DeMar DeRozan had a strong debut for the Kings on Thursday, scoring 26 points and eight rebounds in nearly 43 minutes of action, with Sacramento outscoring Minnesota by eight points during his time on the court.
Still, the two-point loss to the Timberwolves showed that there will be an adjustment period for the Kings as they get used to DeRozan’s presence, writes Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. After finishing third in the NBA with 39.3 three-point attempts per game last season, Sacramento let it fly from beyond the arc just 29 times in Thursday’s game, well shy of Minnesota’s 50 three-point tries.
“His game is the mid-range,” Kings head coach Mike Brown said of DeRozan. “He’s an elite mid-range guy, and so he’s going to take a lot of shots, and that’s going to probably take away from the (three-point shots) some.”
Still, the Kings are confident it won’t take them long to get accustomed to DeRozan’s playing style and believe it will ultimately pay off to have another offensive weapon capable of breaking down defenses and creating his own shot like the 35-year-old can.
“He can run an offense all by himself,” teammate Kevin Huerter said. “There’s times you can just give him the ball and he can go make plays. He doesn’t need plays drawn up for him. As he continues to get more comfortable, we’ll get a lot better. … It’s game one, so we’re early. It’s obviously going to take time. Everybody’s still figuring everything out.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Anthony Davis dominated for a second straight outing in the Lakers‘ Friday win over Phoenix, scoring a game-high 35 points to increase his season total to 71 through two games (both victories). Head coach J.J. Redick‘s plan to make Davis the focus of L.A.’s offense is working as intended so far, according to LeBron James. “It’s very important that he’s the main focal point for us every single night,” James said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “We know what he’s going to do defensively, but offensively we have to find him in multiple places on the floor throughout the whole game. And we’ve done that through two games.”
- Asked during his post-game media session on Friday whether he’ll suit up for the second game of the Lakers‘ back-to-back set on Saturday vs. Sacramento, LeBron told reporters, including McMenamin, that his goal is not to miss a single one of the team’s 82 regular season contests. “I plan on playing every game,” said James, the NBA’s oldest active player.
- Although the Suns couldn’t pull out a win on Friday vs. the Lakers, they got an encouraging performance from rookie Ryan Dunn. Known as a high-level defender but not much of a shooter during his time at Virginia, Dunn knocked down three-of-five attempts from three-point range and was a plus-8 in his 14 minutes. Dunn’s improvements as a shooter are the result of “a lot of hard work,” he told Mark Medina of Sportskeeda in a wide-ranging interview. “I keep having the confidence to keep shooting it even when some nights it might not fall and some nights that it might fall,” said Dunn, who also spoke to Medina about his first impressions of the NBA, meeting some of his long-time basketball idols, and his goals for his rookie season.
Now that LeBron is older its AD that is carrying Lebron the last few seasons. JJ needs to understand that he can’t play AD over 35 minutes a game all season or a injury will occur and their season will be lost.
Yep.
JJ knows A LOT and I feel like that was made evident by his podcast, I am pretty sure he is aware of AD’s injuries struggle. I have a lot of faith in him honestly (not even a lakers fan lol)
DeM DeR ……………
So Steph Curry misses a triple double in 25 mins by 1 rebound and not a sound from NBA media….cool cool, keep burying your face of the league, morons….
Maybe that’s cuz they were playing who? Portland? The Jazz? The two worst teams in the West.
I feel like the Jazz are not the second worst team in the west, the Spurs looked way worse tbh
So it’s Memphis, Houston then Portland then the Spurs?
50 three-point attempts by one team in a game. Yuck. Might as well stop taking all other types of shots and turn it into a full game three-point content.
bUt tHe aNaLyTiCs sAy….
The idea that Derozan is an elite mid range shooter is truthful, but his % at the mid range doesnt make up the extra point he misses by not shooting 3s.
The Suns learned the hard way last season that no matter how good the mid range shooters are on your team, 3s are simply worth more than 2s ans if you dont take them, the other team will and they will outscore you.