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What's up Kings fans! This is @o_a_khan hopping on the TKH account for a quick thread on how the Kings closed out the Nuggets last Tuesday. Lets dive in.
With about four minutes left in Q4, the Kings were holding on to a seven point lead against the Nuggets. De'Aaron Fox had just checked back into the game to draw an offensive foul.
Down the stretch, two things about the Kings' playcalling stood out:
Down the stretch, two things about the Kings' playcalling stood out:
1. The incredible amount of trust the Kings have in Tyrese Haliburton to make plays with the ball. Straight out of the timeout, the Kings dialed up plays exclusively for Haliburton, and went to him multiple times down the stretch.
I want this point to stick: for three straight plays in the most critical point of the game, the Kings asked their newly minted $163 million man to stand at the three point line while a 20 year old rookie in his fourth NBA game ran the show.
That's an insane amount of belief
That's an insane amount of belief
First play out of the timeout the Kings ran a high pick-and-roll for Haliburton, who gets Holmes a look at his little pet one-handed floater against a deep dropping Jokic.
Next play also went to Haliburton, who is caught off guard when Jokic blitzes the pick-and-roll. The play breaks down but Haliburton bails out the team with a 30 foot bomb
Third straight play the Kings went to Haliburton. Holmes gets fed for a midrange jumper that he just misses.
2. From this point on, the Kings showed one of the advantages of having two PGs in the same lineup. With Fox and Haliburton on the court, the Kings have the ability to keep the defense off-balance by "rotating the strike" between the two PGs
Strike rotation is a concept that comes from cricket: the idea is to keep the opposition off balance by making sure they face a different batsman on every pitch. The fielders will gameplan for each specific batsman, and by rotating the strike that gameplan is harder to execute
The way the Kings alternated between Haliburton and Fox reminds me of that concept. It's harder for the defense to hone in on each ballhandler's individual strengths and weaknesses if they're alternating plays with eachother
The fourth play is when the Kings started going back to Fox. Here, Fox almost loses the ball trying to split the defense, but tracks it back and finds Barnes for an open corner three
Haliburton's turn next. The Kings run a "ghost screen" for Barnes, but Haliburton doesn't put any pressure on the defense before getting the ball back to Barnes. No advantage is created and Barnes is forced to burp up this bad fadeaway against a dwindling shotclock
Finally, Fox slams the door on the Nuggets here by scoring against Jokic in deep drop coverage. Poor defense against good offense.
The bottom line is that Haliburton opens up doors for the Kings' offense. The Kings not only maintained their lead down the stretch, they extended it, in large part because of the rookie. This backcourt is a match made in basketball heaven and it's already helping the team win.
