying with Ibaka as he attempted a last second layup, swatting it off the backboard.

Trout, on the other hand, continually tested my patience. Flat out, I don’t think he is a player that has much use on a winning team; if he was on the Thunder, he would be playing the Jeremy Lamb or Andre Roberson role. This was essentially his role on the Kings after the trades at the beginning of the year, but after Jimmer was bought out, he became the de facto backup shooting guard as well as part of the small forward rotation.

Thrust into Rudy’s starting spot, he produced with surprising regularity on offence, which was a great help because the game could have been billed as Boogie and 11 potential rock fighters. He contributed in all facets, with some rebounding, play-making and credible defence on the most destructive scoring force in the game right now. However, all this good was undone, to my mind, by his constant hijacking of offensive possessions. It already drives me up the wall when Rudy takes over possessions by posting up from 15-18 feet like he’s Melo or Durant, so you can imagine how much I was squirming when I saw Trout attempting the same move.

I understand that the offence might usually call for this behaviour from the small forward, but when the small forward is one Travis Outlaw, this kind of play cannot happen. I mean, what in the world has Trout convinced that he should ever pound the ball and then try a contested, turnaround mid-range fade-away jumper, much less do this multiple times in the game? It almost makes me want to make a shock collar that Trout can use next year so any time he does catch the ball and make some sort of quick basketball move, he will be shocked and reminded that he is Travis Outlaw, not Kevin Durant.

A few observations:

- Both Boogie Smooth and Boogie Force came out to play last night. The smooth was 24 points and 14 boards. The force was 3 turnovers and 10-24 (5-15 from the second quarter on) from the field. It’s the balance Boog needs to find between knowing he has to unequivocally be the man with no IT and Rudy, and still letting the game come to him. I know it’s a different position, but he could watch some KD, without Russ, from this year on how to be dominant while seemingly never forcing the action.

- Another smooth take from the game was Boogie’s midrange game. It looks a little awkward, just because he is so big, but the shot has been going in with more regularity of late. Just don’t fall in love with it, Big Fella.

- This day in Boogie could be a guard. He pulled a sick reverse layup where he spun past Kendrick Perkins, avoided KD while he was jumping, and finished the layup on the right side of the rim while his body was on the left side.

- The trapping of the Thunder on the pick and roll really messed with Ray last night. They forced him into quite a few turnovers and bad shots simply because he took the bait to run the pick and roll towards the sideline where the traps were waiting. Good learning experience for the young guard to have to battle this, knowing there was no backup to come save him.

- Derrick Williams is just turning into a depressing sight whenever he is on the court. He had 1 point, 2 rebounds, and no other stats in 20 uneventful minutes. What’s worse, he seems to just move around the court without any idea of what to do or how to make an impact.

- I know Ben might make people feel the same way, but not me, yet. He had a lid on the hoop in the first half at times, missing a point blank dunk and layup, as well as getting rejected hard by Steven Adams. But he also had 8 rebounds, and I just sense he has finally started to gain some confidence over the last month.

- Finally, KD’s streak of 41 straight games with 25+ points was snapped last night. I wish I could say it was because the Kings brought it on the defensive end, but in the words of @royceyoung, it was because the Kings sucked so much. KD didn’t even play the fourth quarter because the Thunder reserves turned an 8 point third quarter lead into a 22 point lead. This is the second time KD lost a scoring streak because he didn’t play in the fourth. He’s that good.