God bless HighTops. -- TZ

The Lakers lead the season series 2-1.   Back on Nov.3rd, Kobe put up a triple double to lift LA over the Kings 112-100.   Then on Dec. 3rd, the Kings went to the Staple Center to face LA who were in their 1st four game losing streak in 4 years, but we couldn't take advantage of them.   We actually ended up losing by 33, 113-80.  But on Jan. 28th the Kings returned to LA and put a 100-95 whooping on LA to end an 8 game losing streak to the NBA Champions.

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OK City has secured 1st place in the Northwest division with a record of 54-26.   They are one game behind the Lakers and Dallas, and with two games left could move into 2nd place in the West behind San Antonio.   They are tied for the longest winning streak in the conference at 4 games, and are 8-2 in the last ten games.   They are 30-10 at home and have the 4th best road record at 24-16.

The Thunder own a 3-0 lead in the season series against the Kings including a 126-96 win in our last game back on Feb. 15th.   In that game Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic started for Oklahoma, but less than 10 days later they were traded along with OKC's 2012 first round pick to Boston for Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson.    The Thunder also traded Mo Peterson and DJ White to Charlotte for Nazr Mohammed which finally gives the Thunder the size in the post to go up against teams like the Lakers.

Prior to the trade OKC was 36-20 (64.3%) since the trade deadline they are 17-6 (73.9%).  Field goal percentage is at 47.1%, 3P% is at 36.4%, PPG are at 105.1, Tot Rebs are at 43.5, and Off Rebs are at 11.6.   Every percentage is up 1% and every total is also up 1.   So, they're shooting better, scoring better, rebounding better, and winning more often; I guess size does matter.

Since the trade, Russell Westbrook and Thabo Sefolosha remain as the starting backcourt.   Serge Ibaka moved in the starting PF spot and Kendrick Perkins moved into the starting center spot, and Kevin Durant remains as the starting SF.   Off the bench we have Nazr Mohammed and Nick Collison down low, with James Harden, Eric Maynor, Daequan Cook, and Nate Robinson filling the guard and wing spots.

Since joining the team, Perkins is averaging 5.5 pts/ 8.6 rebs/ 1 blk in 25 mpg.   Mohammed is averaging 6.5 pts/ 4.6 rebs/ in 17.3 mpg.    Nate has only played in 3 games and averages less than 4 mpg.

Durant and Harden have combined for 720 of OKC's 1350 three point attempts and are shooting around 35%.   Cook and Maynor are the true high percentage three pts threats but don't take a lot of attempts per game.   Maynor shoots 39.4% on just over 1 three point attempt per game and Cook shoots 41.3% on just over 3.5 per game.

Perkins leads the team with 8.6 rpg and 2.5 on the offensive glass, Ibaka is 2nd at 7.6 per game with 2.7 coming on the offensive glass and third is Durant at 6.9 rpg.   Westbrook, Mohammed, Sefolosha, and Collison all average around 4.5 rpg.

They are only slightly better than average defensively (ranked 14th), but they have the 6th best offense rating.   What makes them really good offensively is that they have the highest FT% in the league at 82%, and they have 3rd best rate at getting to the FT line at almost 30 times a game or almost 25 pts per game.

The Thunder beat the Lakers in the Staple Center last night in what was a very intense game, including a moment where Perkins and Kobe got into it and received technical.   Now with two games left and the Lakers up one game and owning the tie breaker, OKC needs to beat us and hope that we turn around and beat the Lakers.   And, the Lakers need to either win on Tuesday at home against the Spurs or here on Wednesday against the Kings to lock up 2nd place in the West.   So, I'm guessing there aren't going to be any easy games to finish the season, unless the Lakers beat San Antonio in which case LA may rest their starters.

As for the Kings chances against the Thunder, well their not very good.   We foul too often and we turn the ball over too often.  Our offense looks good, except when we put the ball into Sam or JT's hands away from the rim and they try to dribble the ball thru a crowd.   When the Kings went up against Perkins while he was still with Boston, DeMarcus and Sammy did pretty good and held Shaq and Perkins to 10 pts and 10 rebs, while combining for 24 pts/ 13 rebs/ 7 blks themselves.  And, both only had 3 fouls.    I think Thornton on Westbrook and Tyreke on Sefolosha, should be an interest matchup.   But, as always how do we stop Durant.   Maybe the answer is to give him all the open 3pt shots he wants and hope for the best.   Let's hope for the best, go Kings.

It seems like every series between the Kings and the Warrior has come down to the wire.    In the 2008-2009 season, the teams split the season 2-2 with each team winning both games on the other teams' home court.   And, each won one game in overtime, GS won 143-141 in overtime and the Kings won 135-133 in triple overtime.   Last season, they each won both of their home games.   This season the Warriors won the first meeting in Arco 117-109 in overtime and won the first game in Oracle Arena 119-112 also in overtime.    Back home on the March 14th the Kings put an end to the Warriors 2 game winning streak by defeating the Warriors 129-119.   So, if the Kings are to remain tied with the Warriors over the last 3 seasons they'll need to win in Oracle Arena one more time.

Golden States only trade at the deadline was to acquire Troy Murphy from New Jersey and then promptly waive him 3 days later.   They did sign Al Thornton in early March after he was waived by Washington.   So, the main change from earlier in the season is the Kings acquisition of Marcus Thornton.   Also, the Warriors Center Andris Biedrins has missed ninth straight games because of a sprained left ankle, and it's unknown whether he'll return before the end of the season. 

In our lone win Marcus Thornton, in his 10th game with the Kings, scored a career-high 42 points and Samuel Dalembert finished with a career high 27 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.   After falling behind 3-0 the Kings answered with 19 straight points for a 19-3 lead.    The Kings finished the opening quarter leading 35-20.   The Kings  pushed the lead 25 points 3:15 into the second quarter, but Golden State cut the Kings lead back to 12 , 71-59, by the end of the quarter.  The lead was still 14 with 6:33 left in the 3rd when the Kings started to pull away and finished the quarter on a 14-4 run and started the fourth up by 23, 107-84.  Golden States head Coach Keith Smart pulled his starter to start the fourth and went with his reserves for the rest of the game.  The lead was still 24 points with 5:18 remaining in the game, when the Warriors went on a 15-0 run to close to within nine with 2:14 remaining.   The Kings were able outscore the Warriors 6-5 over the remainder of the game to pull out the 129-119 victory.

All the Kings starters scored in double figures along with Luther Head who had 10 pt/ 5 asts/ 4 rebs off the bench.   The Kings out rebounded the Warriors 46 to 24 and 11 to 4 on the offensive glass.   But the Kings gave some of those extra possessions back by turning over the ball 19 times to GS's 13 turnovers.  Golden States big 3 of Lee, Curry and Ellis played more than 12 minutes below their usual mpg, so it's difficult to determine Marcus' impact in the outcome of this game.   We did dominate the boards and we outscored the Warriors 66-38 in the paint, and with Biedrins out that shouldn't change.  

The Warriors are out of the playoffs and can only move up in the standings which hurts their odds in the lottery, so basically their playing for pride, and they're playing very well.   They're on a 3 game winning streak with wins against Dallas, Portland and the Lakers

The starting lineup for the Warriors should be Dorell Wright and David Lee at the forwards, Ekpe Udoh at Center, and Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis in the backcourt.    David Lee, Monta Ellis, Dorell Wright and Stephen Curry have carried the Warriors during the three-game winning streak.  Each has played at least 40 mpg over that stretch except Curry who had to sit out a quarter in foul trouble and Wright who got some rest in the blow out win over the Trailblazers.   Lou Amundson is seeing almost starter minutes in relief of Udoh and has averaged 9.3 points and 6.3 rebounds over the last three games off the bench. And he's made more free throws than any other Warrior in the last two games.

David Lee is averaging 22.0 points and 12.1 rebounds over the last eight games.   Dorell Wright is averaging 15 pts/ 5.5 rebs on 40% from the field and 29% from three in the last 10 games which is far below his seasonal average of 38% from three.   Ekpe Udoh the athletic 6-10 rookie out of Baylor hasn't taken advantage of his new starters minutes, and is only averaging 6.5 pts/ 4.5 rebs on 45% field since taking over for Biedrins.    But the Warriors are all about Ellis and Curry, and their doing fine.   Monta is averaging 23 pts/ 6.6 asts/ and 3.6 rebs while shooting 45% from the field and 44% from three point range in 40+ mpg which is slightly better than his seasonal average.   Stephen is averaging 17 pts/ 5.7 asts/ 5 rebs on 40% field and 45.7% from beyond the arc, and let's not forget his 90+% from the FT line.

Down the stretch, Coach Smart has cut his rotation down to 9 in close games, with Reggie Williams, Al Thornton and Vladimir Radmanovic joining Lou Amundson off the bench.   But, with 4 of the starters playing almost 40 mpg, everyone but Lou is being limited to 15 mpg unless someone gets into foul trouble.

Both teams are seeing good improvement as the season winds down.   The last three season series have had 1/3 of the games go into overtime, and both teams have won as many home games as away games; assuming that the Kings can pull out a victory Sunday in Oracle Arena.   So, right now I'd guess that there is no sure fire favorite to win this game.   The Kings should control the paint, and GS will probably outscore us on the outside jumpers.   The Kings bench should be the favorite over the Warriors bench, but the GS starters play so many minutes that it's hard to say how much impact the bench will have in this game.   So, in the end it probably comes down to Tyreke and Marcus' defense on Ellis and Curry.   On KHTK the other night, Truck Robinson mentioned that the coaches are concerned about the offense with Tyreke and Marcus together because one stands around while the other has the ball.    But, I've got to believe that defensively they are our best backcourt.   So, in the battle of the best, can the Kings defend the Warriors?   We'll find out soon.   Get back on defense and go Kings.

Memphis leads the season series 2-1, having won at Arco back on Nov. 6th (100-91) and FedEx Forum in February 120-92.  The only Kings win came on Dec. 29th 100-98.  Of course everyone should remember the Kings win because it has its own name; The Shot.

The Kings trailed with 8 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, 83-74.   But, they tied the game 93 all with 57 seconds left.   Randolph made a running hook and Conley made one of two from the FT line to give the Grizzlies a 3pt lead with 31 seconds left.   But the Kings took it right back as DeMarcus hit a jumper and with 16 seconds left Tyreke stole the ball from Mayo and drove the length of the court for a breakaway dunk.    Memphis called timeout and inbounded the ball in the front court.   Rudy Gay missed a jumper but the ball went out of bounds off the Kings and Memphis got one more try.   They inbounded the ball and Mayo hit a running jumper with 1.5 seconds left for a 98-97 lead.   The Kings had no timeouts although most of the Grizzlies didn't know that.   In the confusion, DeMarcus inbounded the ball to Tyreke who put up a prayer from 50 feet and the rest is history, 100-98 Kings.

The last game was one day after the trade deadline.   Newly acquired Marcus Thornton came off the bench for the Kings and Shane Battier played 25 minutes for the Grizzlies.   Tyreke was undergoing PF treatment so Jermaine Taylor started at the 2.   Points off of 3PT shots were even as were points from the FT line.   The Kings shot a respectable 45% from the field, but the Kings turned the ball over 8 more times and had 3 fewer offensive boards.   It gave Memphis a 10 FG attempt advantage.   They made the best of it by shooting 55% from the Field, and made 14 more baskets; 52 of 95 for the Grizz and 38 of 85 for the Kings.

The Kings had a 28-23 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Grizzlies went on an 8-1 run at the end of the 2nd to take a 56-49 advantage at the half.   The teams exchanged baskets and at 9:10 of the 3rd Beno hit a jumper for his 22 pts to make the score 64-57 advantage Memphis.   Beno would only score 2 more pts in the entire game.   The Kings scored only 9pts in the last 9 minutes of the quarter while the Grizzlies scored 25 and took an 89-66 lead going into the fourth.

JT left the game with 2:24 in the 3rd with a sprained ankle; Memphis' bigs took control of the paint, and stretch the lead to as high as 33 pts.  The Grizzlies ended up with a franchise record 78 points in the paint outscoring the Kings 78-46. Forward Zach Randolph had 23 points, center Marc Gasol had 21, Forward Darrell Arthur added 17, and seldom used Hamed Haddadi had 10. In his first game back with Memphis, Battier had 2 pts/ 2 rebs/ 3 asts and 3 blks on 1-3 shooting in 25 minutes.

Beno was the leading scorer for the Kings with 24, and the only starter in double figures.   Omri had 8, JT had 4, Sam had 7 and Taylor had 9.   Thornton had 15pts on 7-18 and 0-4 from 3 in his first game as a King.    Darnell Jackson had 6 pts in 21 minutes, Pooh Jeter was 2-6 for 4pts and Donte was 1-1 for 3pts in just 5 minutes.     Cousins was 4-11 for 12pts in 27 minutes off the bench.  In the Charlotte game the day before, PW pulled Cousins 15 seconds into the third quarter after he committed his 6th turnover and sat him for the rest of the quarter. He did return for the first 6 minutes of the 4th quarter when he committed his 7th turnover.   DeMarcus lost his starting spot for this game and the next two games to JT before regaining it.

Since the trade deadline the Grizzlies are 12-7.   They are currently in 8th place in the West with a record of 44-34, one game behind 6th place New Orleans and 7th place Portland.    They are four games in the loss column ahead of Houston with 4 games to play.   Houston does own the tie breaker with a 3-1 advantage in the season series so they're not mathematically out of it.   So, a win against the Kings or a loss by Houston will guarantee Memphis a spot in the playoffs, although they have announced that playoff tickets go on sale Saturday.

On the season, the Kings and Grizzlies are very close statistically with the Kings having a slight advantage in Total Rebounding, Offensive Rebounding and 3P%.   And, Memphis has a slight advantage in FG%, FT%, Steals, Blocks and a big advantage in Turnovers.   Offensively Memphis scores about 1pt more than the Kings and defensively they give up 7 less points.   But, in the last 10 games the defense of both teams has improved, so the difference is closer to a 4pts advantage for Memphis.

Sam Young has been starting at SF since early January and averages 7 pts/ 2 rebs on 47% field and 30% from three.   Zach Randolph is averaging 20 pts/ 12.2 at PF, and Marc Gasol has started every game averaging 14 pts/ 7 rebs/ 1.6 blocks.   Mike Conley has started every game at PG, averaging 14 pts/ 6.6 asts/ 3 rebs on 44% from the field and 37% from three.   Tony Allen has been starting as SG since Feb 22nd after Rudy Gay partially dislocated his left shoulder.   Allen is not a 3pt threat having only attempted 22 all season and only making 4.   As a starter he's averaging 13.7 pts/ 3.7 rebs on 54% field.

Since rejoining the Grizz, Shane Battier is averaging 4.4 pts/ 4.6 rebs in 24 mpg on 39% field and 29% from three.    Darrell Arthur is averaging 9 pts/ 4.3 rebs in 20 minutes off the bench.   And, OJ Mayo is averaging 11 pts/ 2.4 rebs/ 2 asts in 26 mpg, shooting 41% from the field and 37% from three.   Rookie second round pick Greivis Vasquez gets about 11 minutes off the bench and averages 3 pts & 2 asts.   The only real 3pt threats are OJ Mayo, Mike Conley and the injured Rudy Gay.   So, the main challenge will be to stop their inside game, and based on the size of Randolph and Gasol that's a big challenge.

Memphis is 7-3 in their last 10 games and had won 6 in a row at home before losing to the Clippers 82-81 on Tuesday.   They have only allowed their opponent an average of 87 ppg in those 7 games.   So, how will the Kings fair?   The bigger question may be. How bad is DeMarcus' shoulder injury?   It's been bothering him for about a month, but seems to be getting worse lately, as he's been wearing a brace even though he doesn't feel comfortable with it.   Against the Spurs he played without it until he got hurt and had to go to the locker room and came back out wearing it again.   In spite of the injury, Cousins is averaging a double double thru February, March and April, but Memphis may be the biggest challenge he'll have to face this month.   Cousins has missed only one game all season after being left home after the Donte debacle, and Dalembert has missed 2, one due to injury and one to bury a friend.   If this game is going to come down to whose big men are the toughest.   I like our chances.

The Spurs started March on an 8-3 run including a 108-103 win against the Kings in Bat Bowl II.  But a six game losing streak followed after Tim Duncan landed awkwardly; an MRI later confirmed he sprained his left ankle.   An all-out injury epidemic followed, with Tony Parker going out with a left patella contusion, and Manu Genobili sustained a bruised left thigh.  On Sunday, San Antonio faced a Suns team without Steve Nash and put an end to the losing streak, and everyone is back and healthy now.

With 4 games to go, the Spurs have a record of 59-19 and are 3.5 games ahead of the Lakers for the outright lead in the Western Conference.   And they continue to dominate at home with a record of 34-5 so their last 2 home games against the Kings Wednesday and Jazz on Saturday could clinch the top spot in the Western.

In our first meeting of the season back on Feb. 4th, the Spurs got out to a 34-19 lead and after that the game was never in doubt.   Duncan played only 13 first half minutes and then watched the remainder of the game from the bench.   DeJuan Blair and Tiago Splitter combined for 26 pts/ 21 rebs, while Dalembert and Cousins combined for 7 pts and 18 rebs.  Garcia was out, but Tyreke was available and scored 25pts/ 5 asts/ 4 rebs in just under 40 minutes.

In our second game, The Night of the Killer Bat, down in San Antonio, the Kings kept it close for most of the game; losing the 1st quarter by two and finishing the half down 6.   The Kings got 2 back in the third and started the fourth down only 4; the Kings couldn't close the deal and lost 108-103. The Kings did take a 91-88 lead with 5:34 to go in the fourth after Jermaine Taylor hit a 3-pointer and a pair of layups.   But Taylor was unable to stay with Ginobili who scored nine points during a 14-2 run that put the game away.    

James Anderson started at SF for the Spurs in place of Richard Jefferson, who had the night off due to personal reasons.  And, Antonio McDyess started at center in place of DeJuan Blair who had been the starting center since the beginning of the season.   McDyess has start the last 13 games, while Blair has seen his minutes drop from 26 in Feb. to 19.7 in March and now 15.5 in April as he comes off the bench.

The Kings were without Tyreke who was undergoing PF treatment, and Beno stayed home with the flu and missed the road trip.   Newly acquired Marcus Thornton playing in only his 8 game since joining the Kings, started at the 2 and scored 11pts on 5-14 shooting.   Luther Head started in place of Beno and scored 7 pts on 3-6 shooting.   Sammy and DeMarcus struggled against Duncan and McDyess, scoring only 12 pts and pulling down 18 rebounds.   Taylor and Casspi led the Kings with 16 pts off the bench.

The turnovers were even at 14, and the Kings outscored the Spurs by 1 pt from the field.   But, San Antonio got to the FT Line 10 more times leading to 6 more pts from the charity stripe to account for the 5 pt victory 108-103.   A little bit of stat trivia for you, the Kings have a 35% winning percentage when their FT attempts are equal to or more than their opponents and their winning percentage is 22% when they have fewer FT attempts.   Playing defense without fouling or spending more money to pay off the refs, needs to be a high priority next season.

In spite of Tony Parker's bruised kneecap, he's right on par with his seasonal average of 17.6 pts/ 6.6 asts, but in the last 10 his 3P% has dropped below 33% and he's only 2-11 or 18% in the last 5 games.   Manu Ginobili is also having a tough time since he bruised his thigh, and is slightly below average over the last 10 games but in the last 5 games he's only averaging 12 points on 41% shooting from the field and 29% from three point range.   Tim Duncan seems to be showing little effect of his injury, scoring 13pts and 8.3 rebs on 55% from the field over the last 10 games.

Richard Jefferson is still on pace with his average for the season scoring 11 pts/ 4 rebs on 48% from the field and 44% from three on almost 300 attempts.   Since taking over the starting job 13 games ago, Antonio McDyess is averaging 6.5 pts/ 6.6 rebs on 43% shooting in 23 mpg.   George Hill is the only other player scoring in double figures with 11 pts/ 2.5 asts on 45.6% field and 38% from three.

Coach Popovich goes with a pretty long bench so expect to see Matt Bonner play some 4, but his 3Pt shooting has dropped below 50% to a mere 46.5%.  Tiago Splitter could see a few more minute because of his success against the Kings in the last game depending how close we get.   But, I'd put him, James Anderson, DeJuan Blair, and Gary Neal all in the 15 mpg, and all in the 3-8 ppg range except Neal who is definitely a double figures guy.

In spite of the closeness of the last game, I got the feeling that if Pop had put his starters in together for any length of time that they would have pulled away and put the game out of reach.   Of course we were without Beno and Tyreke, and Luther starting, so this should be a whole new ballgame.   Not that I think that the Kings are going to win; the Kings haven't beaten the Spurs since Nov. 2007 that's 11 straight games.   The Kings can't win a jump shooting contest with the Spurs.   They're going to have to control the boards, eliminate stupid turnovers, and get out on as many fast breaks as they can.   Trying to win a half-court game is also not a good strategy.   They have the experience and we have the legs.   Both teams are on the 2nd game of a back-to-back, so maybe that will play in favor of the Kings who have the younger legs.     So like they said in the Forest Gump movie, "Run Kings Run".

Utah and Phoenix were officially knocked out of the playoff race in the West.  Houston is the only team left with a chance of moving into the playoffs.   New Orleans and Memphis are tied for 7th place a game behind 6th place Portland.   So, with 5 games left Houston is not mathematically out of the playoffs.   At 41-36 they are 3 game behind both Memphis and New Orleans and 4 behind Portland, so they need to win their remaining  5 games and hope one of the other teams loses 3 or 4 of their remaining 5 games.

The Rockets are 13-4 since the trade deadline and 8-4 since beating the Kings 123-101 in Sacramento back on March 7th.   Their FG% (45.4%) ranks them one place ahead of the King who are at 44.8%, but the Rockets have the 10th best TS% because of their 3P% where they are ranked 11th, and FT% where they are ranked 4th.   And they take full advantage of that good shooting by limiting their turnovers (6th fewest) while the Kings rank the 3rd worst.

We should see the same starting lineup as the last game Chuck Hayes at center Luis Scola at PF, Chase Budinger at SF, Kevin Martin at SG and Kyle Lowry at PG.   The shortened bench consists of Courtney Lee, Goran Dragic, Patrick Patterson and Jordan Hill.

Houston has won the first 3 games of our 4 game series, and in the last game they killed us in transition. They scored 33 points off 16 turnovers and pushed the ball at every opportunity resulting in 26 fast break points.  Houston made 26-of-27 from the line and that's where the game was truly lost.

The Kings DeMarcus Cousins recorded a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Samuel Dalembert grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.   Marcus Thornton added 16 points and Beno Udrih contributed 15 points. Francisco Garcia scored 11 points, Omri Casspi and Jermaine Taylor each tallied 10 points off the bench.   The Kings out rebounded the Rockets, 42-39.

Kevin Martin scored 15 points. Luis Scola and Goran Dragic each tallied 10 points. Lowry grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.   Budinger was high scorer with 20, and Lowry and Lee contributed 19 each.

The Kings outscored the Rockets from the field by 2 pts.   But Houston got to the FT line 27 times and made 26 on 16 fouls by the Kings.   The Kings got to the FT line only 11 times on 17 fouls by Houston giving the Rockets a 17 pts advantage from the Charity Stripe.  Houston also made 9-23 (39%) from beyond the arc while the Kings made 2-6 for 33%.   So, in the end we lost another game while the clock was stopped.

In the last 10 games Kevin Martin is averaging 26.5 pts/ 3.2 rebs on 43.6% field and 37.7% from three, but don't send him to the line cause that's where he does his most damage 92% of the time.  Kyle Lowry is shooting 17.7 pts/ 7.8 asts/ 5.9 rebs on 42.6% field and 37.7% from three.   He's also shooting in the 90's from the FT Line.    Luis Scola is contributing 15.7 pts/ 7.5 rebs on 50.8% from the field.   Chase Budinger is averaging 12.1 pts/ 3.3 rebs on 36.7% field and 38.5% from three.   Chuck Hayes is averaging 10 pts/ 10.8 rebounds on 43.8% from the field.   Lee, Patterson, Dragic and Hill average between 6-8 pts per game.

The only change between this game and the last one is that TYREKE IS BACK.    But will it be enough?   In the last game Scola injured his knee early in the third quarter and didn't return.   And Martin missed seven of eight first-half shots so the margin of victory could have been much larger.  It was Budinger, Lowry, and Lee that won the game and their bench beat out bench 51-31.

Now with both teams healthy, can the Kings control Hayes and Scola again, and can Tyreke repeat last Sunday's performance against Utah?   It would be a good win for the Kings but it could be the difference between the playoffs and going home early for the Rockets.   It will be interesting to see who wants it the most and plays the hardest.   Stay thirsty and play hard my friends.

Utah leads the series 3-0 with one game to go.  Two of the wins came before the trade deadline and the trade of Deron Williams to New Jersey for Devin Harris and Derrick Favors.   So, I'm going to only look at Utah since the trade deadline.   Prior to the deadline the Jazz were 4-8 and finished March with two more losses, to end the month 4-10, and on a 6 game losing streak.   March ended the same 4-10 record including a 109-102 overtime victory over the Kings in Energy Solutions Arena on March 5th.   Their other victories came at home against the 76ers and the Twolves, and on the road in Toronto which is their only road victory going back to Feb. 25th.

Omri Casspi missed the game because of a sore back so the Kings started a big lineup with Dalembert, Cousins and Greene.   The Kings out rebounded Utah, 50-47, and had a tough time guarding Jefferson (27 pts) down the stretch after Dalembert fouled out.  Garcia who missed 21 games due to injury scored 18 points in his first game back.   DeMarcus Cousins had 18 points and 18 rebounds.

The Kings went on a 13-2 run at the end of the third which ended on a Cousins dunk at the 8:41 mark of the fourth quarter giving the Kings an 83-74 lead.  The Jazz struck back with a 12-1 run to put them back in front. The run was capped with Jefferson's jumper with 4:05 to go.   The two teams continued to exchange baskets until with 25 seconds left in regulation; Jefferson tipped in his own miss and put Utah up by 95-92.   Marcus Thornton, who scored 22 points, made a 3-pointer with 14.1 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 95. 

After Cisco opened up overtime with a three, the Kings were only able to score four more point, 2 on a JT jumper and 2 pts off a layup by Taylor with 4 seconds left and the Kings down by 7.  Raja Bell had two crucial jumpers and a steal in overtime to seal the game.   It was Ty Corbin's first home win as head coach and stopped their home losing streak at seven games.  Corbin is 5-17 since taking over for Jerry Sloan after he retired Feb. 10.

The Kings shot 60% from the FT Line hitting just 19 of 30, and ended up being outscored by 6 when the Jazz hit 25 of 33 in a 7pt loss.   The Kings ended up with 5 more FGA's but 2 fewer made baskets and shot 41% from the field.   And, as always the Kings had too many turnovers (18).

The Jazz are official out of the playoffs after losing their 7th straight game against the Lakers on Friday.   With a record of 36-40, they are in 11th place and 7 games behind 8th place Memphis with 6 games to go.   After the Kings they go to LA to face the Lakers, and then back home against Portland, back on the road to play San Antonio and New Orleans, and finish the season at home against Denver.   It could be that winning in Sacramento may be their only chance of not finishing the season on a 13 game losing streak.

With the current injury report the chances of them ending the season with 13 straight losses look good.   

• Devin Harris: OUT with a strained right hamstring
• Raja Bell: OUT sprained right foot
• Andrei Kirilenko: Out bruised nerve in left knee
• Ronnie Price: Out left leg and shin
• Mehmet Okur: OUT FOR SEASON torn Achilles tendon, strained lower back

Harris injured his hamstring 3 minutes into the March 21 game against Memphis and has sat out the last 5 games.    Bell sprained his right foot in the third quarter of the March 28th game against the Wizard and missed last Friday's game against the Lakers.  Kirilenko left the March 23 game against the Thunder late in the second quarter with a bruised nerve in his left knee, and has missed the last 4 games.   Price was also hurt in the March 28th game, and  Okur hasn't played since Jan. 28th.   With Harris and Price hurt Utah called up guard Kyle Weaver from the NBA Development League.

With so many injuries, Utah went with a big lineup on Friday that included 7-foot-1 Kyrylo Fesenko at Center and Al Jefferson moving to power forward and Paul Millsap to small forward.   The starting backcourt consists of 6-6 forward CJ Miles at SG and ten year pro 6-1 Earl Watson at PG.

The reserves include rookie PF Derrick Favors and Utah's first round pick rookie SF Gordon Hayward and their late 2nd round pick (55) 6-9 SF Jeremy Evans.   The also added 6-6 guard Kyle Weaver and 6-11 center Marcus Cousin from the D-League.

Fesenko has averaged 2pts/ 2 rebs in 9 mpg for 52 games this season, but in his lone start at center against the Lakers he played 27 minutes scoring 4 pts/ 7 rebs/ 2 blks.   Millsap is averaging 17 pts/ 7.7 rebs in 34 mpg shooting 53% field and 33% from three.   Jefferson has started all 76 games, but the last one was the only one where he started at PF instead of Center.   At PF he still was right on his season average of 19 pts/ 9.7 rebs/ 1.9 blks on 50% from the field.   Miles has stepped up his game since being moved to SG, and is shooting 6pts above his season average of 13 pts/ 3.3 rebs, but he's played 41 mpg over the last two games.   Watson is averaging 4 pts/ 3.4 asts for the season, but his mpg have doubled since he moved into the starting spot and so have his stat.   Hayward and Favors have also seen more scoring as their minutes have nearly doubled.

Jefferson is still the man to stop if you're going to beat the Jazz.   DeMarcus had an 18 pt/ 18 reb game against Millsap but I doubt he can do the same against Jefferson and Fesenko might be a little too big and long for him.   I think we need to put Cousins on Jefferson and send Sammy to help if Al goes off, and make Jefferson become a distributor out of the double team.   I'm also concerned that Millsap it too big for Cisco and they just might try to post up Cisco.   Donte is big enough and tall enough if they try to post him up, and I think Garcia and Omri can give Hayward trouble.   So, I'd start Dalembert, Cousins and Greene, and I'd start Tyreke and Beno.   Beno played 43 minutes and scored 16 pts in the last game while Harris was held to 14 and Watson 4.

There is no schedule for the Jazz to get their injured players back, and this may be their best chance of breaking their current losing streak.   I expect them to come out with a lot of energy, and the Kings better be ready to answer back.   Fesenko is a bruiser but Sammy is as tough as they come.   And I think our bench is going to destroy theirs.   DeMarcus seems to be fading as the season winds down, and we may need to rest him more since he'll have a tough match with either Jefferson or Fesenko.   Of course with a 4 game road trip and home games against OK City and the Lakers, this might be the last chance for the Kings to get a win again this season.    Go for 22 guys.

After Wednesday's game in Denver, Nuggets coach George Karl said. "Their defense wore out a bit and we got to the rim." The Kings were on the second game of a back-to-back, but held the lead for most of the game on the strength of Marcus Thornton’s 27 points and Tyreke Evans’ 22.  Marcus Thornton had this to say after the game, "They started making plays and we kind of ran out of gas."

The turning point in Wednesday’s game against the Nuggets came midway thru the 4th.   Denver was leading 80-79, when they went on a 14-4 run ending with a Gallinari's dunk, a Lawson jumper, and consecutive 3-pointers from Gallinari and Felton to give Denver a 94-83 lead with 3:09 left.

Here are a couple of highlights from the Wednesdays Scouting Report on the Nuggets.

                "Denver has two things that really put the hurt on the Kings; 2 very quick PGs who create a lot of assists, and an offense that is proficient at scoring in the paint.   Denver is #1 in attempts and made basket at the rim while the Kings allow the highest FG% at the rim (70.9%) on the 7th highest number of made baskets in the league (16.6)."

As it turned out Denver shot 23-38 for 60.6% at the rim on 12 assisted baskets while the Kings were 17-25.   Felton and Lawson contributed 6 of Denver’s 12 assists at the rim and were 5-7 at the rim themselves accounting for 11 of Denver’s 23 baskets at the rim.   Away from the rim, the Kings ended up with a +4 in made baskets.   

"The Nuggets still get to the FT line more often than any team in the league, while the Kings are still learning how to play defense without fouling."

And, that were the Kings truly lost the game, at the FT Line.   The Kings got to the Line 16 times and made 12 for 75%.   Denver got there twice as much, 32 times and made 22 or 68.8%.   So, yes the Nuggets did outscore the Kings from the field by 4 pts, but it was at the FT Line where they outscored us by 10 pts that really put the game out of reach.

In my conclusion I said,

                "The Kings will need to step up every part of their game, but I think that turnovers are going to drag them down. "

And drag them down it did.   For the season the Kings have the 2nd highest number of turnovers per game (16.2), behind only Minnesota.   In our 16 games since the beginning of March only 3 teams have had a higher Turnover Rate then the Kings; Cleveland, Minnesota, and Indiana.    In those 16 games the Kings have averaged 17.1 turnovers per game which is 1 more than their seasonal average, which helped the Nuggets outscore the Kings in fast break points by 12; 24 to 12.

What I didn’t expect was that Dalembert would play 13 minutes, which I assume was due to his rib injury in the Suns game.   Even so, he still was tied for the team lead in rebounds at 6 with JT who played 36 minutes.  And, that’s why the Kings got out rebounded by a total of 8 and by 4 on the offensive glass.   Let’s hope another days rest will allow him to get his usual 24 minutes.

I think we’re back to where we were early in the season, when PW couldn’t settle on an offense or defensive lineup or refuses to stick with his starter but rather continues to go to the bench.    Donte, Cisco, and Omri played 9, 14, and 12 minutes, and the remaining 13 minutes went to the 3 guard rotation. And in the end our 3 SF’s combined for 4 pts on 2 of 15 shooting, 5 rebs and 2 steals.

Donte got 9 minute and ended up 0-4 field and 0-2 from three.   After shooting 50% from three in the last 5 games, and 46% over the last 10 games, he gets 9 minutes and then gets the rug pulled out from under him.  (Warning: Don’t fall in the Chasm)  Of course it could be that Donte wasn’t a good match for 6ft-10 Gallinari, who likes to take the outside shot.   And, Heck, it’s not like Gallinari did that much damage with 17pts, 9 rebs and 3 steals.  

Omri is benched for 3 games then comes back and is a key figure in the Kings comeback in the 4th quarter against the Suns.   And, he ends up getting 12 minutes.   Now Cisco has started the last 15 of 16 games gets 14 minutes.   In the last 10 games he’s shooting 38.7% from the field and 26.3% from three point range.   So, I guess Garcia is still starting because PW likes him for his defense.    But Gallinari only scored 4 pts in the first half, all against Garcia and none against Donte and Omri.   Gallinari didn’t score again until the 8:30 mark of the 3rd against Garcia again.   Casspi gave up 2 more and the three guard rotation game up a total of 8 pts, meaning Donte gave up zero points to Gallinari.

So, the guy who starts for his defense give up 7 pts in 14 minutes, the 3 guard rotation that’s in for their offense gives up 8 pts in 13 minutes, and Omri and Donte who aren’t good enough to start or be guaranteed even consistent backup minutes give up 2 pts in 21 minutes.   It’s no wonder that they are consistently inconsistent playing for a coach whose offense is not running fixed plays but relies heavily on players consistently making good decisions on their own.   I guess the only thing that is consistent around here is my constant criticism of PW for not being more consistent with his rotations.

DeMarcus, JT, and Sam combined for 4 assists and 11 turnovers.   With Sam out and DeMarcus turning over the ball on ill-conceived passes from the high post, it’s no wonder Nene missed out rebounding our 3-man big rotation by 1.   Tyreke is back healthy, and Beno and Marcus are playing well, so I don’t understand the need to continue to run the offense thru the bigs in the high post.   Yes, I think its fine to feed the ball into DeMarcus in the low blocks and let him feed the cutters when the double team comes.   Because Denver sent the double as soon as Cousins got the ball, and they did it to Thornton and Evans also.    But, as Jerry is so often fond of saying, "two passes out of the double team, leads to an open shot", and that’s what the Kings need to due.   The secret to winning this game will be punishing Denver when they double, control the boards, and reduce the turnovers by running the offense thru the guards.

The Kings and Nuggets are 1-1 for the season with 2 more games to be played.    Each has won at home but that was back in January before Denver traded Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Renaldo Balkman, Anthony Carter and Shelden Williams to New York, for Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, and Raymond Felton.   So, it’s going to be hard to draw any conclusions from either of those two games.

What I can tell you is that the Denver team in January had a 59% winning percentage and the current team has a 75% winning percentage in March.   There is only a .003 difference in both the Shooting percentage and the 3P%, and the 108.9 PPG in March is only 0.5 points below their season high in January of 109.4 per game.   Total rebounding is up about 15% to 45.2 and Offensive Boards are up about 20% to 10.8 per game.   Assists are up 15% to 25.2, Steals are up almost 30% to 8.9, and blocks are up 25% to 4.8 per game.   Even a loss to the Kings won’t keep them from having their most successful month of the season.

As to how that compares to the Kings in March, well the Kings are scoring 104.7 for March which is their season high.   Total Rebounding is 46.7 which is also a season high, and Offensive rebound is 13.4 which is 2nd to Novembers 14.5 per game.    Assists are at a season high of 22.2, Steals are at 8.0 and 2nd only to January’s  8.6, and Blocks are at 4.9 and second only to Novembers 5.8 per game.   So to sum it up, Denver has the advantage in Points per Game, Assists, and Steals.   The Kings have the advantage in Total Rebounds, Offensive Boards, and Blocks.   Defensively in March the Kings are at 107.2 which is 0.8 above the seasonal average of 106.4 per game.   But in the last 8 games only the Chicago and Suns games are above the League (104.3) or Kings (106.4) seasonal average, and 5 of the 8 were at or below 99.0 per game.   Denver on the other hand is averaging 99.2 for the entire month of March.    

Currently in 5th place in the West with a record of 44-29, Denver is 5 games behind OK City and 1.5 games ahead of Portland and 2.5 ahead of New Orleans.   They have the 2nd best home record in the West at 30-7, and are on a 3 game winning streak at home and are 5-0 at home this month.   No doubt they’ll be looking to beat the Kings to make it a clean sweep.   And, how have they achieved all this success after trading away their most valuable player?

Ty Lawson has taken over the starting PG spot in place of Chauncey Billups.   In March he’s averaging 16.0 pts/ 7.8asts/ 3.8 rebounds on 51% field, 41% from three, and 87% from the FT line in 33.5 mpg.   Arron Afflalo continues to start at SG, averaging for the season 12.6 pts/ 3.6 rebs on 50% field and 43% from three.   But, he aggravated a left hamstring strain in a game against Miami on the 19th, and has missed the last 3 games.

Wilson Chandler took over for Afflalo for 2 games but didn't play in last Fridays game against the Wizards to rest his sore left ankle which Chandler sprained before coming to the Nuggets.   In his place the Nuggets started Gary Forbes, but as of Tuesday, Chandler is projected to be the starter against the Kings although Afflalo is listed as a game time decision.   Since joining Denver, Chandler is averaging 14 pts/ 5.5 rebs on 44% shooting and 39% from three.

In the front court, Danilo Gallinari fractured big toe and missed the first 7 games of March, but in the last 5 games he’s averaging 16 pts/ 4.6 rebs on 44% field and 45% from three.   Nene and Kenyon Martin are the two remaining players in the backcourt.   For the season Nene is averaging 15 pts/ 7.4 rebs, and Martin is averaging 8 pts/ 6 rebs.

Off the bench, J.R. Smith is averaging 12 pts/ 4 rebs on 43% field and 38% from three.   Al Harrington is averaging 10.6 pts/ 4.8 rebs.   In 13 games since joining the Nuggets, Raymond Felton is averaging 10 pts/ 6.9 asts/ 4 rebs in 30 mpg.   Chris Anderson and Gary Forbes are the only other bench players to see significant minutes.

Denver has two things that really put the hurt on the Kings; 2 very quick PGs who create a lot of assists, and an offense that is proficient at scoring in the paint.   Denver is #1 in attempts and made basket at the rim while the Kings allow the highest FG% at the rim (70.9%) on the 7th highest number of made baskets in the league (16.6).   I wish I could say that the Nuggets are turning over the ball like they did in our first two games when they committed 41 turnovers, but in the last 12 games they have only turned the ball over more than their opponent in 4 games by an average of 3.4 per games.   The Nuggets still get to the FT line more often than any team in the league, while the Kings are still learning how to play defense without fouling.

Both teams are playing better in all phases of the game, and should be on a roll.   The Kings are coming off of a 4-1 road trip and 5-1 record in their last 6 games, but Denver has a 3 game home winning streak and the 2nd best home record in the West.   I wish I felt different but Denver looks to be a bad matchup for the Kings.   Plus the Kings are on the 2nd game of a Back-2-Back and the Nuggets haven’t played for four days.  The Kings will need to step up every part of their game, but I think that turnovers are going to drag them down.   But, then I didn’t think that they would beat the Lakers or Magic.   Prove me wrong again, go Kings.

February was a great month for the Suns.   They were 4-1 prior to their loss to the Kings and 5-1 after the Kings game.   Actually, things started to look up for the Suns after the December 18th trade that sent Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Earl Clark to Orlando, for Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus, and Marcin Gortat.    It took about 6 games to get the new players integrated into the rotation, but January was the first month since the start of the season that Phoenix had a winning record (8-7).  Then they went 9-3 in February, so it’s hard to understand why the Suns are 5-9 in March with 2 games still to play.

Still the Suns currently at 36-36 for the season, and are guaranteed to have a winning record since Jan. 1st after going 14-17 thru October, November and December.   Phoenix continues to be an excellent shooting team, shooting 47% from the field (ranking them 6th) and 38.2% from 3pt range (ranking them 4th).   And, while Robin Lopez continues to start at Center averaging 16 mpg, Marcin Gortat is the real work horse inside averaging 12.5 ppg/ 8.9 rebs in 29 minutes per game.   Vince Carter has become their 2nd best scorer at 13.9 just behind Steve Nash’s 15.6 ppg.   Aaron Brooks who was acquired for Goran Dragic at the trade deadline, has been a slight improvement averaging 10 pts/ 4 asts in just under 18 mpg compared to Dragic’s 7.4 pts/ 3.1 asts in 18 mpg while with the Suns.

Against the Kings the Suns are 1-2, shooting .461 from the field and .288 from beyond the arc.  The Suns lone 14 pt victory against the Kings came in the middle of November before the 2 big trades by the Suns and the trade for Thornton by the Kings.   So I’m going to concentrate on the 2 Kings wins which came in January and February.   The Kings won both games by 5 pts, the Kings shot 43.3% field while the Suns shot 43.5%.   The Kings were 10 of 25 for 40% from three while the Suns were 13 of 47 for 27.7%. The Kings were 43-51 or 84.3% from the FT Line and the Suns were 30-39 or 76.9%.   The Kings had a total of 111 rebs and 36 on the offensive glass, while the Suns were 68 and 20.   The Suns had 48 assists and 18 turnovers to the Kings 40 assist and 30 turnovers.   With the advantage by the Kings in offensive rebounds and the advantage by the Suns in turnovers negating each other, the teams were tied in FGM’s while the Kings had one more FGA for the 2 game series.   And, the outcome of each game was determined by the Kings 13 pt advantage at the FT Line.   And, that’s with DeMarcus missing the last game in Phoenix after the Rumble in the Tunnel where Petrie had Cousins removed from the team plane before they left for Phoenix.

The Suns are a one trick pony that basically relies on the pick & roll to create shots since almost no one in their rotation is able to create their own shot.   Pietrus and Frye get 82%+ of their baskets off assists.   Gortat, Dudley, Lopez and Warrick get between 72 and 80% of their baskets off assists, and the rest get 55-66% of their baskets off of assists.   Only Brooks at 24% and Nash at 14% can really create on their own.   And, the vast majority of those assisted baskets come from Nash (12), Brooks (4), and Hill (2.5).

So, it looks like the best chance the Kings have for guaranteeing a victory is to limit their turnovers to 12 or less, or learn to defend the pick & roll against Steve Nash.   I’m guessing that limiting turnovers would be the best choice between the two.   And, I might like to suggest that limiting our bigs touches to inside 12 ft from the basket, would be our best chance of having fewer turnovers.   They can move that out to the elbow if they swear only to pass and not try to drive to the basket from there.

I might have been a little hard on the Suns concerning their record in March, after all their losses came at the hands of the Lakers, Magic, Celtics, Thunder, Nuggets, Rockets, and Hornets twice.   Six of which are in the Playoffs and the Rockets who are two and half games out and could still make it if the Grizzlies were to falter.   But, their wins are equally unimpressive, coming against the Raptors, Rockets, Clippers, Warriors, and the Bucks, which is why coach Gentry tried mixing up the lineup against the Mav’s Sunday night.   He moved Gortat into the starting center spot and Dudley into Carters starting 2 spot.   It didn’t work against Dallas, so I’m not sure what he’ll try against the Kings.

The Kings are headed back home with a 4-1 record on their road trip.   It’s their first 3 win road trip this season and the first 4 win road trip since forever.   For March, their scoring, assists, rebounds and 3P% are as high as it’s been in any full month this season.   Of their last 7 games only the Bulls game was worse than their season’s defensive average of 106 and 5 of the 7 were below 100.   Offensively, only 3 of the last 10 games weren’t better than the League offensive average which is 4 pts higher than the Kings seasonal average.   So, with a healthy team, the Kings are playing much better at both ends of the floor.

Overall it looks like the acquisition for Marcus Thornton has had a bigger impact on the Kings than all the changes that the Suns have made.   Tyreke’s return will add another jump in the Kings performance, but whether that jump will come in time for this game isn’t certain as he doesn’t seem to have his timing back yet.   But, he does add another ball handler and distributor which the team desperately needs.   DeMarcus had a great deal of difficulty against the Sixers, but Phoenix doesn’t look to pose that great of a problem, so I’m looking for a game like the one in January where the Kings outrebounded the Suns by 28 and DeMarcus was the leading scorer with 28.   I don’t expect a letdown from the Kings after such an exceptional road trip and because I have tickets to this game.   So, I expect the Kings to win the series 3-1 and get their first 4 game winning streak of the season.   Win one for the Tops, will you guys?

As far as losses go, the game against the Philadelphia 76ers a week ago was a bad one even worse than the loss to the Bulls.  The 76ers who built a 26-point lead through three quarters rested their starters the entire 4th quarter and still beat the Kings, 102-80.

The Kings shot 32 percent and had 12 first-half turnovers that resulted in 15 points for the 76ers.  For the game, Sacramento shot 34 percent, committed 22 turnovers that led to 27 Philly points, and were never in the game after the opening tip.  Iguodala credited defense for the lopsided victory. The 76ers had a season-high 16 steals and blocked five shots in beating the Kings.  "The Kings are a high-turnover team," said Iguodala, who had three steals, one less than Holiday. "You don't have to gamble or be aggressive and go for steals against them to get turnovers. We just let them make the mistakes."   I’d call that bulletin board material.

The Sixers played good team defense, especially in transition where the Kings scored just eight points for the game.   The Kings rarely pushed the ball to earn easy looks in transition, and in the half court, they made bad passes and forced bad shots.

Here are a couple of comments from my previous scouting report: “The two biggest factors in the team’s improvement are Defense and Health.    Philadelphia is only average offensively but they have the 9th best Defensive Efficiency at 102.5.    And, you can credit some of that to a healthy Elton Brand who has started 67 of Phillies 68 games, as has Hawes and Jrue Holiday has started all 68.   Jodie Meeks has played in 60 games but has started the last 50, and Andre Iguodala has started all 56 games in which he’s played.”   It takes consistent minutes playing together to be a good defensive team.   I’d call having your starters playing 50 games together out of 68 games consistent minutes.

“The 76ers are only an average rebounding team.   Early in the season after the Dalembert trade, Collins was asked how the team would manage with the loss of their leading rebounder.   Collins replied that everyone was going to have to rebound.”   And that’s what’s happened.   Against the Kings, the Sixers won the battle of the boards 57 to 51 and 16 to 14 on the offensive glass.   Every starter had between 6-9 rebounds, and the rebounding leader was Thaddeus Young with 10 off the bench.

I ended my report with this statement: “Until Tyreke returns, this team will continue to make mistakes and turnovers, and have difficulty running anything that looks remotely like a planned offensive set late in games especially against a sound defensive team like Philadelphia.”   My feeling here is that with Tyreke unavailable the Kings have run the offense thru DeMarcus too much, especially in his rookie season.   His Assist to Turnover Ratio is the 3rd worst on the Kings, and only slightly better than Jackson and Dalembert.   Yet, he has the 17th highest USG in the entire league.   The only other Forwards with a higher USG are Amare, Dirk, and Beasley, and the only centers in the top 25 are Brook Lopez at number 21 and Dwight Howard at 22.   Beno who was our main PG in Tyreke’s absence was 305th in usage and 41st in assists.   To say that we were asking too much and expecting too much out of DeMarcus would be an understatement.

Since our last game a week ago, the Sixers are 1-2, and have allowed 111 pts in their two losses and 100 pts in their lone win.   In their loss to Portland, the Turnovers were close 10-11, the rebound by committee worked with Philly winning 37-36 and 10-8 on the offensive glass.   But, the 76ers committed 22 fouls to Portland’s 11 and ended up being outscored from the FT Line by 25-13, and allowed Portland to shoot 51.4% from the field and 47.8% from three.   In Phillies defense they were without Iggy, who was rested after experiencing foot pain prior to the Kings game.

In their only win, a 105-100 victory over the Hawks, both teams had single digit turnovers 6-9 advantage Philly, and again they won the rebound battle 40-39 and 10-8 on the offensive glass.   Both teams shot 48% from the field and FT% and 3P% were about even.   But, unlike the Portland game where the Trailblazers were held to single digit Fast Break Pts, the Hawks outscored the Sixers 19-11 in FB pts.

The final loss came in Miami 111-99.   The Heat dominated the boards 49-31 and 15-7 on the offensive glass.   Wade, Bosh and James all had 10-11 rebounds while Brand and Young led Philly with 8 and no one else had more than 3 except Hawes who pulled down 5.   Miami had a 10pt advantage at the FT line, which helped them stay with Philadelphia for 3 and half quarters.   But when Miami put on the pressure half way thru the 4th, the Sixers seemed to run out of gas.

Even with a 1-2 record the Sixers limited their turnovers to a single digit average and averaged 104 ppg in their last 3.   Their rebound by committee worked for the first two games, but hit a wall against Miami’s big 3.   And, they could have gone 2-1 if Iggy hadn’t sat out the Portland game.

I think caution is the word to use when talking about the Kings.   Yes, the Kings are 3-1 on the road trip, but a win against a Love-less Minnesota and even a blow out against a Pacers team that shot 4-25 on mostly open 3pt shots shouldn’t be considered proof that the Kings have arrived.   And, I don’t believe a 7pt victory over the Bucks when Salmons and Jennings shot 5-21 is proof that our exterior defense has finally started to come together.

Of course our loss to Philly shouldn’t be seen as the quality of play that the Kings are capable of either.   The Kings should be out rebounding the Sixers and if they did then they could possibly survive 5 or 6 more turnovers than Philly.   As long as most of them don’t turn into fast break points.   Tyreke should see a few more minutes as he’s eased back into the rotation, and I hope he continues like he did in his first game by finding open shots for his teammates instead of creating shots for himself.   But, mostly I’m glad to see him back because he’ll be able to reduce the pressure on Cousins to have to be the main guy.

I don’t think we’re going to see Thornton shoot 3-12 and 0-6 from three again.  And, I expect the Kings to have more the 17 assists and shoot better than 34.5%.   But, I also expect the 76ers to come out and use their defense to try and protect their 23-11 home court record.   Let’s hope that they don’t get 16 steals this time around.   I do think that both teams will come up with new game plans to start the game, but it could be the team with the better adjustments after half-time that wins what I expect to be a close game.   How about a 4-1 road trip?   Or, at least a better effort from the Kings.   Go Sacramento

The Kings and Pacers meet for the 2nd and final time this season.   The first meeting between the two teams was on Nov. 30th in Sacramento, with Indiana prevailing 107-96.  

With the score tied 52-52 to start the third quarter, the Pacers started the 2nd half with a 17-2 run to take a 69-54 lead with 7:25 left in the third quarter.  Indiana outscoring the Kings, 28-17 in the third and took an 11 pt advantage of 80-69 into the fourth quarter.  The Kings fought back, closing to within six points, 99-93, with 2:21 remaining in the fourth.   However, the Pacers went on a 6-0 run to kill any chance of a Kings comeback.

Tyreke and Luther Head started in the backcourt and Dalembert, Greene, and Thompson started in the front court.  Coming off the bench, Beno Udrih scored a team-high 24 points and DeMarcus Cousins scored 20 points; it was the game after DeMarcus was ejected from practice.   Samuel Dalembert pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds before having to sit with 5:06 left in the third quarter due to right patellar tendinitis.   Tyreke Evans put up an impressive 16 points, nine assists and seven rebounds but had just five points and one assist in the 2nd half.   It was the 2nd game in a row that Tyreke’s performance dropped off in the 2nd half, as his plantar fasciitis seemed to worsen after the half time break.

The Kings had no answer for Danny Granger who scored a game-high 37 points.   Granger was 12-for-19 on the night and hit 10-for-11 from the free-throw line.   He added seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.   Darren Collison scored 17 points and Roy Hibbert recorded 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Pacers.   6-10 PF Solomon Jones scored 12 points off the bench.

But, it was the Kings inability to play defense without fouling that cost them the game.   The Kings lost the game by 9pts but were outscored at the FT Line by 14 pts.   The Kings committed 29 fouls sending the Pacers to the FT line 34 times where they made 29.   Granger made 10 of 11, Collison made 7 of 8 and McRoberts made 5-6 for 22 of 25 or 88%, and 7 pts more than the entire Kings team scored at the charity stripe.

The Pacers weren’t involved in any trades at the trade deadline.  .  The only roster changes this season, were their two 2010 draft picks Paul George -Drafted 10th and Lance Stephenson -Drafted 40th, and Darren Collison and James Posey.   In August Indiana sent Troy Murphy to New Jersey as part of a four team deal. New Jersey sent Courtney Lee to Houston. Houston sent Trevor Ariza to New Orleans. And, New Orleans sent Darren Collison and James Posey to Indiana.

The Pacers (32-40) are in eighth place in the East, three games ahead of Charlotte (28-42) and Milwaukee (28-42).   The Pacers did make a coaching change.   Jim O'Brien was fired as head coach at the end of January and Frank Vogel was named interim head coach.   Since the coaching change the Pacers are 15 and 13 after going 17-27 under O’Brien.

Indiana and Sacramento play at almost the identical pace, with Indiana about 1% better offensively and Sacramento about 3% worse defensively, and both teams have almost identical Assist Rates and Turnover Rate.   The Kings are the better rebounders while the Pacers have the much better TS%.   The Pacers have the 5th best FT% but are slightly below average in 3P%.   They take the 8th highest number of 3pt shots but have the 15th lowest percentage from that range.

Indiana will start 6-9 Danny Granger, 6-9 Tyler Hansbrough and 7-2 Roy Hibbert in the frontcourt.   With Mike Dunleavy out with a broken thumb, 6-8 rookie Paul George will start at SG and 6-0 Darren Collison will start at the Point.   The big lineup is why I don’t think we’ll see Tyreke at the 3 in a three guard lineup.

Granger leads all scorers with 20.5 pts/ 5.4 rebs.   Collison averages 13.4 pts / 5.1 asts.   Hibbert is 3rd at 12.6 pts/ 7.6 rebs.   Hansbrough is next at 10.8 pts/ 5.2 rebs.   George averages 7.9 pts/ 3.8 rebs.   This is the 2nd most winning lineup for the Pacers going 4-4.   In contrast the Kings have had 29 different lineups, with none playing more than 8 games together.   The lineup of Beno, Marcus, Garcia, DeMarcus and Sammy is 3-4, leading every other lineup in win percentage except 3 that are 1-0.

The main bench players are 6-6 SG Brandon Rush who averages 26.7 mpg, 6-10 PF Josh McRoberts who averages 22 mpg, Jeff Foster who averages 17 mpg, and Dahntay Jones and AJ Price who average around 14 mpg.   James Posey who averages 17 mpg has only played in 2 games in February and 3 games in March.    Rookie Lance Stephenson has played in only 10 games all season, but 9 games in March when he averaged 11 mpg.

As it was earlier in the season the Pacers puts up threes in bulk.   They prefer the outside shot and take almost 50 shots per game from outside 10ft while taking around 33 inside.   They have a very low ‘and-1’ rate and a very high percentage of shots being blocked.   Hibbert is a fine young center but Granger is a bigger threat around the basket.

Tyreke is expected back but with limited minutes.   Donte got some PT in the last game for defensive purposes and I believe PW was thinking ahead to having him defend Granger.   I think the Kings should have the advantage on the boards, but the bigs are going to have to give help to whoever covers Granger or Collison, so the help defense is going to have to come quickly.   Hold down the turnovers and limit the fouls, and I think the Kings have a chance.  

I think that PW will limit Tyreke to the guard position where he should be the most comfortable.   Although, I’m worried that the reintegration of Tyreke might even set the Kings back a little.   Tyreke and Sammy were hurt in the last game and we gave the Pacers a good challenge.   So, I’m hoping with a healthy Dalembert and Evans, and the addition of Marcus Thornton, the Kings can put the Pacers to the real test.   Go Tyreke Evans.  

This is the 2nd and final meeting between the Bucks and the Kings this season.   Milwaukee won the first meeting, 84-79, at ARCO Arena on December 23rd.   The two teams split their series last season 1-1 with the Kings winning in the Bradley Center 96-95 and the Bucks winning in Arco in double overtime 114-108.   So, I’d say that the 2 teams seemed to be closely matched.

In our first meeting, Brandon Jennings missed the game after foot surgery, and Keyon Dooling started at PG with John Salmons at SG.   Andrew Gogut started at Center, with Ersan Ilyasova and Chris Douglas-Roberts at the forwards.   Off the bench Earl Boykins led all players with 19 points.  Andrew Bogut scored 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Keyon Dooling scored 14 points and John Salmons added 12 points.   Douglas-Roberts scored 5pts in 33 minutes, and Ilyasova scored 3 pts on 1-4 shooting and had 5 rebounds.

The Kings out rebounded the Bucks 57-37 and 19-7 on the offensive glass, but totally blew the 2nd chance points advantage by turning over the ball 25 times.  The Kings ended up with a 14 to 6 advantage in second chance points while the Bucks ended up with a 30 to 12 advantage in points off of turnovers.

The Kings made only 31 of 85 for 36.5% from the field.   Tyreke who missed a game 9 days earlier due to pain from his PF, shot 2-13 for 4 pts, Donte who started at SF went 4-13 for 9 pts, and Carl was 4-10 for 9 pts.    Beno Udrih who led the Kings in scoring with 17 points and Samuel Dalembert who recorded a double-double with 13 points and a team-high 12 rebounds were the only Kings players to score in double figures.

With 8:24 left in the fourth quarter The Kings had a six-point lead, 75-69.   Milwaukee then went on a 12-0 run for an 81-75 advantage with 2:53 remaining.  Tyreke Evans scored his first basket of the night with 2:30 left, to get the Kings to within four, 81-77 which was as close as the Kings got.   The Kings missed their last four field goal attempts.   The Bucks outscored Sacramento, 22-15, in the fourth quarter to beat the Kings 84-79.

The Bucks are tied with Charlotte for 9th place in the East with a record of 28-41, 2 games behind Indiana for the 8th and final playoff spot.   Milwaukee is 19-17 at home and are 5-5 in their last ten games.   Milwaukee is 4th in Defensive Efficiency, and like the 3 teams ahead of them Chicago, Boston, and Orlando, they like to play at a very slow pace.   But what separates them from those other teams is that the Bucks have the worst Offensive Efficiency in the league and the worst TS%.   They’re also the only team that has an Assist Rate worse than the Kings.    They have a decent Turnover Rate (11th), but are only average on the boards in both Total Rebounds and Offensive Rebounds.   They are also on par with the Kings in 3P% and FT%.

Since our last meeting, Milwaukee has done little to change their roster except for a couple of 10 day contract signing.  Drew Gooden who sat out the last game due to plantar fasciitis hasn’t played since Jan. 21st and is out again suffering from PF.   Ersan Ilyasova who hasn’t played since Feb. 23rd due to a concussion he suffered in a collision in practice with center Jon Brockman is also out.  Jennings has recovered from his injury and starts in the backcourt with Salmons.    Carlos Delfino has taken over the SF spot from Douglas-Roberts and Luc Mbah a Moute has taken over the PF spot for Ilyasova.   Bogut continues to start at Center.

Jennings is the leading scorer at 15.6 pts/ 4.9 asts in 33 mpg.   Salmons is 2nd at 13.9 pts/ 3.4 asts/ 2.4 rebs in 34.7 mpg.   Corey Maggette is 3rd with 12.7 pts/ 3.8 rebs coming off the bench.   Bogut is a close 4th averaging 12.6 pts and is the leading rebounder at 11.3 rpg in 35.2 mpg.   Delfino is next at 12.1 pts/ 3.9 rebs in 32.6 mpg.   Mbah a Moute is the only starter not scoring in double figures at 6.3 pts/ 5.4 rbs.

The bench consists of Jon Brockman, Keyon Dooling, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Corey Maggette, and first round pick Larry Sanders.   Jennings and Defino are the high volume three pt shooters averaging 5-6 a game each, although Delfino hit 14 threes in 22 attempts in the last 2 games.    Delfino is averaging 36.4% and Jennings 32.4%.   The other top 3-pt shooters are Salmons who averages 38.9% and Dooling shooting 34.0% on almost 3 attempts each per game.

The Bucks advantage is that they play excellent defense and have a quick PG with great handles which are the 2 areas that have perplexed the Kings all season.   Our only two victories this month came against teams that have the 4th and 5th worst defense in the league.    And while Curry and Ridnour are decent PG’s they’re more likely to stop and take a pull up jumper then penetrates into the paint and breakdown the Kings defense.   The Kings are going to have to find a way to run their offense when the Bucks pressure the ball.   We certainly aren’t going to out defend them, and if we can’t find a way to score and stop making stupid turnovers, we won’t beat them either.    Go Kings.

The Kings crushed the Twolves in the 4th quarter of Sunday’s game but the Bulls aren’t the Twolves.   Minnesota is the 5th worse defensive team in the league but the Bulls are the BEST defensive team in the league.   Minnesota after their lost to the Kings have the 2nd Worst record in the league and Chicago is tied for the 2nd Best record in the league.    While the Kings and Minnesota are both top 6 rebounding teams and the Kings won that battle, Chicago is the #1 rebounding team in the league.   So, no one should expect the same type of game as we had against Minnesota when we play Chicago. 

The Bulls are 49-19 and tied with Boston for the lead in the East.   Chicago is 29-6 at home and they’ve won all 4 of their home games in March.   They’ve won 8 of their last 10, beating New Orleans, Atlanta, Utah, and Washington at home and Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, and New Jersey on the road.   Their two losses came on the road against Atlanta and Indiana.

Chicago leads the season series 1-0 after beating the Kings in Sacramento 96-85 back on Nov. 27th.   The two teams split the 2009 series 1-1, after the Kings made their infamous 35 pt comeback to pull out the win in Chicago.

In the Nov. 27th game, Sacramento jumped out to a halftime lead, 57-44.   But, as a Tom Thibodeau coached team is apt to do, the Bulls stepped up the defense in the 2nd half.   By the end of the third quarter, the Bulls trimmed the lead down to nine, 76-69, by holding he Kings to 19 pts.  Chicago went on a 9-0 run to start the 4th and with 9:05 left they led 78-76. The teams exchanged baskets a few more times and with 6 minutes to play Donte tied the score 83-83.  The Bulls then went on an 11-0 run to take a 94-83 lead with 2:07 remaining.   The Kings could only manage 2pts on a layup by Cousins in the last 6.02 of the game.

The Kings turned the ball over just two times in the first half and scored 57 points. The Bulls defensive pressure forced the Kings into 13 turnovers in the 2nd half.   Chicago limited the Kings to a total of 28 second half points and only 9 in the fourth quarter.   The Kings shot just 31.6 percent in the fourth quarter and were outscored 27-9.

Tyreke got off to a hot start with 13 points and six assists in the first half but scored just four points in the second half.   DeMarcus Cousins got in foul trouble and scored six points and grabbed five rebounds in just 15 minutes.   Thompson led the Kings with 18 points and nine rebounds. Tyreke Evans contributed 17 points, six rebounds, nine assists, one steal, and two blocks. Donte Greene added 13 points and Samuel Dalembert recorded 12 points.

Derrick Rose scored a game-high 30 points and Luol Deng added 22.   Rose also recorded seven rebounds, seven assists, and a steal.   Chicago turned the Kings 15 turnovers into 21 points and out rebounded the Kings 44 to 43.  

But in the end, the game came down to defending without fouling and the Bulls did the better job.   The Bulls sent the Kings to the FT line 17 times on 19 fouls, while the Bulls got to the FT line 33 times on 23 fouls by the Kings.  Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, and Derrick Rose combined to hit 26 of 31 from the FT line to outscore the Kings by 12 at the charity stripe in the Bulls 11 point victory.

The probable starters for Chicago are Rose and Keith Bogans in the backcourt and Noah, Deng and Kurt Thomas in the frontcourt.   Rose is averaging 25 pts/ 7.8 asts/ 4.3 rebs.   Bogans has started every game this season, but only averages 4 pts on 38% shooting in just under 18 mpg.   Thomas in his 16th season has started the last 4 games in place of Boozer.   Thomas has started 34 games replacing Noah and Boozer, and averages 5.3 pts/ 7.5 rebs in 28.6 mpg when starting.  Noah has played in only 37 games this season and 13 since December.   In the last ten he’s averaging 10 pts/ 9.7 rebs in 30 mpg.   Deng is the iron-man having started all 68 games averaging 17.7 pts/ 5.9 rebs in just under 40 mpg.

Kyle Korver, Taj Gibson, Ronnie Brewer, CJ Watson and Omer Asik have all seen action off the bench in 68 games.   Asik the 7-0 rookie averages 3 pts/ 4 rbs in 12 mpg at center.   Gibson a 6-9 second year player averages 7 pts/ 5.6 rebs at PF.   Korver is averaging 8.4 pts/ 2 rebs in just over 20 mpg.   Brewer the 6-7 shooting guard averages 6 pts/ 3.3 rebs in 22.5 mpg.   While 6-2 PG C.J. Watson averages 5 pts/ 2 asts in 12 minutes backing up Rose.   Korver is the real 3-pt threat shooting 42%, but Rose is shooting 33% on over 400 3pt attempts and Deng is shooting 33% on just under 300 attemps.

Chicago hasn’t made any roster changes since we last played while the Kings have added Marcus Thornton.   They should also see a different DeMarcus Cousins for the most part has been staying out of foul trouble.    Cisco was out of the last game with the flu, so the Bulls will be seeing a much different starting lineup with Dalembert and Beno the only players that will start in both games.

Carlos Boozer was still recovering from offseason surgery in the last game.    But since his return he’s averaging 18pts/ 9.6 rebounds.   He’s missed the last 4 games with a sprained ankle, and is listed as day-to-day so it’s possible that he might miss this game as well.  If he doesn’t play the Kings may have the chance to out rebound the Bulls who are currently 1st in Total Rebounds.  The Bulls rely heavily on their defense to hold teams under 100 pts, but when they don’t they are 3-13.

But, no matter who plays, the Kings have no answer for Derrick Rose, who penetrates and gets to the rim 6 times a game or can shot over 40% on the long ball.   And, the Kings have shown little ability to beat the press with their ball handling.    And, as Iguodola said after the Sixers game, you don’t have to press the Kings very hard; you just have to wait until they turn over the ball all by themselves.   The Kings aren’t going to be able to beat the Bulls at their own game, Defense, so they’re going to have to outscore them.    They’ll need to improve their shot selection, get 2nd chance points of the offensive glass, and protect the leather.   Good luck with that, Sacramento.

The Kings face the Timberwolves for the third and final time this season. The two teams have split the two meetings this season with each winning on the others home court.   Last season, the two teams split the series, 2-2.    The Kings won their season opener in Minnesota 117-116, and two weeks later Minnesota returned the favor by getting their first road victory in 17 games going back to February 23, 2010.

Francisco Garcia started the season opener in place of Tyreke who sat out a one game suspension. Cisco scored 22 points and Carl Landry recorded a double-double with 22 points and a game-high 11 rebounds to lead the Kings in their win over the Timberwolves.  DeMarcus Cousins finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, and five assists in his NBA debut. Udrih contributed 18 points, Luther Head added 14 points off the bench, and Casspi finished with 10 points.    

Kevin Love recorded a double-double with 11 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Michael Beasley, who was acquired in the offseason for some magic beans, recorded 17 points and seven rebounds.   Luke Ridnour, who signed a 4yr $16M contract in the summer, led the Timberwolves with 20 points. And, with 56.6 seconds left he buried a three-pointer to pull Minnesota within one, 111-110. The Kings responded as Udrih handed off to Omri Casspi for a dunk for a 113-112 advantage with 34.8 seconds remaining.  Minnesota continued to score on the next two possessions, but each time Beno answered at the FT Line by making both his FT’s to preserve the one point victory.  The Kings dished out 25 assists and scored 22 points off 13 Minnesota turnovers.

The 2nd game was two weeks later on November 10 in Arco Arena with Minnesota prevailing 98-89.    Michael Beasley scored a career-high and game-high 42 points. The Timberwolves led, 74-72, entering the fourth quarter.  Then with 3:51 left and the Kings down by three 85-82 , the Timberwolves went on a 6-0 run to take a nine-point lead 91-82, and put the game away.   Omri Casspi led the Kings with 18 points. Beno Udrih finished with 16 points and nine assists. Tyreke Evans, who entered the game with a team-leading 22.6 scoring average, tallied five points, three rebounds, and nine assists.

Beasley’s 27pts on 12 field goals in the first half tied an ARCO record for most field goals made in a half.  Beasley also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Sebastian Telfair scored 16 points and Wesley Johnson added 12 points. Kevin Love, who scored 23pts and had 24 rebs against the Lakers the night before, was held to eight points and nine rebounds.

At the trade deadline Minnesota was the 3rd party that made the Carmelo Anthony trade possible.   They traded Kosta Koufos to Denver and Corey Brewer to New York, and received Anthony Randolph, Eddy Curry and cash from New York, and a 2015 second round pick from Denver.   Curry’s contract was bought out by the Timberwolves a week after the trade deadline before he could play a single game for them.

For the Month of March, the Twolves are 1-5 on the road with losses to the Sixers, Wizards, Warriors, Jazz and the Lakers.   Their lone win on the road was against the Pistons.   At home Minnesota is 2-2 with wins against the Jazz and Pacers while losing to the Lakers and Mav’s.   In March the Twolves are averaging 100.0 ppg on 44.5% from the field and 37.7% from three.   They are averaging 46.0 rpg and 13.0 on the offensive glass.   The Kings are averaging 101.7 ppg, on 46.0% field and 36.6% from three.   They are averaging 45.4 rpg and 13.8 on the offensive glass.

With number so similar it’s not surprising that their winning percentages are only 0.004 apart.   The Kings are currently tied for the 2nd worst record in the NBA and the Twolves have the 4th worst record.   But, if the Kings were to win, the two teams would exchange positions.

Minnesota’s leading scorer is of course starting PF Kevin Love who has played all 69 games and is averaging 20.7pts and 15.7 rebs.   The next 4 in the top 5 scorers were all acquired last summer.   Starting SF Michael Beasley who’s averaging 19 pts 5.5 rebounds and starting PG Luke Ridnour who averages 11.9 pts and 5.3 assists are the only other double digit scorers besides Love.   Martell Webster is 4th averaging 9.9 pts and 3.1 rebs off the bench.  Webster was acquired in a draft day trade with Portland for Ryan Gomes and Luke Babbitt who was the 16th pick in the draft by Minnesota.   Starting SG Wesley Johnson who was the 4th pick in last summer’s NBA Draft is averaging 9.0 pts 2.9 rebounds.   The final starter and 6th highest scorer is Center Darko Milicic who averages 8.9pts and 5.3 rebounds.

Anthony Randolph whose played in 11 games since joining the team is averaging 7.2pt 3.7rebs in 14.5mpg.   The remaining 4 major bench players are Sebastian Telfair, Wayne Ellington, Anthony Tolliver and Jonny Flynn.    Each is averaging around 19 mpg while appearing in between half to three-quarters of the games.

The Kings and Twolves are 1 & 2 in Offensive Rebound Rate and in 2nd chance points and their Defensive Rebounding Rates are identical.   The difference between the Off & Def Efficiency is 0.004 and the difference between their Assist Rate is 0.03.   If you’re getting the idea that these teams are so close in ineptitude as to make picking a winner impossible, then I’ve accomplished my goal.   The only thing that the Twolves need to do is take every advantage of our mistakes.   And, the things the Kings need to do is stop turning over the ball and start making better shot selections.   Just because Beno gives up his dribble to Sammy at the top of the Key, doesn’t mean Sammy should take the shot from there.

If two seasons of losing 75% of your games has the Kings folding up the tent early, then so be it.   It will make the exodus from Sacramento that much easier to bear.   But, for crying out loud, have some pride and at least try not to lose to 2 of the 4 worst teams in the league in the same week.

The Kings and 76ers have yet to play each other, but will correct that situation twice over the next 10 days starting Friday at Power Balance Pavilion.   The 76ers swept the Kings last season, 2-0. Philadelphia has won eight of the last 10 meetings against the Kings, including the last five.  Under new coach Doug Collins the 76ers have improved from last season’s record of 27-55 and out of the playoffs to where they are almost guaranteed to make the playoffs this season.   With 14 games to play they are in 7th place in the East with a record of 35-33 and 6 games ahead of 8th place Indiana, and only a half-game behind 6th place New York.

Besides adding a new coach, Philly has made very few other changes this season.   The one Kings fans will be most familiar with was the June 17th 2010 trade of Samuel Dalembert to Sacramento for Spencer Hawes and Andres Nocioni.   Then at the 2010 NBA Draft, Philadelphia took Evan Turner with the 2nd pick in the first round.   On July 21st Philadelphia signed 12 year pro Center Tony Battie.   Battie has seen only limited action in 34 games this season and has played in only 10 games since December averaging 2.5pts and 2.5 rebs in 10 mpg.

In early September, FA Rodney Carney signed with Golden State and FA Francisco Elson signed with Utah.  Then on September 23rd 2010, New Orleans traded Darius Songaila and Craig Brackins to Philadelphia in exchange for Willie Green and Jason Smith.   Brackins has spent two tours in the D-League and has only seen action in 3 NBA games.   Songaila has seen action in only 10 games averaging 1.6 pts/ 1.0rebs in 7 mpg.   And, the 76ers weren’t involved in any trades at this year’s trade deadline.   So, Coach Collins has basically improved this team with the same roster as last season, except for the addition of Turner and the acquisition of Noc and Spencer for Dalembert.

The two biggest factors in the team’s improvement are Defense and Health.    Philadelphia is only average offensively but they have the 9th best Defensive Efficiency at 102.5.    And, you can credit some of that to a healthy Elton Brand who has started 67 of Phillies 68 games, as has Hawes and Jrue Holiday has started all 68.   Jodie Meeks has played in 60 games but has started the last 50, and Andre Iguodala has started all 56 games in which he’s played.

The 76ers are only an average rebounding team.   Early in the season after the Dalembert trade, Collins was asked how the team would manage with the loss of their leading rebounder.   Collins replied that everyone was going to have to rebound, and that’s what’s happened.   Brand leads the team with 8.5 rpg followed by Iggy with 6, Spencer with 5.6, Thaddeus Young with 5.2, and Turner & Holiday with around 4 each.   Offensively, Philly is 12th in FG% and 17th in 3P%, and has the 11th best FT%.   They have the 4th lowest turnover rate. 

Brand is the leading scorer at 15 ppg, and shoots 47% even on long 2’s, and takes as many shots from long range as he does at the rim.   Iggy is 2nd in scoring at 14.4 ppg along with 6.4 asts/ 6rebs/ 1.5 steals.   Louis Williams just slips in ahead of Holiday for 3rd in scoring averaging 13.7pts/ 3.3 asts/1.9rebs off the bench.   Holiday averages 13.6pts/ 6.2asts/ 4rebs in 35mpg.   Thaddeus Young and Jodie Meeks are the only other players to score in double figures at 12.3 and 10.2 respectively.    Hawes and Turner average 7 and 7.4 ppg respectively.   The only real 3pt threat is Jodie Meeks who’s shooting 40.7% on almost 4.5 attempts per game.   But, Iguodala, Williams and Holiday can hit for average if left open.   Thaddeus Young and Brand are the main scoring threats in the paints followed by Holiday and Iggy.

Philly is 13-23 on the road but are 7-4 since the beginning of February, with wins against the Nets, Atlanta, Minnesota, Houston, Cleveland, Indiana and the Clippers.   Their 4 losses came against the Knicks, Memphis, Milwaukee and Utah.   After starting out slowly and going 13-20 thru December, they have turned things around and gone 22-13.   Their FG% and 3P% have improved and the PPG have jumped almost 5pts.

If DeMarcus felt that Samardo Samuels and JJ Hickman were hard to defend wait until he has to go up against All-Star Elton Brand.   Not only did Brand score 19pts, pull down 12 rebs, and have 5 blks on Wednesday against the Clippers, but he also got ROY favorite Blake Griffin to foul out for only the 3rd time this season.   And, if the Kings can’t keep Ramon Sessions, Cleveland’s lone outside threat to attack the rim from waltzing in at will, good luck stopping Jrue Holiday and Andre Iguodala.

One of these two teams will make the playoffs and one will end up with quite a few lottery balls.   One will have a coach of the year candidate and the other will have a coach that will be incredibly lucky if he keeps his job.   Should the Kings miraculously pull out a victory; neither of those facts will change.    Until Tyreke returns, this team will continue to make mistakes and turnovers, and have difficulty running anything that looks remotely like a planned offensive set late in games especially against a sound defensive team like Philadelphia.   My main reason for watching will be to see Sammy have a good game against his previous team.   Go Sammy

Cleveland is in last place with a record of 12-53, and a road record of 4-28.   They’ve won 3 of their last 10 games, and surprisingly 2 of those wins have come against Carmelo Anthony and the new look Knicks.   The third win which came before the trade deadline was even more surprising since it came against the Lakers 104-99, behind 32 pts by Ramon Session on 9-16 field, 13-14 from the FT line and 8 assists.

Back on Oct. 30th, the Kings won 107-104 in Quicken Loans Arena.   Beno, Tyreke, DeMarcus, Landry and Omri started for the Kings with Sammy, JT, Cisco and Luther coming off the bench.   The Kings shot 52% from the field and 9-15 (60%) from 3pt range.     The Kings were 18-24 (75%) from the FT line but were outscored at the charity stripe by 2 with Cleveland making 20 of 29 (69%).   The Kings won both the offensive and defensive boards led by DeMarcus who had 10 rebs to go along with his 14pts; it was DeMarcus’ first double double of his NBA career.   All the Kings starters scored in double figures led by Evans with 21 and Casspi with 20.

Cleveland’s leading scorers were Ramon Session with 21 and Daniel Gibson scoring 20 and 7 assists.   In the 3rd quarter the Kings outscored the Mavs 31-15 to turn a 67-53 halftime deficit into a 84-82 lead going into the fourth.   Leading 94-93, Carl Landry hit a jumper, Cousins made two free throws, Casspi made a 3-pointer and Evans converted a layup to finish a 9-0 run that give the Kings a 103-93 lead.   But with 5.9 seconds left Cleveland cut the lead to 3; 106-103.    Then after Casspi missed two free throws, Cleveland called timeout and advanced the ball to midcourt.  Leading by 3 the Kings intentionally fouled Jawad Williams, who made the first free throw and missed the second intentionally.   DeMarcus Cousins was fouled rebounding the miss and went to the other end to shoot 2 of his own and made one of two.   But, with only 2.0 seconds left, and down by 3 Daniel Gibson could only throw up a prayer from half court which wasn’t answered and the Kings walked away with the win.

At the trade deadline the Cavs acquired Baron Davis from the L.A. Clippers in exchange for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon.   Davis has averaged 18.0 points and 5.7 assists in three games off the bench since being acquired from the Clippers.   But, Davis has missed the last 2 games following the death of his grandmother whose memorial service is scheduled for Tuesday in LA.   He could possibly join the team for Wednesday’s game against the Kings, but more than likely will wait until Thursday in Portland.

Cleveland also acquired Semih Erden and Luke Harangody from Boston in exchange for a 2013 second round pick.    Erden, a 6-11 center out of Turkey, has seen action in only 1 game; March 6th against the Hornets.   He played 11 minutes with 0 pts on 0-3 shooting and had 5 rebounds and 1 block.   Harangody has averaged 15.8 mpg in 4 games with Cleveland.   He’s averaging 6.8 pts / 2.8 rebs on 34.6% field and 18% from 3-pt range.

The Cav’s will probably start Alonzo Gee a 6-6 SF.   Gee went undrafted in 2009, and signed with Washington.   He was signed in late December by Cleveland as a FA.   Gee has started all 6 games in March and is averaging 8.7 pts/ 4.3 rebs on 42.9% field and 22.2% from three.   Rookie Samardo Samuels a 6-9 260 lb. PF out of Louisville has started 6 games all in March.   He’s averaging 14 pts/ 8 rebs in 30 mpg on 47% field but only shoots 60% from the FT line.   With Anderson Varejao out the rest of the season with a torn ankle tendon, 6-9 240 lb. PF J.J. Hickson has started the last 29 games at Center and has averaged 14.8 pts/ 10.8 rebs in just under 31.5 mpg.

As far as the backcourt, Anthony Parker the 6-6 eight year pro has started all but 7 games for the Cavs and is averaging 9 pts/ 3 rebs/ 3 asts in just under 30 mpg.   He’s shooting 41% field and 40% from three.   Ramon Sessions’ numbers are down a little since February due to reduce minutes with the acquisition of Davis, but in the last 10 games Ramon has averaged 15.6 pts/ 6.4 asts/ 3.5 rebs in 31 mpg.   He’s only shooting 40% from the field and has only attempted 5 threes although he did make 3 of them.

Coach Scott is going with a deep rotation trying to give all his young players minutes.   So, you might see a 10-11 man rotation with the reserves getting almost as many minutes as his starters.   Off the bench Ryan Hollins will see minutes at Center, Daniel Gibson is the backup PG,   6-5 Rookie Christian Eyenga could see some minutes at the 2 & 3, and Joey Graham and Harangody will see minutes on the front line.

Cavaliers coach Byron Scott had this to say about his team after their recent loss to OK City.

"I'm really starting to question what type of heart we have as a basketball team. That's my biggest question. Do we have enough guys who have enough heart to go out and compete? Did I see anything that I liked? No, not really."

With Jamison out for 5 weeks with a fractured finger, Varejao out for the season and Mo Williams traded, the Cavs have no veteran leadership.   They’re not playing as a team and seem to have trust issues or maybe they’re just trying to pump up their stats looking for a rotation spot for next year.   Either way the Cavs have the worse Def Eff in the NBA at 110 per game, and they’re the 3rd worst offensively at 99.3.   They are 2nd to last in Total Rebounding Rate, and are tied with the Kings for the 4th worst TS%.   They are also about 1% better than the Kings in 3P% and FT%.

This is a team desperate for a win, and since they’ve beaten the Lakers and the Knicks recently, the Kings better not overlook them.   But, with our size advantage down low, the Kings should dominate the boards and that’s going to create 2nd chance points and fast break points.   If the Kings jump out to a good start like they have in the last few games, the Cavs don’t have the 3pt shooter that can get them back in the game like the Golden State Warriors did.   With Cleveland’s undersized SF lineup, I think Cisco and Omri could have a great game.   I hope a lot of people come out to the game for the Green Beer and Corned Beef because I think this could be an enjoyable game.   For now, the only question is can the Kings beat Philly and Minny on Friday and Sunday for their first 4 game winning streak of the season.   Win one for the Irish, Sacramento.

This will be the 3rd of 4 games with the Warriors this season, and as of now they have a 2-0 lead in the series.   They won in overtime back on Dec. 21st 117-109 here in Sacramento, and then again in overtime at Oracle Arena back on Jan. 21st 119-112.   The two teams split their series last season 2-2 with each team winning both of their home games.

Most of you should remember the first game since it was StR Night 3.   The Kings led by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter, but made only two baskets over the final nine minutes of regulation.   The Kings still led 102-99 with 3.4 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, when Reggie Williams missed the 2nd of two free throws.    The missed free throw deflected out of bounds off Cousins with two seconds left.   The Warriors then inbounded the ball to Vladimir Radmanovic who drilled a 3-pointer from well beyond the 3-point line to send the game into overtime.

The Warriors were without Curry and Biedrins while the Kings were without Thompson.   But, the game came down to the Kings not being able to whether the pressure by Golden State in the 4th quarter.   The Kings turned the ball over 19 times in the game and 9 times in the 4th quarter;   First by Beno, then Garcia, followed by Jeter, then Cousins, then Evans, and Beno again, then Evans again, and Cousins again, followed by Tyreke’s 3rd.

The 2nd game was similar to the first in that Golden State came from behind late in the 4th to force overtime.   The Warriors trailed by nine points with three minutes left in regulation, but Golden State made a pair of huge 3s down the stretch, including one by Ellis at the 23.7-second mark that cut Sacramento's lead to one point.   With the Warriors trailing by two and 15.3 seconds remaining in regulation, GS’s coach Keith Smart allowed Ellis to run the clock down, despite being behind.    Ellis waited until roughly 5 seconds remained, feinted to his right, and then crossed over to his left, losing Tyreke Evans and making a wide open 16-foot jumper with 0.9 seconds on the game clock.

Even with all of the Warriors late game heroics, the Kings still had a chance to put the game out of reach if they could of hit their FT’s down the stretch.   DeMarcus Cousins, Jason Thompson and Pooh Jeter all split a pair of foul shots in the final 40 seconds.  Of course the same could be said of the other FT’s that the Kings missed earlier in the game; the Kings missed a total of 12, they shot 25-37 for 67.6%.

Golden State is currently in 12th place in the West with a record of 30-36 and 14 games ahead of the Kings.   Since the trade deadline they are 2-5 on the road and 3-2 at home including a 123-120 overtime victory over Orlando on Friday.   No longer under the direction of Don Nelson, the Warriors have fallen to the 5th highest Pace at 97.2 which is only 0.1 quicker than the Kings.      They’ve also dropped to the 12th highest offense, but they’re still only 28th in defense and dead last in Total Rebounding Rate.   And, what we already found out the hard way in our last two meeting, the Warriors are the 2nd best 3-pt shooting team in the league at 38.8%.

The Warriors did make one deal at the trade deadline; Golden State acquires Troy Murphy and a 2012 second round pick from New Jersey in exchange for Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric, but Murphy never suited up with the Warriors after the trade.    Murphy agreed to a buyout and after he cleared waivers he was signed by Boston.

Golden State’s starters are Dorell Wright, David Lee and Andris Biedrins in the front line and Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry in the backcourt.   Off the bench we should see Ekpe Udoh, Lou Amundson, Al Thornton, and Vladimir Radmanovic in the frontcourt and AC Law and Reggie Williams in the backcourt.

Ellis is averaging 25ppg in an exhausting 41 mpg.   And, he’s shooting 36.4% from 3pt range on over 300 attempts.   Curry is 2nd in scoring 18.7 ppg in a little under 34 mpg.   He’s shooting 42% from three on almost 260 attempts, plus they both average over 5 assists per game.   Lee and Wright average around 16 pts per game and 3 assists.   Lee leads the team in rebounds at 9.7 per game while Wright is another three point threat averaging 39.4% on just below 400 attempts in 65 games.   The scoring drops off after Williams who averages 9.7 ppg on 44.4% from beyond to arc, to just over 5 ppg from Radmanovic and Biedrins although Andris is 2nd in rebounding at 7.4 rpg and is 2nd to Udoh’s 1.1 blks per game with 0.9.

The Kings have lost a lot of games this year late in the 4th quarter, but it’s safe to say that against the Warriors the Kings have choked the game away.   In two games against Golden State the Kings have allowed 52 pts off of 41 turnovers, and the Kings have been outscored by 25 points on Fast Break baskets.   They have failed to execute the offense or turned the ball over late in games.   And, things don’t seem to be getting better as the Kings have committed 230 turnovers in the last 13 games without Tyreke.   That’s a 17.9 turnover average with the majority of the turnover’s coming from our front court.

Even with Beno’s return, I doubt the turnover problem will improve.   The Kings offense is still designed to go thru DeMarcus or one of the Bigs from the high post, and that’s a problem.   Ellis is going to be a problem to defend for both Taylor and Thornton and they better pick him up way before he gets to the 3pt line.   In fact anyone defending a wing or guard needs to pick them up quickly and stay with them until DeMarcus rebounds the ball.   The Kings aren’t a better offensive team than they were the last time these teams met, but they are less predictable.   Let’s hope that is enough to frustrate the Warriors when they try to claw back late in the 4th quarter.   The Kings can win if they eliminate some of those turnovers and get back on defense to cut down on the Fast Break points.   Go Sacramento

This is the 4th and final meeting between the Kings and Hornets.   New Orleans holds a 2-1 lead in the series and won the series last season 2-1.   The Hornets won the first game in Sacramento 75-71 back on Nov. 21 and followed up that game with a victory in New Orleans 94-91 on Dec. 15th.    Back to Arco when it still was Arco at the end of January, the Kings won 102-96 to end the Hornets 10 game winning streak.

In the first game, Donte Greene recorded a team-high 15 points and tied Sammy with a team-high 10 rebounds.   Sacramento grabbed 51 rebounds and outshot the Hornets, 38.7 to 32.2 percent from the field.   But the Kings blew the game with 22 turnovers, with 4 each from Head, Dalembert and Cousin, and 3 each from Greene, Landry and Evans.   Luther started and scored 11 pts on 4-4 shooting with 5 rebounds and 1 assist.   Beno came off the bench and was 3-7 for 6 pts with 1 reb and 2 asts.   Defensively, the Kings held the Hornets backcourt of Paul and Belinelli to 6-24 for 21 pts, although Paul did have 14 assists and 7 rebounds.

In the 2nd game the Hornets rallied from a 23-point third quarter deficit to beat the Kings 94-91.    Marcus Thornton added 19 points off the bench, 13 coming in the third quarter. The Hornets outscored the Kings, 53-34, in the second half.    Paul and Thornton combined for 31 of the second half points.   Tyreke missed the Houston game the day before due to pain from his plantar fasciitis, but returned to score 22 points, four rebounds, seven assists, and one steal.    Cousins started and led the Kings in rebounding with 7, and the Kings outscored the Hornets from the field and 3pt arc by 12pts.   But the Hornets outscored the Kings from the FT line by 15, led by Paul who was 12-13 while the entire Kings team was only 7-12.

In the lone Kings victory DeMarcus Cousins scored a game-high 25 points, 12 rebounds, and a career-high seven assists to lead the Kings to a 102-96 win over the Hornets.   With the game tied the Kings when on a 12-0 run early in the 2nd quarter and the Kings never trailed again.   The Hornets closed to within 2 in the 4th quarter but the Kings continued to answer with baskets of their own. The Kings shot 50 percent and out rebounded New Orleans, 39-35.   The Kings again outscored the Hornets from the field by 18 pts, but the Hornets starters of Paul, Okafor, Ariza, and West were 25-27 from the FT line to led New Orleans to a 12 pt advantage at the charity stripe; 28 of 30 (93%) to the Kings 16-20 (80%).

The Hornets are currently in 7th place in the West, percentage points behind Portland and a game behind Denver.   They have a record of 38-29 and are 22-9 at home, but are only 5-5 in their last 10 games.   The Hornets only trade at the deadline was the Thornton for Landry trade with the Kings.   In Carl’s 8 games with the Hornets he’s averaging 10.4 pts/ 3.8 rebs in just under 24 mpg off the bench.

The Hornets have been streaky all season, starting out 11-1 then going 5-9 prior to the 2nd game with the Kings.   Then they went 15-8 with 10 straight going into the 3rd Kings game.   Since then they’ve gone 7-11 and 4-4 since the trade deadline beating Minnesota, Memphis and Cleveland on the road and Dallas at home.

Emeka Okafor, Trevor Ariza and David West make up the starting frontcourt with Chris Paul and Willie Green starting in the backcourt.   Jarret Jack who came over in the Peja trade in Nov. backs up Paul, while Marco Belinelli backups up Green.   Landry plays behind West, while Jason Smith plays behind Okafor and Quincy Pointdexter backs up Ariza.

The Hornets only average 94 pts per game behind West’s 19, Paul’s 16, Ariza’s 11, and 10 each by Okafor, Landry and Belinelli.   But, the low points per game are deceiving, because they play at the slowest pace in the league and have the 6th best Deff Efficiency so they don’t need to score a lot of points.   They are only average in TS%, 3P%, FT%, Assist Rate and Turnover Rate, and have an almost identical Total Rebounding Rate as the Kings with the Kings holding the advantage on the offensive glass.   New Orleans is also only average at the rate at which they get to the FT line, which raises the question ‘Why have they outscored the Kings by a combined 33 pts from the FT line in our previous 3 games?”.   The Hornets are 65 of 76 for 85.5% while the Kings are 32 of 47 for 68.1%.   In the Kings 2 losses they lost by a combined total of 7 points, but were outscored by 21 points at the FT line.

Beno missed the last 2 games due to the flu and didn’t travel with the team to San Antonio so it’s likely that he won’t play against New Orleans.   But, Chris Paul seems to have recovered from his concussion so it’s likely that he will play.   Luther Head in particular and the team in general played some pretty good defense against the Spurs, so let’s hope that they can continue that trend in New Orleans.  

The Kings big rotation of Cousins, JT and Sammy must cut down on their turnovers; they had 11 of the teams 14 against the Spurs.   And, the Kings need to cut down on their fouls.   Against the Spurs the Kings outscored another team from the field but were outscored enough at the FT line to lose the game.   They’ve done that twice now against the Hornets and I’d prefer if the 3rd time wasn’t the charm.   I’m concerned the Sammy’s bad knee will slow him down since he only got 15 minutes in the last game.   If it does, I’d almost hope PW gives Donte some minutes on West rather than Jackson.   Let’s hope, Thornton doesn’t try and force his game against his old team, and lets his scoring come as part of the offense.   Go Sacramento.

The Spurs lead the 3 game series 1-0 after beating the Kings 113-100 back on February 4th while Tyreke was still playing.   My original Scouting Report can be found here:

http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2011/2/4/1974220/spurs-scouting-report

But here is the Follow-up from that post.   The game was never in doubt and Tim Duncan played less than 13 minutes.

“I think the Kings played a good game, against a team that really wasn’t the best that the Spurs can put on the floor. Our defense was lacking, both interior and exterior and especially on the pick & rolls which still seem to perplex most of our guys.   Sometimes the Bigs don’t even come out to help, and then end up trying to defend guards like Parker and Manu one on one, and lose badly. Then there are times when the big will help and switch to stop the ball, and the guard will leave the screener wide open. Which would be fine if someone else helps, but it usually just ended with the man with the ball feeding a wide open roller for an easy dunk.

We actually won the boards 43-42 and 15-9 on the offensive boards. We had fewer turnovers 13-17. We were close in points in the paint 54-52 and we won the fast break points 30-12. We got to the FT line 9 more times and made 8 more FT’s. We were out shot from three 7 to 2, and, the Spurs did out shot us from the field 48-40, but since they average 47% from the field that really wasn’t that unexpected.

I was encouraged that we were 16 of 26 at the rim and 7 of 15 between 3 and 9ft.   And, that’s without JT, with Jackson playing more minutes than DeMarcus, and Dalembert having an off night and going 0-5 in 18 minutes. Was it one of our best games this year, probably not. But, we didn’t roll over after getting behind early. Yea, we didn’t play the team that had the 41-7 record, but we played a good team and we played tough.”

The Spurs made no changes at the trade deadline, but with a league leading record 51-12 who would have thought that any was needed.   Since defeating the Kings the Spurs have gone 10-4 including 5-1 at home.   That home loss was to the Lakers and is one of only 3 losses that the Spurs have experienced at home.   The Spurs have the 2nd highest Off Efficiency at 109 and the 7th best Deff Efficiency at 101.1.   They have the #1 3PT% at 40.2% and they have the 5th best FG% at 47.2%.   They have the 8th lowest turnovers per game and the 9th most steals per game.   The Kings have a huge advantage on the Off Boards but the Spur hold a slight advantage on the defensive end. 

There really isn’t much that the Kings do better than the Spurs.   We do score more often and at a higher percentage on our shots in the paint.   We also outscore them on the long 2’s but that’s because we take way more then we should considering that we shot below 37% at that range: the 2nd worst shooting percentage in the league.   The worst offenders are some of our frontcourt players, Cousins who averages 34%, Thompson 33% and Casspi 31%.   We need to improve our shot selection with 6 to 7 of those longs 2’s moved out to the 3-pt arc or at the rim where we have our best opportunity to succeed.

I like some of the individual matchups.   DeJuan Blair vs DeMarcus Cousins was all DMC in the Rookie/Sophomore game.   I also think Dalembert on Duncan can work for us.   I also like Cisco on Richard Jefferson, so I think the Kings will do well against their front court.   The problem is that the Spurs have Parker and Ginobili in their backcourt and the Spurs all play as a team while the Kings are mostly one on one offensively.   The Kings haven’t found out how to defend as a team yet, which means we’ll end up doubling on Parker and Duncan, and will be slow to rotate and bring defensive help.   Parker and Ginobili will find our weaknesses and exploit them.   And, when we don’t rotate out to the 3pt shooters like Matt Bonner who’s averaging 52% from beyond the arc, then the Spurs are going to bomb us like there’s no tomorrow.

Actually, our best chance is to control the boards, creating 2nd chance points and fast break points, while hoping that the Spurs 3pt shooters have a bad awful day.    All three bigs for the Kings missed practice due to injuries but still played in the Orlando game.   Sammy is playing with a bad knee, DeMarcus a bad shoulder and JT is playing with a sore ankle.   Beno missed the game with the flu, leaving the Kings with seldom used Pooh Jeter as their only player with any ball handling skills what so ever, so it’s not surprising that the Kings had another 20+ turnover outing.

On the Brightside DeMarcus is worth the price of admission.    Yes, he had 7 of the Kings 21 turnovers against Orlando, but there was no one else that they could run the offense thru.   His defense was absolutely spectacular.   He fought to keep Howard from getting good position on every possession.   Howard had only 2 baskets at the rim; one on a dunk against Sammy and one on an alley-oop against Cousins.  But, the next time they tried an alley-oop to Howard, Cousins went up and took that alley-oop right out of the air and away from Howard; it was special.   I also liked his pick & roll defense.   Nelson got off a few jumpers, but Howard never got the ball.  

Orlando started sending the double-team before DeMarcus received the entry pass, because it was pretty obvious where we were going on every possession.   All that needed to happen was for the ball handler to go to DeMarcus’ side of the court and the double-team was in motion.   If the Spurs take a similar approach at defending DeMarcus, we need a secondary threat on the weak side.   Specifically a three point threat from the area vacated by the player supplying the double team.   Or, someone needs to start cutting to the basket to give DeMarcus an open pass out before the double arrives.

I don’t expect the Kings to win against the Spurs on their home court, and certainly not when the Kings are averaging 18 turnovers per game over the last 11 games without Tyreke.   Yes, the Kings have committed 200 turnovers in the last 11 games.    But, it will be fun to watch if Cousins can continue to impose his will on another team like he did against the Magic.    Go DeMarcus.

Since “The Shot” the Kings have played 32 games starting on January 1st.    In the first 4 games of the New Year, the Kings had a defensive rating just under 102.0.   Then the Kings left on their 6 game East Coast road trip.   Tyreke missed the first 3 games of the trip (on 1/9, 1/11, 1/12) with a sprained left ankle and in those games the Kings had a defensive rating of 117.0.    On the last 3 games of the trip the Kings averaged 102.8.

In the 4 games prior to the road trip they had one game over their season defensive average of 106.   And, in the 6 game road trip where Tyreke was suffering from the bad ankle, they had only 1 of 6 games under 106.

Tyreke played the next 12 games and during that time the Kings had 3 games where their defensive rating was above 106; against the Spur 113, Dallas 110.9 and Utah 107.   Their average for those 12 games with Tyreke was 102.4.  Then on Feb. 13 Tyreke went back on the injury list and missed the next 10 games.

For the last 10 games the Kings have had a defensive rating of 113.6.    And in those 10 games the Kings have been under the 106 mark only 3 times.

In the 19 games that Tyreke has played in since Jan 1st, the Kings have had 6 wins or .316.   In the 13 games he’s missed they won 3 or .231.

In the 13 games without Tyreke the Kings have had a Defensive Efficiency of 113.3.   The pace has been 101.5 possessions per game.   And, 2 of the games have gone into overtime.          

In the 19 games with Tyreke the Defensive Efficiency has been 102.4.    The Pace was 97.7 possessions per game. And 2 of the games have gone into overtime.

So, How much do we miss Tyreke, well we look to be almost 10.9 pts per game worse defensively without him.   Of course, the loss of Cisco during 2011 has had a big impact also.   But, there is no denying that Tryeke's part in our defense scheme is surely missed.

Two other bits of statistical minutia, the Kings are 9-11 when holding their opponent to under 100 points.   And, the Kings are 12-14 when they outshoot their opponents in 3pt FG%. 

Orlando hadn’t played in a week due to the All-Star break, and the Kings caught the Magic unprepared beating Orlando 111-105.   Sacramento shot 52 percent from the field, compared to 44 percent for Orlando.   The Kings missed tying their season high in assists by 1, and ended with 30 including 17 in the paint.   The Kings outscored the Magic in the paint 50-44, shooting 26-38 (68.4%) to Orlando’s 23-40 (57.5%).   In a battle of two of the NBA's top rebounding teams, the Kings out rebounded the Magic 42-36, but Orlando won the offense boards 11-10 led by Dwight Howard who had 7. Orlando also went 8 for 28 (28.6%) from 3-point range and had 17 turnovers that led to 26 Sacramento points, but Orlando scored 28 fast break points to Sacramento’s 16.

Jermaine Taylor started his 4th game in place of Tyreke and had a career-high 21 points, Beno Udrih added 18 and Samuel Dalembert and Jason Thompson had 17 points apiece for Sacramento.  Dwight Howard had 31 points and 17 rebounds for Orlando. Hedo Turkoglu added 19 and Jameer Nelson 15. DeMarcus Cousins started off defending Howard, and struggled offensively for the second straight game. The rookie went 2 for 7 from the field and finished with nine points.   He ended up with 5 fouls, 4 turnovers and had one shot blocked.   He also finished with 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

The Kings got out to a 6 point lead in the first quarter, 31-25, but Orlando came back with a 36 pt second quarter to take a 3 pt lead going into half time.    Neither team seemed to be able to score in the third, which ended 23-21 with Orlando extending their lead to 5 pts. With 9:20 left the Magic led 90-83 when Omri Casspi converted a three-point play and finished an 8-0 run with another 3-pointer 45 seconds later.   The teams exchanged baskets until the 3:20 mark when Dalembert made 2 baskets in a row on Beno’s 8th and 9th assists to put the King ahead for good.   The Kings ended up scoring 32-point in the fourth quarter while holding Orlando to just 21. The Kings shot 53 percent for the game and 65 percent in the fourth quarter.

The Magic let the trade deadline pass without making any changes.   The Magic made their roster changes back on December 18th 2010: Washington acquires Rashard Lewis from Orlando in exchange for Gilbert Arenas. Then Phoenix acquires Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus, Marcin Gortat, a 2011 first round pick and cash from Orlando in exchange for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark.

After the loss to the Kings, Dwight Howard made it clear to his teammates that the loss to the Kings was unacceptable.  The Magic went on to punish the Thunder 111-88 in their very next game and then went on to finish off Charlotte 100-86.    They finished their home stand by defeating Carmello and the new look Knicks 116-110, and then went to Miami to beat the Heat 99-96.   Back home they ran into the Bulls coached by defensive guru Tom Thibodeau.   Chicago won 89-81 and held Howard to 20pts 10rebs.    Orlando had one more home against Portland before heading out on a 4-game West Coast swing starting with the Kings.   Howard ended up being suspended for the Portland game for picking up his 16th technical foul of the season.   Portland was able to prevail 89-85, but they needed 18 turnovers by the Magic to get it done.   Orlando shot 46.5% from the field and 50% from 3pt range and they out rebounded the Blazers.   But with Portland getting 10 more FGA’s and 8 more FTA’s they were able to pull out the 4 pt victory.

The Magic are 40-24 and in 4th place in the Eastern Conference 7.5 games behind Boston, 5 behind Chicago and 3.5 games behind Miami.   The Magic needs to catch Division leading Miami to move up out of 4th place in the East.

The starting lineup for the Magic consists of Dwight Howard at Center, Hedo Turkoglu at SF and Brandon Bass at PF.   The starting backcourt has Jameer Nelson at PG and Jason Richardson at SG.      Ryan Anderson, JJ Redick, Gilbert Arenas and Quintin Richardson are the main reserves.

Howard is the leading scorer averaging 23 pts/ 13.9 rebs/ 2.3 blks in 37.2 mpg.   His main weakness is his FT shooting where he’s averaging 58.8% on over 11 attempts per game.   J. Richardson is 2nd in scoring averaging 14pt / 4.3 rebs in 34.1 mpg and has started all 38 games since joining the team.   Jason has taken 372 three point shots this season and is 87-224 for 38.8% since joining the Magic.   Hedo has also started all 38 games since joining Orlando, and he too is shooting 38.8% from beyond the arc.   He’s averaging 10 pts/ 5.2 asts/ and 4.4 rebs in 33.3 mpg.   Nelson is the 3rd leading scorer at 12.5 pts/ 6.2 asts/ 2.9 rebs in 29.8 mpg.   He too is shooting well from 3-pt range, hitting 88-228 for 38.6%.   Bass isn’t a 3pt threat but is averaging 11 pts/ 5.8 rebs in 25 mpg.

Redick and Anderson are both serious 3-pt threat with each shooting 40.1% on a combined 459 attempts, and are averaging over 10ppg each.   Arenas and Q. Richardson both shot below 30% from three, and below 36% from the field.   Surprisingly, Orlando is only 11th in 3-pt shooting and 12th in FG%.   They are dead last in FT% but 6th at getting to the FT line.   They have the 6th highest turnover rate which is only slightly better than the Kings who are 5th.   Orlando is 1st in Def. Reb Rate while the Kings are 2nd in Off Reb Rate.

The Kings have really deteriorated defensively since Tyreke went out for his PF treatment.   For the season they have a Defensive Efficiency rating of 106.0 but in the last 10 games without Tyreke their defensive rating has ballooned to 113.6.   Orlando is on a mission to overtake Miami and win the Division in an attempt to secure home court advantage in the playoffs.   They will not overlook the Kings this time around and may be more focused because of the last game.   The Kings cannot beat a playoff team with the turnover rate and defensive rating that they’ve had in the last 10 games.   Things must change or the only chance we’ll have for a win will be in 5 games on March 16th when we play Cleveland.   Good Luck Kings.

Houston leads the 4 game series 2-0 after beaten the Kings 118-105 on December 14th in Houston and 102-93 in Sacramento back on December 19th.   Tyreke missed the 1st game and shot poorly in the second; 6-21 for 14 points in 37 minutes with 6 assists and 5 rebs and he had 4 turnovers and was blocked 4 times.   They split the series last season 2-2 with each team winning one game on the others home court.

In the 1st game the Kings actually outshot the Rockets from the field and from the FT line, hitting 42-80 for 52.5% from the field and 17-22 for 77.3% from the charity strip.    But the Kings turned the ball over 18 times to Houston’s 11, and the Kings were out rebounded 14-10 on the offensive glass.    Houston ended up making 4 more field goals on 12 more attempts.   Plus they made 10-23 or 43.5% from beyond the arc while the Kings shot only 4-11 for 36.4%.    DeMarcus and Carl led the Kings in scoring with 17 each, and Scola led the Rockets with 21 and Chase Budinger was 2nd with 18.

The 2nd game was just 5 days later, but boy did things change.    It was the Rockets that turned the ball over, 20 times to the Kings 13.   The Kings again lost the rebounding battle 50-38 but only 16-15 on the offensive boards.   Unfortunately, the Kings couldn’t take advantage of their FGA advantage and only shot 35-91 for 38.5% from the field while Houston shot 37-83 for 44.6%.   Again the Rockets shot well from long distance, hitting 11-25 for 44% from beyond the arc while the Kings were 7-14 for 50%.   Besides the bad shooting by Tyreke which I already mentioned, Beno was 0-7 and Greene was 3-13.    DeMarcus led the Kings in scoring with 19 while Tyreke and Cisco were tied for 2nd with 14.   Martin had 22 for the Rockets and Scola was 2nd with 17.

 On a side note, this was the week that the Kings acquired Jermaine Taylor, and he received a DNP- CD with both teams.

At the trade deadline, Houston acquired Goran Dragic and a future first round pick from Phoenix in exchange for Aaron Brooks.   It will either be Phoenix’s pick if it’s outside the lottery, or it will be Orlando’s pick.   They also acquired Hasheem Thabeet, DeMarre Carroll and a future first round pick from Memphis for Shane Battier and Ish Smith. The Memphis pick is lottery protected, starting in 2013.   

Rockets GM Daryl Morey had this to say about the trades.   "The reality is right now this team, as constructed, isn’t a championship caliber team. I’m not telling any secrets, so we need to figure out how to upgrade the team. These moves will position us better to get there, than if we had kept Shane and Aaron for sure."   "Shane is someone who we would have liked to keep, but had a good chance of losing in free agency; Aaron Brooks was the same."

On the acquisition of Thabeet, "Unfortunately, you cannot acquire 7-3 centers after they become good easily, if at all. So you need to take a chance on a guy who you think has a chance to contribute over time. "   The overall feeling is that these moves don’t make the Rockets better now but puts them in position to make the moves that need to be made in the future.   Morey also stated that they believed that Lowry and Brooks were both starting caliber PG’s and that they wouldn’t be able to pay both of them the money they would need to keep both.

The Rockets entered February with a record of 22-27.   They were 6-4 prior to the trade deadline and have gone 4-1 since the trade deadline.   They are currently 11th in the West with a record of 32-32, and only 2.5 games behind 8th place Memphis.

Chase Budinger has moved into the starting SF spot.   In the last 6 games he’s averaging 18pts / 4.6 rebs/ 1.7 asts in 31 mpg.   He’s shooting 6 of 12 for 51% from the field and 38% from three point range and he’s shooting 86% from the FT line.   Goran Dragic has been in 4 games and he’s averaging 7 pts/ 2.5 assts/ 2 rebs in 12.5 mpg off the bench.   Thabeet has seen only 4 minutes of action he has 3 fouls and 1blk for his entire stat line.

The other starters are Martin and Lowry in the backcourt and Scola at PF and Hayes at center.   Brad Miller, Courtney Lee, Patrick Patterson, and Jordan Hill join Dragic coming off the bench.

The Rockets are 8th in scoring and 6th in 3pt shooting.   They’re only 25th in defense and only 23rd in rebounding.   They have the 4th best FT shooting percentage and are 8th in getting to the FT line.

The Rockets dominated the Kings at the rim in the 1st game shooting 19-27 on 13 assisted baskets to the Kings 10-15 on 3 assisted baskets.   In the 2nd game the Kings had a 2 shot advantage in the paint, but that was entirely due to DeMarcus who was 8 of 11 on 1 assisted basket while the rest of the team was 8-27 with Tyreke, Beno and Pooh combining for 0-9 in the paint.    The King can’t win in a jump shooting contest with the Rockets.   We need to press our advantage in the paint against the Rockets centers, 6-7 Chuck Hayes and 35 year old Brad Miller.   That means that the Kings need to be somewhere in the range of 30 attempts at the rim and a total of 45 attempts in the paint.   I’m looking for a lot of drives into the paint by Beno, Taylor and Thornton, and dishes to our bigs when they can’t finish.   

It’s unknown whether or not PW will change his starting lineup again or how many minutes Cisco will see or if Omri will play.    Even so, no one on the Rockets frontline demands a double team so the guards and wings need to stay with the 3-pt shooters (Martin, Lowry, Lee and Budinger).   As, always this game in going to come down to defending Luis Scola and keeping him off the boards.   I like the fact that JT, Sammy and DeMarcus have shown some decent man defense while staying out of foul trouble.   But, can the Kings defend off screens and the pick and roll and will they help defend?   The answer to those questions will probably determine the outcome of this game.    Defense Kings Defense.

This will be the 3rd of 4 meetings between the Kings and Jazz this season.   Utah has won the first two, 94-83 in Utah back on November 22nd and 107-104 in Sacramento on February 7th.  Last season the Kings were 2-1 against Utah winning the lone game in Sacramento 103-99 and winning one of two in Utah 104-99.  

 In our first game this season, the Kings dominated the glass 50-39 and 16-9 on the offensive end.   But as usual, the Kings turned the ball over 15 times to Utah’s 7.   The Kings outscored the Jazz 5-3 from beyond the arc, and were decent from the FT line hitting 20-27 (74%) to the Jazz’s 23-33 (70%).   It was the field goal shooting that killed the Kings chances with Tyreke shooting 3-12 for 11pts, Landry going 5-12 for 12pts, Head 3-9 for 7pts and Dalembert 0-4 for 2pts.   The Kings ended up shooting only 35.9% from the field on 81 attempts.     

In the last game it was more of the same thing.   The Kings won the battle of the boards 45-38 and 14-10 on the offensive end with DeMarcus leading both teams with 14 rebounds and Sammy 2nd with 11.   Utah had 8 steals off of our 20 turnovers while the Kings had 1 steal off of Utah’s 11 turnovers.   Because of the Turnovers, Utah was able to take 7 more field goal attempts; hitting 43of 88 for 48.9% to the Kings 38 of 81 for 47%.   The Kings again outscore the Jazz from the arc 6 of 15 for 40% to Utah’s 1 of 9 for 11%, and the Kings outscored the Jazz at the FT line shooting 22 of 29 (75.9%) to 20 of 30 (66.7%).   DeMarcus led all scorers with 25.   Carl played only 9 minutes and scored 2 pts on 1-5 shooting so considering his performance in the prior two games, the effect of his being traded should be nil.

Three days after the last game, long time Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan and lead assistant coach Phil Johnson resigned their positions.    Tyrone Corbin was promoted to head coach and later signed a multi-year deal to remain as head coach.   He made Scott Layden his lead assistant and added Jeff Hornacek to his coaching staff 4 days later.   So far, Corbin has a record of 1-7 as head coach.

At the trade deadline, Utah acquired guard Devin Harris and forward Derrick Favors along with two future first round draft picks (New Jersey’s 2011 pick and Golden State’s 2012 pick) from New Jersey in exchange for guard Deron Williams.

Harris (6-3, 185, Wisconsin) was originally selected by the Washington Wizards in the first round (fifth overall) of the 2004 NBA Draft.   He has a career average of 13.2 points, 5.0 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. He currently ranks 11th in the NBA in assists per game and is averaging a career-high 84 percent from the free throw line and ranks eighth among all NBA guards in total free throw attempts with 307.

Favors (6-10, 246, Georgia Tech) was selected by New Jersey in the first round (third overall) of the 2010 NBA Draft.  He is currently the youngest player in the NBA at 19.   He has appeared in 56 games (23 starts) for the Nets this season, averaging 6.3 points and 5.3 rebounds a game while shooting 51 percent from the field (fourth-highest among NBA rookies this season).

Harris has averaged 18pts/ 7.5 asts / 3 rebs in 32 mpg, and has started the last 3 games.  Favors has averaged 8pts/ 3rebs/ 1 blk in 16 mpg off the bench, in his first 3 games with Utah, but missed the last game with a cold.

The Jazz who finished in 5th place in the West last season with a record of 53-29, have already lost 30 games this season.   And, with a record of 32-30, they are currently in 10th place in the West.   Utah was 3-9 in February with all 3 wins coming on the road.   They have lost their last 7 home games which is the longest home losing streak by the Jazz in 29 years.  Their last win at home came on January 31st against Charlotte.   Since then they have lost at home to Houston, OK City, Chicago, Phoenix, Golden State, Boston and Denver.   Since the trade deadline, Utah is 1-3 and winless at home.

We should see Harris and Raja Bell starting in the backcourt for the Jazz with Earl Watson getting the backup minutes.    Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap and Andre Kirilenko will start on the frontcourt with CJ Miles, Favors, and Francisco Elson getting the majority of the frontcourt backup minutes.  With Ronnie Price out with an injured toe Gordon Hayward should see some playing time.    

While the Jazz seem to be having difficulty jelling with their new lineup, they still have the same core of Jefferson, Millsap, Kirilenko and Miles, and Harris seems to be filling in for Williams nicely.   Jefferson, Millsap, Kirilenko and Harris have been averaging 24 attempts at the rim per game, and are hitting on 18 or 75%.    Three-point shooting still seems to be their weakness, with the Jazz only hitting 11 of 39 in their last 4 games for 28%.

The Kings lose very little in the way of rebounding with the trade of Landry for Marcus Thornton, but if Marcus continues to score like he has since joining the team (21pts on 51.7% field and 40% from three in only 29 mpg) the offense will look much improved.  This tread is critical since the Jazz are 23-8 when allowing less than 100 points, and 8-21 when allowing 100+ points.  Defensively the trade hasn’t been as beneficial.   The Kings defense has dropped from 106.0 (18th) in defensive efficiency for the season to 109.5 since the trade deadline.   

The Kings have the 3rd worst Assist Rate in the NBA which probably explains why they have the 2nd worst TS% in the NBA.  The 10 teams with the worst Assist Rate are also among the top 15 teams with the lowest TS%.   The Kings also have the 5th highest turnover rate which is part of the reason why they are 26th in Offensive Efficiency in the NBA.  In the Kings 4 games since the trade deadline they haven’t been able to reverse that tendency and have had 18 turnovers twice, 20 turnovers and 16 turnovers.  

The Jazz look to be right on the verge of turning things around, and are looking at the Kings game as the game that breaks their home losing streak.   The Kings need to shore up their interior defense and that needs to start with the guards stopping penetration by Harris.   For the Kings to win they must continue to dominate the boards and they must find a way to stop turning over the ball.   AK47 has been on a terror, and I look to him and Omri as the matchup of the game.

One final note, Al Jefferson hurt his leg and sat out the last 41 seconds of Thursday’s game against Denver.   As of this time, I haven’t been able to verify his status for this game, but if he’s unable to play the odds turn drastically in the Kings favor.   Go Kings

This is the 3rd and final meeting between the Trailblazers and the Kings this season.   The two teams met twice in January with each team winning on the others home court.   In the Blazer’s game just prior to their first meeting against the Kings, Marcus Camby was injured and had to undergo surgery to repair a partial medial meniscus tear in his left knee   So, Portland was forced to go with Joel Pryzbilla who himself had just returned from offseason knee surgery and Dante Cunningham a 6-8 forward as their centers.   To add to Portland’s woes they were without Brandon Roy who also had knee problems.

 In the first meeting which ended 94-90, it was the dreaded 19 turnovers and 69% shooting from the FT line that cost the Kings a home court victory.    The Kings won the battle of the boards 45-42 and 10-9 on the offensive glass in spite of DeMarcus going 2-11 for 5 pts with only 4 rebounds in almost 25 minutes.

 In the 2nd meeting the Kings shot 50% from the field and outscored Portland by 4 made baskets on 10 fewer attempts.    The Kings shot 5-9 for 55.6% from 3 and outscored Portland by 7 at the foul line shooting 15-20 for 75% for the 15pt victory 96-81.   The Kings won the rebound battle 44-39 but were outrebounded on the offensive glass 18-16.   Carl Landry was the 2nd leading scorer with 16 behind Tyreke’s 26, and Carl was tied with DeMarcus with 8 to lead the team in rebounds.  The Kings scored 31 points off of Portland’s 19 turnovers.  In the fourth quarter, the Kings held the Trail Blazers to .273 from the field. Samuel Dalembert played 10 of his 15 minutes in the fourth and had three of his four blocks in the quarter.

In spite of their lack of depth at the center position, Portland went on to a 7-4 record by the trade deadline.   Even so, it was still surprising that Portland acquires Gerald Wallace from Charlotte in exchange for Joel Przybilla, Dante Cunningham, Sean Marks, two future first round picks and cash.   With Greg Oden out for the season and Camby yet to return from his knee surgery, Portland was forced to play LaMarcus Aldridge 50 minutes at Center in Portland 107-106 win over the Nuggets the day after the trade deadline. 

 But with Camby expected to returns on the 27th against Atlanta, the Blazers evidentially felt that they could afford to drop to one Center.   It’s hard to believe that Portland thinks that they can go far in the playoffs with only one center.    And, what will be the long term effects of giving up two 1st round picks (NOH’s 2011 pick and Portland’s 2013 pick) and acquiring Wallace’s contract, have on the Blazers future.

 By adding Wallace, Portland now has over $72M in guaranteed contracts for next season.   Roy, who has been out since Dec 15 with his knees problems, is owed $15M next season and almost $70M over the next 4 years.    And, they have Wesley Matthews who they had to pay $32.5M to lure him away from Utah.   Now they add Wallace who’s owed $21M over the next 2 years when they already have Aldridge and Nicolas Bantum at the forwards, who are owed a combined $14.5M next season.     Add another almost $13M for Camby next year and the Blazers have nearly $59M committed to 6 players.   And that doesn’t include the $8.8M qualifying offer that they need to make to retain Oden or the $1.1M QO that they need to retain Patty Mills.  I’m not sure what their overall plan is but obviously they’re not afraid of the new CBA.

But for now, Marcus Camby made his return to the court Sunday night after missing the last 16 games. According to Nate McMillan, Camby will start though he will be limited to 20 minutes, or as close to 20 minutes as possible. As for Brandon Roy, who’s been back about a week from his knee surgery, McMillan said he will be restricted to 15 minutes for Sunday’s game and going into next week, "we need to try and keep his minutes limited."

In the two home games since Wallace joined the team and Camby returned, the Trail Blazers lost 90-83 to Atlanta and 103-87 to Houston.    In the Atlanta game, Camby was 0-2 and 0 pts with 6 rebs, Wallace was 4-12 and 9 pts and 5 rebs, and Roy was 3-9 for 6 pts and 1 reb.   Portland shot 39% from the field and 19% from beyond the arc.    In the Houston game, Camby was 0-2 and 1 pts with 7 rebs, Wallace was 5-11 for 14 pts and 10 rebs, and Roy was 2-7 for 4 pts and 3 rebs.  

-- Portland coach Nate McMillan, after back-to-back losses to Atlanta and Houston.

"This was a repeat of last game. I don't know where our swagger or spirit is. We look like we're not having fun. There's no connection out on that floor. I don't recognize that team, what we did tonight and in our last game."

In an effort to bolster their depth at center, Portland signed 10-year NBA veteran Jarron Collins to a 10-day contract.   He appeared in 23 games this season for the Clippers, posting averages of 0.7 points, 0.7 rebounds and 6.8 minutes.

While Portland is limiting the minutes of Camby and Roy, they are weakened both offensively and defensively and the Kings need to take advantage of the situation while they can.   The Kings should control the boards leading to 2nd chance points on the offensive end, and the defensive rebounds should lead to fast break points.    Houston doubled Aldridge immediately after he put the ball on the floor and forced him to give up the ball.   Aldridge ended up shooting 5-11 for 14 pts but did have 5 assists.   The Rockets also attacked the rim which led to a 52-26 advantage in Points in the Paint.

Portland is still a great defensive team, and maybe even better now with Wallace.   But, DeMarcus even in a slump is better than anyone Portland can put in at the Center position.    Portland is always going to slow the game down, so we can’t afford to have our bigs turning the ball over driving to the basket or taking outside jumpers because every position is critical when we play at Portland’s Pace.

The Kings need to take a page out of the Trailblazers play book and put all their efforts into defense.  We need to let the guards create off penetration and allow our bigs to score off the offensive rebounds and inside feeds from the guards.   The Bigs need to leave the 20 ft jumpers to the wings and guards and get good low post position so you only need one dribble to get into the paint.  I think PW will try to defend Aldridge without doubling, but if that doesn’t work let’s hope that T & T know their rotations.   I wish this game were a sell out too, but let’s hope the enthusiasm from Monday carries over.   Kings Win.