No preview today. (Reading HighTop’s will do you well though.) I’m good like that. (And as you can tell, I’m good like that a lot recently.) So, the game is at 6pm PST, TV is CSNCA and Radio is 1140. Enjoy!

I was going to watch this game over again and then offer my thoughts, but alas being a poor pundit does have it’s disadvantages. One of them is having crappy internet and access to watching the Kings. Such is life I suppose. Box Score. HoopData Box Score. (A handy guide to all the definitions that HoopData uses is at B-Ref here. I suggest bookmarking this if you’re going to need it consistently.) And the 4 Factors:

The game itself I thought was a tale of 4 qtrs. There were 4 separate qtrs with 4 separate things going on.

The 1st qtr (if you watched the whole game) not surprisingly was the best qtr for our beloved Baby Royals last night. The ball moved, Evans broke down the defense, and racked up the assists to show for it. Hawes played as well as he can at the high post by showing his various abilities from there. Kevin Martin got hot.

Defensively, at times JT & Shawes played well on that end. Like the rest of the game, the Kings had no answers for Gerald Wallace. (But neither does the rest of the league really.) I thought Donte Greene did as good a job as Donte is capable of on G-Dub, but sometimes against a player of Wallace’s caliber (now anyway), that just won’t get it done. It happens. Unfortunately with regards to Wallace, it just got worse as the game went along. (In fact, G-Dub had 33 points by the end of the 3rd qtr.)

The 2nd qtr (to not be mistaken by the ghastly 3rd qtr), had it’s own issue’s. The ball movement stopped (mostly), and the reserves didn’t seem to have the same urgency (I’m hoping this isn’t becoming a theme) that the starters did to begin the game. Still, because of the 7 point lead that the starters (mostly) built during the 1st qtr, the Kings were only down 2 at the break. The 2nd qtr was, I thought, a well played qtr, and still provided the Kings every opportunity to win the game provided they didn’t have the 3rd qtr they ended up having.

Okay, obviously the 3rd qtr was the lowlight, and it’s a remaining problem that this team has: It hasn’t figured out to how score the ball consistently. Given this team’s poor defense, it doesn’t behoove this group to take poor shots and not move the ball on offense to get the best shot possible. Of course, when you’re running such a group inflicted with youth, they haven’t figured that out. 3rd qtr’s with a young team happen.

One note on Tyreke Evans: I hope the hip that was bothering him doesn’t have a lingering effect. When he was right last night (and he supposedly had hurt the hip the night before in Utah), the offense flowed smoothly between Reke and Speed (in particular).

I think Edm7 of StR made a great point in his recap of last night’s game: The Kings offense is trying to mix a more systematic Princetonish level of play with a more individual 1 on 1 style that Tyreke Evans employs. The mix, at times, is not pretty, but last night there were great signs that there is reason to stay the course and keep this team together and not break it apart prematurely.

The 4th qtr, though, offered signs that Sergio Rodriguez minutes in the rotation. He clearly is capable of moving the ball and getting players involved in the offense. Yet, I will offer up a particular play late in the 4th that essentially stalled the comeback. Sergio had the ball and was running a particularly hotly contested break and Sergio tossed the ball to JT. (This was like 2 1/2 minutes to go.) JT got stuffed by Gerald Wallace and the Bobcats ran back and ultimately scored. (Mostly a result of a tough shot made by Flip Murray.) The point here is that while folks focus on the change of pace and maybe some extra ball movement when Sergio is around, he still doesn’t have the feel of a game and it’s flow that you need to have if you’re going to be an important factor in victory for a team. Sergio doesn’t have that. I don’t know how I know it; I just know it watching him over the course of the season. It’s the reason (I think) that the Blazers paid the Kings to take Sergio off their hands over the summer, and it’s why I think Paul Westphal won’t use Sergio unless it’s an extreme situation. Whatever PW says publicly doesn’t mean half of much as the minutes he gives to players.

All in all, I think this game showed all the tell-tale signs of what the Kings CAN offer offensively, why they are losing games recently (their offense isn’t as consistent), and that setting a rotation every single game is a difficult task given the ups & downs of the entire roster. I do not envy Paul Westphal one bit although I wouldn’t mind that mil & half he’s making this season.

I’ll say it again & again: Such is life when following a young team. The trials and tribulations of this group will continue to frustrate, and, on a few occasions, amaze. There’s a saying that I think works well here: Delayed Gratification. Your 2009-10 Sacramento Kings: To delay the gratification for future benefit. Ayup.

A totally unrelated side note: Kings players will donate a 1$ for every fan in attendance to the relief effort in Haiti. That is yet another reason to attend the Spurs game on Wednesday if you were planning on going.

Tonight the Bobcats. Tomorrow, eternity.

Yeah, that’s all I got.

Game is at 7pm PST, TV is CSNCA, and Radio is 1140. Enjoy!

A lot of interesting things from a number of perspectives, and I’ll try to break them all down for you. Key Word: Try. Box Score.  4 Factors:

	Pace (Poss)	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Sacramento	92.3 (92)	102.2	46.7%	30.3	22.5	17.4
Utah		109.8	51.4%	37.5	26.3	15.2

Also, you can see the Hoopdata Boxscore when it’s available.

Now, it’s pretty simple from my view what happened to this game, and why the Kings lost. It was a game of runs, and the Jazz, despite not having Deron Williams or Carlos Boozer, still have better players across more positions. You factor in the Hot Rod Hundley retirement (and the emotions it invoked), and that Paul Millsap was Jason Kidd-esque, and it was all she wrote.

I’m going to quote Section 214 here since he said it so well in the StR post game thread:

My first time questioning Westphal: Hawes took a seat as a result of the match ups that Sloan put on the floor. When Okur sat, Hawes sat. Given the fact that no one could stop Millsap, why not give Spencer a try? And then how about posting up Spencer against the small lineup, or at least running him out of the high post to open up the middle for offensive boards?

This is well said. (Shocking I know. One of the editor’s of the biggest Kings site on the interwebs knows something? Shocking.) I also think it points out that Paul Westphal sometimes tries too hard to match up to matchup’s. Or, does he? I’m not going to second guess Paul Westphal as the head coach. But, like any head coach, I think he gave Spencer too little slack, and Jason Thompson too much room. Way toooooo much room. Like, Salt Lake City sized room. Spencer was in the game, and it was no accident IMO, and the Kings were at least even (or slightly ahead) in the rebounding category.

Then, Spencer doesn’t play for most of the 2nd half, and the Kings end up losing the rebounding battle. Huh?

Additionally, I would have loved to see Spencer on Paul Millsap. A few notes on Millsap: He may be the most under-appreciated NBA player by fans overall. Unless you’re a hardcore fan, or a fan of the Jazz, not many realize how good Millsap really is. When you factor in a talent like Andrei Kirilenko doing the things that he does, which includes stellar ball handling for a 6′11 guy with a 7′5 wingspan, and the fact that Millsap and AK47 picked up 10 assists, with ‘Sap getting 7 of them, that’s not a winning combination when you’re the Kings. Coming into the game, I absolutely knew ‘Sap would be featured for the Jazz, not just because of Boozer’s absence, but because that’s what the Jazz have done in the past regardless whose on the court. Millsap IS THAT GOOD folks. Which is why I’m surprised there wasn’t even an ATTEMPT that Spence defended Millsap once in this game.

Now, onto some of the good things.

Tyreke Evans and Kevin Martin as a pairing worked tonight. In fact, offensively anyway, they kept the Kings in the game by being the only reliable offense the Kings had tonight. The only times that the Kings really broke down with either guy was when Tyreke walked the ball up the court or took an ill-advised shot here or there. (There weren’t many.) Most of the problems by either guy were early TO’s racked up in the 1st qtr. Either way, when Martin has 33 pts, 7 boards, 3 assists & 2 steals, he’s doing something right. That’s vintage SpeedRacer. Tyreke Evans, not to be outdone, had 25 points (on not as efficient shooting), 6 assists, 1 o-board (that shockes me more than anything else), and 2 steals himself. Speed had 3 TO’s, while Reke had 4.

The 2 man game was at times devastating, and showed great signs that this backcourt can not only work, but work very well despite the opinions of pundits (like Matt Harpring who kept talking about why it wouldn’t work on the Jazz telecasts–well, what about tonight Matt?) who believe Martin and Evans are an ill-fated match. Umm, yeah. But enough of them.

As far as everything else, Jason Thompson stunk the joint up again. As much as people get on Spencer (and I’ll have something on that article today in the Bee by Amick tomorrow before my game preview–I know it’s late) and his ability to guard people, what amazes me is how few people notice it with JT. He doesn’t move his feet, spends way too much time arguing calls when he should be playing, and quite frankly doesn’t know where to use his hands yet. He, much like Spencer, is very much a work in progress. While JT has many skills I like, they just don’t always translate as well as they should.

Whomever pissed in Beno’s cheerios this morning, thanks a lot. I like my Tasmenian Slovenian just fine thank you.

Brockman, May, and Udoka were not greatly effective. Again, this is what happens when the shine starts to fall off a bit and teams get a chance to scout the combinations and sets teams run. The Kings have been scouted, and simply are playing better teams lately, and it showed again tonight.

I’m going to credit Noceone of StR of pointing this out in the game thread, but the Kings really lost the game in the 3rd qtr when the bench came in and there was a big hole, once again, that the starters had to dig the team out of. When you consistently have to dig yourself out of holes in the NBA, you will lose. Tonight, is yet again an example of this simply complicated phenomenon. (It’s called a growth process. Also, called the talent isn’t the perfect mix yet.) The Kings have depth, but it’s not the kind of depth that will translate to victories. Hilton Armstrong, again, showed by not being chosen to come off the bench is not the answer. (And wasn’t ever likely to be.) When you can’t match a team’s energy consistently, or scoring consistently, when the other team goes to their bench, and even more so when a team doesn’t have it’s 2 main stars like Boozer and Williams, you’re not going to win at the road, or at home. I don’t like blaming a loss on the bench as those aren’t usually your best players anyway, but tonight the bench essentially was the difference between a chance at a 2nd victory in SLC tonight. It’s not all the benches fault certainly, but it’s a very big component as to why the Kings weren’t able to ever really scare the Jazz and make it a close game down the stretch. At halftime, it was 49-46 Jazz. With 4 1/2 minutes left, it was tied 59 up. By the end of the 3rd qtr, it was 73-63 Jazz. Ballgame.

If you thought the Kings losing to the Jazz by 7 were bad, I shudder to think what would have happened if the Jazz had Deron Williams tonight. (Boozer, not so much because of Millsap.) Oh well.

Last but not least, the very deserving Hot Rod Hundley had a retirement banner lifted to the rafters in his honor by the Jazz tonight. A better honor couldn’t be bestowed on a better announcer. Hot Rod was terrific for those who’ve never had the pleasure of listening to a game called by the man. Absolutely incredible. If for nothing else, I’m glad I got to see the ceremony because the Kings were playing. While the game for the Kings stunk, it was good to see a real legend, and a NBA legend like Hundley, get honored at such a time. And, of course, Hundley announced part of the 3rd qtr, and showing that he is truly in retirement, didn’t know who Jason Thompson was when he scored a layup. Even though Hundley has been in retirement since last season, hope it goes very well Hot Rod!

For everyone else, tomorrow is another day. And, tomorrow it’s the Bobcats. Go, umm, beloved dipshits Kings?

I don’t have a lot to say about this game. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer may not play tonight. That’s going to be a huge deal for the Kings because, well, Williams and Boozer when playing at their best are the Jazz 2 best players. (I still hate Boozer.)

3 things I’d like to see tonight.

1) Spencer Hawes continue to do what he did against Golden State vs Utah tonight.

2) Kevin Martin score early, often , and all game.

3) Jason Thompson getting back on track would be nice too.

Game is at 6pm PST, TV is CSNCA, and Radio is 1140. Enjoy!

Yes, I almost considered not writing about this, but alas I decided to write a few words. Thanks to Sims for the link.

Box Score. 4 Factors:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Golden State	105.0	91.4	34.0%	34.0	24.6	11.4
Sacramento		94.3	40.2%	27.2	36.5	18.1

We know who played really well (Beno, Reke at times, Spence, Sean May). We know who didn’t play well at all (Martin, JT). Stephen Curry for the Golden State Dubs played incredibly well all night (prompting one GS fan at StR to say that Curry is now the better rookie than Evans–which of course is silly), and ended up with a very strong line himself. (I say good on Stephen Curry–any argument he’s a better player than Evans is outright pointless.)

Onto the bullet points.

* Not sure what to say about Sean May, but I loved to see him play well. May has been professional, and has remained so despite the disappointment of not playing much for the entire season.

* My only proposed solution to Kevin Martin’s problems: Keep shooting.

* Jt’s problems? Like Jerry Reynolds said last night, JT needs to face up on players defending him. The way he exploits this matchup best is by taking the ball 15-18 ft away from the basket and then making a move. Simple.

* Andres Nocioni line wasn’t all that impressive, but he did some good things (being physical for one) defensively that did make it somewhat difficult for the Dubs to take the ball inside whenever they wanted. The flip side to Noc’s good night defensively is that he continues to chuck inefficiently. On the flip side to that inefficient night, the 3 balls that Noc hit in the 4th were a big part of the Kings maintaining a big lead.

* Spence’s game was brilliant last night. I submit, if nothing else, that’s a top 3 game (game at home vs Memphis early in the season, the game against LA on New Years, and last night). I don’t really know what to say, but his defense is so much better than JT’s right now it isn’t funny.

* The Kings didn’t really miss Jon Brockman last night. Which is amazing given the amount of boards AND physical play that saw a combined 75 FT’s.

* Tyreke Evans was a tale of 2 players. The first player, the player who put up big numbers, scored a lot in transistion, and did so effectively. The second player, slowed it down and walked the ball up the court, let himself be drawn into the halfcourt game on which he’s not nearly as effective in. Goading by fans, or no. (H/T to IW for the link.)

* I think Paul Westphal deserves some credit for this game and how it was managed. For the most part, the combinations used in this particular game worked. Yet again, these are the perils of dealing with a young team. (And a talent deficient team.)

* I don’t even know what to say about Beno other than this: Draino this!

* I loved the 68 rebounds. I hated the 19 TO’s (4 by Beno–and 3 apiece from Evans & Martin).

Okay that’s it. Good day.

Last night: Miami aka the 7th ring of hell. Tonight: Golden State aka the 6th ring of hell. Good times.

Golden State is fast. (You knew that.) Sacramento plays fast. I typed all this shit up yesterday in what I see as solutions (Jon Brockman’s injury not withstanding), and all that.

The deal here is simple. The Kings either play with urgency, aggressiveness, and bring some level of physical play (Brockman not withstanding). Or they don’t. You want a game preview, read this.

Game is at 7, TV is CSNCA and Radio is 1140. Enjoy!

There’s a point in every season where a fan has to decide what it is they expect, and whether that expectation is unrealistic or not. I suppose that point might as well be now for Kings fans.

Let’s talk about Spence & JT for a moment. We both know each have their moments, but really what’s the difference between the two? Why is it one player catches so much crap (Spence) while other gets a free pass for poor play?

First, I’m not saying anything about the end-all be-all of these methods. I just happen to take some stock in them is all. (Which means my delusion is your delusion which is my delusion….)

By strict Defensive Rating, both Spence and JT have ratings of 110. (This is not good.) Good, by comparison would be Kevin Garnett. Garnett’s Def-Rating is 99 this season. Now, obvioiusly, this isn’t about KG. So let’s squash this. I was just bringing up one player that I knew had a good Def-Rating to make my point.

Now, let’s look at adjusted +/- for the season. Here are Spence specifics, and JT specifics.

But, really, how can Spence take “more” crap for being a worse defender? They both are doing awful. (I think more people give JT a pass for it.) So, the question is why? JT is performing slightly better on OFFENSE. (Earlier in the season there was a bigger gap, but not much. Both Spence & JT have fallen off lately.) Kind of ironic when you think about it, but there it is.

So the question is: What IS the solution? Getting an athletic player up front who can finish consistently better inside than JT or Spence can, and be far better on the interior than either JT or Spence would be the ideal solution. The problem? I just described All-Star bigs, of which JT or Spence (obviously) are not. As far as I’m concerned, JT is more of an ideal 2nd big because of his offense, and Spence is an ideal 3rd big because while he isn’t great at anything other than passing from the high post (which coincidentally came with his best game of the season–in LA on New Years), he is good at a few many things that if you put him next to this “stud” (we’ll just call him that) it will make the physical limitations of Spence less noticeable because now teams have to react to this stud. I’m probably still leaning towards Derrick Favors, but I can be convinced that Ed Davis or DeMarcus Cousins could be the answer too. (Especially Cousins. He has some wicked stats.)

Yet, does that mean that JT & Spence can’t get better. Surely! I just think that extra athlete is mandatory if the Kings are going to get MUCH better with JT & Spence as part of the consistent frontcourt rotation.

So what to do with Kevin Martin? Well, I suggest there is little the Kings can do other than let Kevin play out of his slump.

Here’s something else that may (or may not) cheer you up: Kevin Martin has historically played well against Golden State in his career.

Sometimes that’s all you need and what not. Kevin Martin is, if nothing else, a quality shooter who simply needs to see the ball going into the basket more often than not. It’s easy to become discouraged when everything you try is not working.

I think the biggest solution for Kevin is not to pass up shots. The team needs that, Kevin needs that, and the the other players on the court NEED Kevin to be that player.

As far as Tyreke Evans is concerned, his numbers over the road trip looked okay. (As they should be with a guy who has the ball in his hands as often as the ball is.)

There is a simple answer for this (listen to the song to find out):

Tyreke simply needs to play faster, and that’s pretty much that. Why? Because the team is built for up-tempo, Paul Westphal is a coach that historically (and realistically) does better with teams that push the pace, and really that is the job of Tyreke Evans. He’s the teams point guard. He needs to understand that pushing the ball at a breakneck pace is what makes this team a dangerous offensive team. (It also diminishes their liability on defense somewhat.)

This Kings team is not built to walk it up the floor. I’m not stating anything new. It’s just the key to Easy Reke playing better as the pages turn to the team not going past the Rocky Mountains for awhile.

As far as rotations, I thought NoceOne of StR had a great point about PW’s rotations:

I have a beef with PW’s substituting today but while I was looking at stats, I realized something…PW IS setting his rotation. Look at this.

In the last 5 games, my man Nocioni has played 7 (Heat), 11(Magic), 4 (Hawks), 21 (Bobcats) and 4mins (Wiz). That means PW has committed to playing him about 4-10mins a night, with the exception of that 21min game where he earned more PT by playing well (5-11 FG, 3-7 3PT’s, part of big comeback against Cats)

With Donte Greene, PW has committed to playing him about 20-25mins a night. His mins in the last 5 games are 29, 16, 16, 32, 20. His stats aren’t that much better than Noce (8, 5, 0, 12, 7pts) but again, we are just talking about PT. And yes, the 32min game was were he was playing better, shooting 4-7, with 12 pts.

Omri Casspi is now PW’s 25-30 min guy, logging in 27, 16, 30 ,22 and 24mins. In the 30min game, he went for 16pts on 8-13 shooting. JT is a 20-25 min guy (usually because of fouls), logging in mins of 23, 26, 36, 16, 23, Evans (31, 36, 32, 40, 40) and Martin (24, 40, 37, 26, 37)are 35-40min guys.

Beno (13, 24, 30, 24, 22) is now a 25min guy while Spencer Hawes (26, 18, 12, 12, 38) has the biggest fluctuations in PT, mostly because Hawes is inconsistent and can come in with a great performance or a sucky one on any given day.

Brockman (23, 18, 22, 30, 12) seems to be slotted for about 20mins a game while Udoka (16, 12, 7, 4, 12), like Noce is a 4-10min guy. Armstrong, Sergio, K9 and May mop up what’s left of the mins or play according to match ups.

That being said, I now see PW’s rotation. I must say, if he’s consistent with this, then I’m okay with it.

Just like to apologize for taking all of NoceOne’s comment in the blockquote, but I thought seeing the whole thing was worth it. (Rules were meant to be broken in happenstance. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. Until next time.) The point here, though, in fact is that Paul Westphal is starting to carve out playing time based on roles and player value to the team. Kevin Martin and Tyreke Evans are your best players, and you don’t make yourself better by taking either off the court. (Unless you’re playing abysmally as Kevin, unfortunately, was at times during the road trip.)

Everyone else? You have to prove yourself consistently against competition, and only a few players on this roster have EVER done that in the NBA. My biggest beef with the Miami game is that Nocioni never got another look despite the role HE DID play within that game. I don’t know if Noc would have kept the Kings from getting knocked over like an old woman on South Beach during a Hurricane, as opposed to the group that did play, but I do know that he was way too effective to only play 5 minutes.

There was another argument during the Orlando Post-Game thread at StR about whether it’s realistic to expect a head coach to play starters consistently AND utilize the hot hand. I suspect that, like anything else, it depends on the opponent and the other players on the team.

Sergio Rodriguez, and his better ball movement has been tapped as a reason why (by some fans) he should get more minutes. (Yet, every time I watch Sergio get extended minutes he doesn’t do anything spectacular that makes me believe he’s earned more than garbagetime minutes with Martin back in the rotation.)

Nocioni, unlike Rodriguez, does other things that does help the team. One, in the Miami game, he played at a faster pace (hmm–certainly doesn’t help Sergio’s case that’s for sure), and at times when he gets hot from the perimeter can help a struggling young team find it’s way. I’m not saying Nocioni deserves lots of minutes every single night every single time. I’m just saying where as Rodriguez hasn’t done the same thing with his minutes, Nocioni is far more valuable to the Kings in more ways. It’s just that, sort of like the perception that Spence is worse defensively than JT, the view that Omri Casspi & Donte Greene are the future here clouds the real view of how effective and important Nocioni can be to the Kings today. Sometimes, if nothing else, it’s just that simple. (I really like that line! Yay, me!)

The question is how can Paul Westphal reach these guys to make them understand how to push the tempo? And, if nothing else, I don’t have a clue on that one. I’m not a head coach, and how to create answers where the coaches on the coaching staff aren’t seeming to come up with any probably suggests one more important thing: The Kings will play better when their players start playing better.

I want to tie this all together. You have defense woes on the interior (not surprising), you have a PG whose natural inclination is to carry the offense by scoring the ball, a struggling SG who has seemingly tried to be like the young 20 year old PG, a group of role players who have suddenly found their roles very different than just 3 weeks ago, and a head coach expected to have immediate answers for a desperate, angry, misled fanbase that wants their cake and eat it too.

Okay, I exaggerated somewhat, but, really, how much? On the fanbase? Paul Westphal? Andres Nocioni and Sergio Rodriguez? Kevin Martin or Tyreke Evans? Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson?

This team needs things on the interior it doesn’t have, and won’t likely have in Hilton Armstrong.

It has a young PG who has played more games in a 3 month span than he ever has in his life. (That’s true of the 21 year old SF’s too. At least Donte has the advantage of having spent an entire NBA season in the NBA/NBDL.) I don’t know if I’d blame tired legs as the core of the problem. I think it’s the mental part of the game that these players haven’t adjusted to. It’s hard to adjust mentally for 82 games a season (and we’re not even talking about a playoff team). The notion of better teams coasting because they don’t want to waste energy is a real drive to shorten the season. (See: Every other Bill Simmons column.)

Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes have been completely adjusted to by the NBA scouts and players. Every good team has figured them out, and most of the middle of the pack teams have too. Unless JT can use both hands effectively to finish, he will likely have problems finishing at a higher rate than what JT is currently performing near the cup. Spence’s problems are more of a personal nature, rather than a skill, and it’s simply aggressiveness. I wish he could dunk more balls than he does, but that’s not likely to happen. That’s not who Spence is. I also wish, though, that more half court sets (when the Kings aren’t not running the snot out of other teams) would be run through Spence at the high post. Both he and JT (to a much lesser extent) do that well enough. Right now, too many possessions are one-on-one extensions of Tyreke Evans ability. And, with all due respect to the Blueprint, Evans is not good enough to carry this team the way Dwyane Wade does Miami. At least not yet, anyway.

Omri Casspi must starting hitting more 3 balls than he has lately, and it’s really that simple. Whether he does may or may not be a matter of how effective the Kings are running their fast tempo offense or halfcourt offense if they have to set up. Omri might just miss more shots as the looming end of the season comes.

I don’t know what will happen. Nobody does anybody else. I do know that this stretch of top tier teams has kicked these young hombres in the ass effectively. But that isn’t my question anymore. I knew it would happen because the odds over the history of the NBA said this would happen. The question I really have is: What now?

Have fun rooting for your (at the moment) 15-28 Baby Royals who are now 19th in Offensive Efficiency and 27th in Defensive Efficiency. (6th in Pace though.) I hope your chair has a seatbelt attached. Make sure it’s both loose and tight at the same time. This could get very rough and at the moment conditions could change. All Aboard!!!!!

Every year, I hope for a win in Miami. The loss tonight puts the Kings a shimmering 3-18 in Miami since the Kings first played in Miami in 1989. So, yeah. (At least the Magic beat the Bobcats in OT. That takes some of the luster off tonight’s loss for me personally.)

Here is the BoxScore. 4 Factors:

Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Sacramento	89.0	94.4	45.2%	24.7	23.1	14.6
Miami		129.2	60.3%	26.9	31.4	11.2

I’m not going to waste time rationalizing another crappy loss. What’s the point? This team simply overachieved by quite a good margin during the first 2 months of the season, and all of that has simply caught up to them. That’s the simple version. The complicated version is a lot longer, and I don’t want to write that right now. Maybe tomorrow; maybe not. The next game is on Tuesday vs Golden State, and I’m so glad the Kings dont have a game until then. They need that time off. Whatever went wrong on this 6 game road trip went real badly for this team. They haven’t recovered yet. And that happens with young teams. Of which the Kings definitely are.

As to the basketball reasons? Well, it’s pretty simple. The Heat were hot tonight, and the Kings didn’t seem to offer them much resistance tonight. When they did offer resistance, Miami hit their shots anyway. It was that kind of night for the Kings all night. Miami’s quickness and athleticism bothers the Kings, and the fact that the Kings are not playing cohesively didn’t help matters.

So, that’s pretty much it. I have nothing to say positive about this team other than they are young, and this happens. That’s how poorly they played throughout this road trip (2nd half in Charlotte not withstanding). Maybe that’s the answer: Me not watching.

With young teams, even with teams that win 32 games, you still have the 50 losses. The way the Kings are playing right now, 50 losses doesn’t seem not only imminent; it’s a wonder if the Kings could even muster 20 wins.

My belief, though, is that the schedule will lighten up (the Kings have had a brutal January), and some confidence will be restored for this group. That’s all you can really ask. So, if you’re patient, and can live with some ugly losses here or there, you’ll be okay. If you can’t, rebuilding is not for you. At the end of the day, it’s just that simple.