Author: lleonardbw

Raiders Commentary: Oakland hoping to extend win streak to two games in St.Louis

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–It’s another tough game coming up for the Oakland Raiders as they face the St.Louis Rams and they have it tough for the rest of the way. Even the teams that are not quite as good are still reasonably one of the decent teams in the NFL. You look at the Buffalo game at the end of December the Bills are one of the best teams in the NFL but they have a really tough defense.

The Raiders offense is where they struggle the most, in this game against the Rams the Raiders could win it. There’s a better chance going into this one against St.Louis than the game they had against Kansas City a game that was played at the Oakland Coliseum the other week and they ended up beating the Chiefs.

The Rams are a weird team because if they were in another division they might be a playoff contender the fact of the matter is their stuck in the NFC West which is really tough and even though they have a really strong defense at least on some level they have a competent offense. Their good enough to challenge some of the playoff teams.

We saw the Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks by two points 28-26 Sun Oct 19th, we’ve seen them beat a decent team the 49ers and the Raiders defense is going to have a real struggle and the Chiefs have a very tough defense and they managed to fall to the Raiders. Anything is possible you have to wonder how the Raiders are going to handle getting this one.

Will the Raiders be too tense? Will they sit back and say “we got our win, we feel good about our selves we’re looking ahead to the 49ers next week. Maybe were not going to pull one off on the road” the Raiders snapped a long losing streak which ran into 23 just overall.

This streak was long but their road losing streak was longer and it’s been over 15 months since they’ve won a road game. This game is going to be tough this Sunday. They’re still not very great at getting prepared for their next road trip and they don’t even know who their going to play next. They had that amazing win against the Chiefs when the Raiders Latavius Murray carried up the middle for a 90 yard touchdown and it was a run that helped avoid a winless season.

The other running backs the Raiders have Marcel Reece and Darren McFadden haven’t really done anything all season long. Without that running threat to keep defenses honest the Raiders are going to have a little bit of trouble especially going against a good defense.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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49ers commentary: Holes in the line up the Niners have over a week to prepare for Raiders

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–This wasn’t a new development that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick couldn’t get the offense moving. The 49ers offense has been struggling for about a month and a half now and they really haven’t had a good game all season and there hasn’t been a single game during that time where they had a dominant offense.

The game on the road against St.Louis Mon Oct 13th was a pretty good victory 31-17 and that was probably Kaepernick’s best game of the season in that one. That was the only one where the offense look competent other than that this team has struggled on offense all season. It’s tough to put your finger on why the offense has such a tough time this year.

Last season it was clearly the lack of wide receivers Anquan Boldin had one good game this year and in 2013. Michael Crabtree was out most of the year and everybody after Boldin on the depth chart really contributed nothing. There’s Boldin and Vernon Davis and then the running game, this season all the receivers are more or less healthy Boldin is having a very good year.

Davis hasn’t contributed much and maybe that might be a bit of a factor he’s been hurt since the third or fourth game of the season. Crabtree has had a lousy year for the first season he’s played pretty much every game he hasn’t had a good season at all. Nobody in the third slot of the wide receiving core stepped up but Stevie Johnson has been pretty good.

For intents and purposes Johnson is not on the field most of the time he’s kind of splitting time with Brandon Lloyd and except for that one game Lloyd hasn’t done very much either. Part of it is the wide receivers are not all that good beyond that fumble. Davis hasn’t contributed and the other big factor the offensive line is lousy.

Left offensive guard Mike Iupati has had some problems with injuries this season and Davis hasn’t played in a couple of weeks and he’s missed several games and the Niners have a new center Marcus Martin. Daniel Kilgore went down and he was playing really well then he got hurt Martin came in he really struggled in that first game at home against St.Louis.

Martin has been a struggled to come back but he’s still learning as a rookie and everybody on that offensive line got injured to a certain extent. Joe Staley got knocked out in proportions of games he hasn’t missed a start but he’s banged up. Don’t forget right offensive guard Alex Boone he missed the all of camp and didn’t come in until about a month into the season.

The Niners play next on Sunday December 7th at Levis Stadium hosting the Oakland Raiders

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Cal basketball commentary: Bears prepare for Fresno; nice pull away in Cal Poly win

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–The game against the Cal Poly Mustangs was close for quite awhile last Wednesday night but the Cal Bears pulled away and won it 72-52. The Bears started pulling away with 11 minutes left in the game. Until it was a three point game, right when I turned to Jeff Faraudo of Bay Area News Group and said their letting Cal Poly hang around too long they stopped letting them hang around.

It took Cal 30 minutes of play to really solve the way Cal Poly was defending the game running the shot clock down as close to zero as they could. Extending possession making a lot of passes with a lot of ball movement. On defense they were packing it in low.

Cal was kind of filling up the lane and forcing Cal Poly to take shots that they didn’t really want to take at that time and it took them a little while to really solve it but they eventually did. They executed a three guard offense and three guards scored in double figures Jabari Bird (18), Jordan Matthews (17), and Tyrone Wallace (16).

Basically Cal on defense collapsed in the lane making it impossible to drive the lane, you have to move the ball around a lot and find an open shooter. On offense Bird played well, Matthews used his speed to get the transition game going in the last ten minutes of the game. Christian Behrens had a really nice night he had a career high with nine rebounds.

Behrens could stand to put on a few pounds he still is in general in Cal terms a lightweight compared to a lot teams in the Pac 12. That really showed in the Texas game during the 2K Tournament which they lost, Texas had four guys who were 6’11 and were bigger. All of those four weighed at least 250 pounds and they were able to go in and physically dominate Cal.

The one thing that Cal does not have at this point is bulk down in the key as a senior David Kravish looks like he’s missed a couple of meals. The kids all have sufficient stamina to play 40 minutes that’s not an issue but what’s more an issue is just the ability to be a physical presence in the lane. When your 6’10 290 lbs you take up a lot more space in the key.

When your 6’10 220 lbs you get the leverage to spread out your base and have the physical mass just to move people off the block or just from keeping them from getting the position. Cal Poly was a good basketball team that Cal faced on Wednesday night they compete all night long and if you go back to last year they were the NCAA Tournament team and Cal was not an NCAA Tournament team.

Cal now gets set to play at Fresno State on Sunday for a 3:00 PM (PST) tip

Michael Duca does Cal basketball commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks commentary: Hunger Games in San Jose; team flat, chances fall, and can’t win shoot outs

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by Ivan Makarov

SAN JOSE–There is definitely a lack of production on the San Jose Sharks right now who just dropped their fourth straight game and their third at home. The Sharks also lost two of those games on shootouts. The defense is not doing great either and they had some goaltenders they faced who stopped a lot of chances for them. They have skaters who can’t score goals and there aren’t a lot of goals to win games.

What happened is the season started well for the Sharks and all four lines were scoring and now there’s a bit of a dry spell from the bottom two lines and also from Patrick Marleau and Logan Courture have gone through a dry spell with five or six games without goals. The Sharks finally broke through in the game against the Coyotes Sat Nov 22 but it wasn’t enough for the Sharks which they lost by a goal 4-3.

They really need to have their third and fourth lines step up and score some goals again, the Coyotes goaltender Devan Dubnyk stopped 40 goals last Saturday and that’s not helping San Jose and that happens that’s part of the game and the Sharks have to overcome it and they have to find ways to score goals and the Sharks aren’t able to do so.

The game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night which they got shutout 2-0 Flames goaltender Karri Ramo stopped all 32 shots against to shutout the home team at SAP Center. The Sharks have been shooting from the perimeter rather than getting close to the net or shooting from the blue line. The shots against Sharks goalie Antti Niemi are getting through pretty easy for Calgary as the Flames Jiri Hudler put on a one man show scoring both goals on Wednesday night for the 2-0 win.

Niemi has had a pretty good season so far 2.58 goals against, his numbers are there and he’s won a few games that they didn’t deserve to win. Niemi is one player that is hard to really accuse him of any thing right now. Sharks back up goalie Alex Stalock could have taken the start from Niemi because he had a good season last year but has been playing below average.

Stalock went out with injuries and the Sharks had called up another guy from Worcester who went down with injuries and so the Sharks had to call up a local guy from San Jose Ryan Lowe. The Sharks woes continue as the other backup goalie Troy Groesnick got an upper body injury during the morning skate Wednesday and sat out.

Lowe sat on the bench and didn’t see any action and was ready for the call of duty. Lowe is local and played college hockey at San Jose State. Lowe played hockey in an Australian league. The Sharks continue to have backup issues in net. Niemi for the most part has been good so far.

The Sharks have been a bit unlucky and there has been a lot of chatter about trading Marleau but Marleau has done the best that he could so prove that he belongs and be a leader on the team. Joe Thornton has been doing a lot better after he lost his captaincy at the beginning of this season and leads the team with 20 assists and has said that he wants to get it back.

The Sharks are now .500 at 10-10-4 a position that is very foreign to them as they have always been on the top at this time of the year in the Pacific but are battling to stay in the race. The Sharks host the Anaheim Ducks this Saturday night at 7:30pm.

Ivan Makarov hosts Sportstalk and is a beat writer covering San Jose Sharks hockey for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

SF Giants report: Flannery retires; second big figure to leave S.F.

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by Jeremy Harness & Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–For the second straight day an influential figure has left the San Francisco Giants first it was Pablo Sandoval on Monday this time Giants third base coach Tim Flannery has hung up his waving and sending signals to runners and hitters after eight seasons with the team. Flannery 57 is retiring after some 33 years in baseball.

Flannery was asked if it was a difficult decision to leave the game he worked in for so many years Flannery said he was thinking about leaving the game during the 2014 season and inspite of winning three championships with the team Flannery said the time has come. Giants manager Bruce Bochy said he and Flannery spent many years coaching together “I think he did some soul searching and thought this was the right decision for him and his family. I certainly respect that. I’m going to miss Flan, with over 30 years of playing together and coaching together. We’ve gone down a lot of roads together” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy.

Flannery was floated to manage in the big leagues some day after many years of coaching at third base but never wanted any part of managing and he said that he has done everything that he had to do in the show and is satisfied with what he accomplished.

“I had no desire to manage. This has all been thought out. This is not a knee jerk-reaction. So then you ask yourself, what else are you going to do? Keep coaching third till I drop over? Win a fourth championship? A fifth? What else can I do in the next phase of my life? asked Flannery.

Flannery also has been hit with various setbacks over the years as well as many different surgeries and he had knee surgery last year. Flannery also says he has double vision and he plans to take care of that soon. Flannery had suffered from double vision since spring training.

The Giants are considering two candidates to fill Flannery’s old job as third base coach Bill Hayes who is a former minor league manager and has worked coaching as a bullpen catcher and catching coach and filled in as a third base coach. The Giants could look to their Triple AAA manager in Sacramento Bob Mariano.

Morris Phillips and Jeremy Harness both are Giants beat writers for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Panda’s new habitat

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Pablo Sandoval had three official offers, one from the Boston Red Sox, one from the San Diego Padres and one from the San Francisco Giants. Pablo picked the Boston Red Sox. All three offers were believed to be for five years and at least $90 million.

The Giant Panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichaun province, but also in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, however this Panda, the one from Venezuela who plays third base is going to Boston, Massachusetts, to be more exact Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox, the same Red Sox team that finished last this season in the American League East, but won the 2013 World Series.

We can all speculate why Pablo and his agent chose Boston. Did he get tired of the same old-same-same-old story every year in San Francisco that the Giants wanted him to lose weight, but he did and he put it back on. Did he (and his family) just want a “change of scenery”, Boston is a beautiful city also, or the most obvious one (in my opinion) going to the American League he can extend his career and can always rest his legs by giving David Ortiz a brake as the Designated Hitter of the team, something he could never do with the Giants.

As good as Giants fans have been filling AT&T Park for years, Boston has the most passionate fans in all of baseball, and unforgiving fans also. Boston is a tough town to play, but if Pablo has the same regular season he had this year in Boston in 2015, the talk shows, the media, the fans in Beantown are sure to drive Pablo crazy.

On the other hand if the team makes it to the Postseason, then you have one of the best hitters in recent memory in a World Series. Pablo has an innate ability to “turn up the switch”in the postseason, and that is something that two of the biggest stars ever for these two franchises cannot say, Barry Bonds for the Giants and Ted Williams for the Red Sox; you are welcome to check Bonds and Williams stats in postseason, and they are not pretty.

So just like Panda picked the team he wanted to play, you are free to pick one of these scenarios, or maybe your own, maybe Pablo loves history and Boston has as much American history as any other city in the country. Maybe when the “dogs days of summer” arrive in Boston, with that humidity and he has a bad game, strikes out 3 times, leaves a ton of runners in scoring position, he can always go to the cemetery where Paul Revere is buried and think of American revolutionary history.

Pablo is leaving the Bay Area with three World Series rings (the third one he will probably get by courier to Boston next year) and leaves as one of the most popular Giants in recent memory; without a doubt since the 2000 season when the team moved from maligned Candlestick Park to comfy AT&T Park.

Pablo Sandoval is an easy going guy, affable with the fans and with teammates, and a guy that works as hard as anybody in baseball, you might think that is not accurate because of his weight, but it is a true statement. I have seen Pablo in Spring Training year after year. I have never heard anything negative about Pablo, from his teammates or from anybody in the media.

Boston is a different type of town for baseball, the Red Sox are more about baseball 100X100 than about mascots or Panda merchandise and souvenirs, the Red Sox fans live and die with their team, and they talk baseball all the time. With all respect to San Francisco, the Red Sox fans are way ahead of Giants fans when it comes to passion for the game. Unlike AT&T Park, there are no animal mascots at Fenway Park; as a matter of fact did you know who was the mascot of the Boston Red Sox? It is Wally the Green Monster! Now, how many people even knew that?

Common sense tells you that the Panda(nickname given to him from ex-Giants and A’s pitcher Barry Zito) would be happier in San Francisco, a city where he could do no wrong, but he has done it all in the City by the Bay, he has won enough hardware for his baseball showcase at home, as well sold enough merchandise and good will for the Giants, a team that is now advertising tickets for next season as a dynasty.

But who’s business is to say where Pablo should play? It is still a free country, and he was courted by at least the three teams that made very similar offers, and it is Pablo’s business and his family where he wants to play. As simple as that. So Giants fans, you do not have to complain from April to September anymore about the Panda anymore, but you will miss him if the Red Sox go back to the World Series next season, which for them would be their second World Series in the past three seasons.

So far the Red Sox are the big spenders this off season, also signing Hanley Ramírez from the Dodgers for 4 years and $88 million, and what I hear from Boston, is that they are not done yet with free agents. Jon Lester’s Red Sox jersey is waiting for him, just like he left it last season, nice and clean, at Fenway Park…

Felicidades Pablo y muy buena suerte!

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Panda will be wearing Red Sox for the next five years at a $100 M

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Former San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval has come to an agreement with the Boston Red Sox to the tune of $100 million for five years. Sandoval will be joined by former L.A. Dodger Hanley Ramirez who signed on with the Sox for a cool $88 million for four years.

The word on Yoenis Cespedes he will be traded because the Sox don’t have room for him in the outfield. The Sox said that Ramirez can play leftfield and Ramirez is basically a shortstop. This is nothing new during the Giants celebration parade I was working TV for Telemundo and the news anchor at the time asked “what are the chances of Sandoval leaving the Giants?”

I told the anchor that the chances of Sandoval leaving are excellent and now the Red Sox are going to pay Sandoval $100 million which the Giants weren’t willing to give up. That’s a great opportunity for Sandoval and congratulations are in order for him. He’s going to a team that’s going to be in the race again.

This is that time of the year when teams sign free agents and you might remember last year that the Angels signed Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. Well this year is the Red Sox year, their getting Sandoval and Ramirez these are two established All-Stars. These two guys are commanding $90-100 contracts a piece.

Their not done yet the Sox could get Jon Lester back and Lester is worth another $100 million at least for a few years. The Red Sox are looking to improve and their looking to move up in the standings from last place and the Sox won the World Series in 2013 and last season they finished in last place.

But guess what the Sox could be in the World Series next season and they could do what the Giants did and get to the Series every other year. The Sox are going to have the guns, their going to have the players. Pablo is going to be interesting because he had all the love in San Francisco however even though anyone who covers baseball knows that Boston is a tough town on bad baseball.

I just hate to see what those fans in Fenway would do if Sandoval strikes out at the plate and looking bad doing it in the bottom of the ninth and loosing a game for the Sox. The talk shows in Boston are going to go crazy. Yes the Giants get a full house every time they play at home at 41,000 plus but let me tell you Boston fans are the most passionate fans in the game.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the Oakland A’s and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NCAA commentary: Winston made official contact but it’s all good; Oregon offense plowing to success; Alabama can’t be contained

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by Michelle Richardson

Florida State 20 (11-0) vs. Boston College 17 (6-5): The field was soaked and the game was tied and on the line but the Florida State Seminoles pulled out the rabbit and traveled 66 yards down field to give their kicker Roberto Aguayo reasonable distance to convert a 26 yard field goal for the game winner with just three second left on Saturday to just get by BC 20-17.

Still this is not the Florida State of last season, this is not the National Championship team of 2013 so people really need to let it go. Half of those Seminole players have graduated and are playing the NFL. Calvin Benjamin is in the pros with the Carolina Panthers and rightfully so let it go.

Even though if this is not that team this team continues to win, it doesn’t matter if it’s ugly or if it’s a blowout the bottom line is they win. Their 26-0 with a ten game win streak, they haven’t lost in 26 straight games and this next game they need to get past Florida and it doesn’t matter how poorly either team is playing.

Oregon 44 (10-1) vs. Colorado 10 (2-9): The Oregon Ducks didn’t disappoint but they also didn’t shock anyone either with a healthy 34 point win over the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday. Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota threw for 323 yards, completing 24 passes in 32 tries, with three touchdown passes Mariota also carried for a touchdown.
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There was not too much expectation out of the Ducks, the Buffaloes came to Oregon and the Ducks took care of business. Mariota and Oregon will win the Pac 12 Championship I don’t see how they can’t and most likely they’ll play UCLA (9-2) to find out whose the overall Pac 12 Champions. The bottom line is Oregon took care of Colorado.

Alabama 48 (10-1) vs. Western Carolina (7-5) 14: This was the final game of the season for the Western Carolina Catamounts and this was another game that had no surprises as the Alabama Crimson Tide did what they were suppose to do and win and win big. The Crimson did what they were suppose to do in this game and they won by 34 points.

The games scheduled for the SCC on Saturday were pretty bad, for the most part with the exception of Arkansas over Ole Miss, there wasn’t a lot of great games going on. Next week all the big rival big games will be going on. Once again Alabama did what they were suppose to do. Western Carolina who plays in the Southern Conference got soaked and Alabama they did what they were suppose to do.

The Crimson Tide cruised past the Cats on offense even before the first half was over, Western Carolina played hard football, they didn’t give up and it’s hard to ask a football team to come and show up at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa and win there. With that crowd and all of that noise there.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Stanford game recap: Stanford keeps the axe; routs Cal in the Big Game

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by Daniel Dullum

BERKELEY–For this group of Stanford seniors, it was another trip around Memorial Stadium in Berkeley toting the Axe – they’ve never known anything different from their last four football encounters with California.

The Cardinal secured the Axe early in their 38-17 triumph over Cal. Nearly two minutes into the Big Game, Remound Wright rambled in from a yard out to start the onslaught with the first of his four touchdowns. Four minutes later, Jordan Williamson booted a 24-yard field goal and the Cardinal were up 10-0 after one quarter.

Cal pulled to within 10-7 to open the second quarter, but that was as close as the Bears would get. Rushing touchdowns by Wright and quarterback Kevin Hogan effectively blew the game open as Stanford took a 24-7 lead into the intermission.

Wright’s two second-half scores gave Stanford a comfortable 30-10 lead with 8:44 left in the fourth quarter. Wright wound up with 93 rushing yards on 23 carries. Hogan was 15 of 20 for 214 yards with one interception.

Hogan was also the Cardinal’s second busiest runner, rushing seven times for 46 yards.

Francis Owusu snared four of Hogan’s passes for 46 yards. Devon Cajuste and Austin Hooper each caught three passes for Stanford. Blake Martinez was the defensive star for the Cardinal, intercepting two passes and forcing a fumble.

Despite being flagged 12 times for 113 penalty yards, the Cardinal won the 117th Big Game and qualified for a lower-tier bowl game. With that, and taking home the Axe, it was a good day for the Cardinal, indeed.

Daniel Dullum covers Stanford football and basketball road games for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sac Kings commentary: Kings getting defensive help from Cousins, Collison contributing and Cassipi strong off the bench

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by Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO–The Sacramento Kings showed what kind of a good basketball team they are with a win over the Chicago Bulls last Thursday night beating a rugged Chicago Bulls team 103-88 who had won six straight games on the road prior to coming into Sleep Train Arena. The Bulls were trying to win their seventh in a row and if they pulled it off it would have been the first time the Bulls would have done that in their history.

The San Antonio Spurs hold the record for the longest road win record with eight in 2010. The Kings offense was impressive because of what they were able to do in the forth quarter. It’s been the forth quarter that the Kings have struggled in and they made some mistakes in those forth quarters where it costed them some games during the season.

As Darren Collison of the Kings has said “the one good thing about that is were learning from it” and they did learn and they played well against the Bulls on Thursday night and they didn’t blow the lead. Kings head coach Kevin Malone said after losing on Tuesday to New Orleans and then winning on Thursday to Chicago that the team can’t be “Jeckle and Hyde.”

Malone said “we have to be more consistent with the way we play were going to have to play like this for four quarters, we can’t be playing good for one half and then expect to win a lot of games.” The Kings DeMarcus Cousins was again the leader in offensive points on Thursday but he was also good defensively.

Cousins has not only been leading in offense but leading in defense, the situation in the fourth quarter against the Bulls where Joakim Noah was in foul trouble with five fouls and it’s kind of hard to defend Cousins when you have five fouls on you. The Kings Rudy Gay is doing well scoring 20 points despite his injury and he scored in the fourth quarter.

Gay did sign that contract for the Kings just recently to re-up and that’s a big deal. It’s been quite a week for the Kings with the Gay contract extension and Malone said he’s been saddled with injuries but he’s fine anyways. Omri Casspi is playing very well off the bench and so is the Kings Derrick Williams.

Williams on Thursday had a great game with ten points in the first half and it was a big game for Williams and a big performance in the first half. This helped the Kings to come back in that game Cassipi came back and played the second half and did quite well. Cassipi is fast and he’s smart and he seems to know where he’s going with the ball. The Kings reload again and are playing in Minnesota against the Timberwolves on Saturday night.

Jeff Hall is a beat writer covering Kings basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com