(sorry for borrowing your shtick, section 214)

Anyways, wildly entertaining game. I kept thinking that the Cavs were going to finally pull away after getting up by a few buckets in the 2nd and at the end of the 3rd, but the Kings kept fighting. The crowd slowly got more and more into the game until in the 4th it felt like Old Arco again. Unfortunately there were way too many LeBron jerseys in the crowd, but what can you do when your team won 17 games last year.

We had too many opportunities to win this game. We missed quite a few open or makeable shots in the 4th, most notably Evans' missed layup after the drive-and-pivot on LeBron. (Side note: every time there was an Evans v. LeBron iso play late in the 4th, the WHOLE CROWD would get on its feet. They knew it was alpha male v. alpha male. The scoreboard shows the winner of that battle.) But as has been said ad nauseum in the postgame thread, this happens when the average age of your starting lineup is barely 21.

We'll get there.

Other assorted thoughts:

Shaq was damn near useless, except on the few plays where Hawes tried to defend the entry pass and Shaq got it anyways. I love that Arco still booed him raucously, five years after he left the Lakers.

Also - Shaq and LeBron bitch to the refs after just about every call. LeBron especially is getting to that Kobe zone where he can hound a ref for several seconds after a play in a manner where a) he won't get T'd up and b) the ref will seem to apologize to him by the end. That's superstar treatment.

Another point that has been written about before, but Casspi really hits the boards hard. He's all hustle. Greene also had a solid game. I love that Westphal can run out 9 players in the first half until we find the rotation that works (although I thought Greene should have gotten a bit more of a run in the 4th, I can't argue against Casspi's D on LeBron, which I thought was more than solid). Our depth is going to win us a few more games this year.

(I posted this in a thread but figured it was long enough to stand on its own.)

On why this is a giant, and hopefully masterful misdirection play on Petrie's part...

- GP usually NEVER leaks this amount of information (not only their opinions on the workouts but opening up clips of workouts to the public and mainstream media)
- there has been a TREMENDOUS amount of misdirection about who we’re taking, even if we assume that they actually do not really like Rubio
- we gain a large deal of leverage over Memphis and OKC if we do not exhibit interest in Rubio. Each team really likes a couple of guys and it is no guarantee that they will have a guy on their list at the trade down spot if they go to #6 or lower. Therefore their safest best bet is getting the Kings to move up a couple of spots and get a guy they would have taken at #2 anyways, plus a pick and/or an expiring.
- Rubio is typically Petrie’s type of guy. Amazing passer, fundamentally sound, not extremely athletic (which Petrie often has overlooked in the past), very high hoops IQ. I think we tend to forget this. Rubio is almost like what Petrie would make if he could craft a point guard from scratch.
- Concerning Jonny Flynn – since when has Petrie been sold on leadership as a determining factor for a draft pick? (See Williams, Jason…leadership ain’t exactly getting kicked off your college team for smoking the reefer). And also, since Flynn by all accounts got severely outplayed in his workout by Jennings, why would our interest in him go up higher once we saw him? Intangible factors and the like. Fantastic intangibles, sound like someone else we know?

Bottom line, if Rubio’s there at four, no way we don’t take him. If he’s not, who knows. I have no idea at all. I think it’s a three dog race between Flynn/Evans/Curry if we’re looking for either a pure PG, the best player available, or the biggest upside, respectively. (Yes, I think Curry has the biggest upside…if he learns how to play point guard at the NBA level, he will be unlike just about every other point guard in NBA history in that he would be an elite scorer along with being a good distributor and all. It’s iffy, but I think he can pull it off.)

Clippers trade #7 and a 2009 protected 1st rounder to the Sonics for their #4 - presumably, to make sure the Clippers get their choice of Gordon/Westbrook/Bayless. The Sonics, then, are probably targeting Lopez, knowing that they could safely move down and still take him at #7.

Not sure how this affects the Kings. It might result in the Knicks taking Gallinari at #6 if the Clips take Westbrook. Which might lead to the Nets taking a point at #10, which would be bad news for those of us who want Augustin or Bayless.

I had the opportunity to work as a PR lackey yesterday as part of my internship at the Sacramento Bee. Thus, I got to talk to a few semi-important people and get a really good view of the game...just a few things I noticed, certainly nothing earth-shattering -

I can't really remember one that felt this good since Martin's buzzer-beater against San Antonio in the playoffs in 2006. This one pretty much had it all. What an exhilarating (and frustrating) last couple of minutes.

Couple of points, then I'll get out of here;

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I think we can all agree that Beno's producing about 70-80% of what Bibby would be, and for a significantly cheaper price. It makes sense then, if our season is going nowhere by the trade deadline, to trade Bibby on the cheap for whatever you can get. (Hey, that Miami #1 and J-Will doesn't look too bad right now, right?)

But Udrih's not a long-term solution by any means. I know we have a really small sample size this year (he's only played in 14 games and only started in 12) but he's posting a 15/3.5/4 this year in 35 minutes per game. I'd like those numbers from a shooting guard maybe, but not a point. It's pretty difficult to have a winning team when your point guard is only having 4 assists a game. Hell, Ron "I'll take any shot" Artest is leading the team in assists. Not a real good sign.

Do I think he's a good player? Yeah. But we're going to need a better passer at the point to bring our team to the next level. The obvious choice would be to take Rose/Mayo in the lottery but I don't think we'll be that bad. Maybe we could even get a stopgap point guard who passes better. There's even one that would be available who has 5.6 assists per game over 33 minutes per game. Not fantastic, but better than what we've got. We could even have a little change of pace - Udrih to score, and this guy to feed the big guys and K-Mart.

Who, you ask? Well...as I said, J-Will and that Miami #1 doesn't look so bad right now.