Category: NBA

Kings ReBound From Drama, Drop Pistons

Published on by tonyrenteriaLeave a comment

Sacramento CA

By Tony Renteria

photo credit bing head coach George Karl Sac Kings

The Sacramento Kings(1-7) are fighting thru a horrible start and some internal strife while having to host a hot Detroit Pistons(5-2) squad managed to start fast early and hold on to a 101-92 victory.

The Kings who are been rumored to have a serious rift between Head Coach George Karl and an All Star DeMarcus Cousins seemed for an evening to put that away as the Kings Jumped out to an early 36-23 lead after the the first quarter.

Cousins himself seemed to be a three point machine as was 4-5 from beyond the arc in pacing the Kings with 33 points to go along with nine rebounds.  Point Guard Rajon Rondo keep feeding Cousins at the three point line as the assists piled up and he ended the game with a triple double, 14 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists.

The Kings needed a win badly and Cousins put the squad on his back as he showed that once again he is the premier big man in the League.  Cousins who called a players only meeting the day before seems to ready for that leadership role the Kings organization has hoped he would assume to lead the franchise into the new arena in 2016.

The Pistons who play the Los Angles Clippers on Saturday down in south were led by both Marcus Morris and Reggie Jackson who both had 16 points in the losing effort.

The Kings Next play Friday night against Brooklyn in Sacramento.

Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O: Cousins calls meeting will there be a team revolt against Karl?

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by Charlie O Mallonee

Bing photo Sac Kings DeMarcus Cousins

SACRAMENTO–Kings star DeMarcus Cousins was scheduled to call a team meeting on Tuesday the Kings have the day off. The Kings did have a game on Monday night so it’s a question if the team was going to practice on Tuesday morning and then their going to have a game on Wednesday Nov 11th on Veterans Day with Detroit.

The Kings plan to have a players only meeting. Frankly I hate players only meetings, I don’t know if they accomplish that much because for one thing their a team. The coaching staff is part of that team and if that entire team is not working together then you got a problem. It might be a meeting where DeMarcus says “hey we got to start listening to coach” okay that would be nice but there will other things that will come out and people will be bellyaching.

We see a lot in the game of baseball you hear about player only meetings all the time in baseball, you don’t hear too much about it in the NFL. To have a players only meeting that’s serious stuff. They would do better if they said let’s do an extra practice and say to head coach George Karl “let’s do some things that we could possibly do.”

Charlie O does the Kings podcasts each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com take a listen below

 

 

Spurs hand Kings 6th straight loss, 106-88, after Sacrameto’s 4th quarter meltdown

Published on by Michael MartinezLeave a comment

by Michael Martinez

picture credit Google Images

SACRAMENTO- On a night where the Kings celebrated women in sports, especially with Becky Hammon and Nancy Lieberman being the first opposing women coaches in NBA history to square off, the Kings looked to end their losing woes. Against one of the deepest teams in the NBA, the Kings knew they would have their hands full. While the Sacramento Kings continue to search for a way to stop their opponents on the defensive end, the San Antonio Spurs capitalized with offensive runs. As the Kings stuck around with the Spurs for the first 3 quarters, they collapsed on every end of the floor in the 4th, even with All Star Demarcus Cousins back in the lineup. Every ounce of hope the Kings had prior to the 4th quarter, was quickly lost when the Spurs outscored, out hustled and out played the Kings in all aspects of the game. The Spurs handed the Kings their 6th straight loss at Sleep Train Arena, defeating the Kings 106-88.

The Kings got their offense going in the 1st with a nice fast break push where Rudy Gay assisted Demarcus Cousins for a big jam. The 1st quarter was more about defense and the team’s willingness to hustle and put forth their best effort. The Kings held the Spurs to a shooting percentage of 37.5% from the field, 9-24. The Kings made sure to pressure the Spurs’ ball handlers at all times and kept a hand in their face. The team also did well crashing the glass, finishing the quarter with 15 rebounds. Most importantly, the Kings pushed the ball and had 14 points in the paint. As they pushed the ball around the perimeter, the team did a good job of getting the ball close to the hoop for easy looks. Cousins struggled early on, but finished the quarter with 8 points, shooting 3-8 from the field, adding 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Rajon Rondo matched Cousins with 8 points as well, shooting 4-4 from the field. Rondo’s jumper looked solid in the first quarter, which was important with Darren Collison inactive. Rondo played the whole quarter and with his efforts, the Kings held a lead over the Spurs 24-23 to end the 1st.

After a great 1st quarter, the Kings hoped to bring the same defensive effort to the 2nd quarter. Both teams started off slow, but Rondo quickly helped the Kings out with his passing ability. Rondo has great vision and he did a nice job of seeing Marco Belinelli coming off screens and anticipating when he would be open. The combination of the two helped the Kings score early on, but when Belinelli started missing the mark, the offense slowed down big time. As the offense slowed, the defensive end began to allow the Spurs to score and the Spurs went on an 8-0 run in the middle of the 2nd. Ben McLemore ended the run by driving to the hoop and scoring on a lay-up. The big blow to the Kings was their defense, allowing the Spurs to shoot 57.1% from the field in the 2nd. The Kings did not do enough to get to the paint and stop the Spurs in the paint. Rondo, who played the entire first half, finished with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Bellineli finished the half with 10 points, 4-7 from the field, 2-2 from behind the arc, with all points coming in the 2nd quarter. Cousins picked up a technical foul towards the end of the quarter and the Kings sloppy 2nd quarter, 5 turnovers, put them down 49-43 to end the first half.

After a disappointing 2nd quarter, the Kings looked to stay close with the Spurs. Gay started the quarter off strong, making all 6 of his points in the first 5 minutes. The Kings did a good job of scoring, but after tying the game at 55, the defense fell apart. Once the score was tied up, the Spurs went on an 11-0 run. The Kings defense was playing poorly, but once Kawhi Leonard came out of the game, the Kings began to find a bit of a rhythm. The Kings went on a 10-3 run late in the 3rd with Cousins getting to the foul line often. Cousins put up 13 points in the 3rd, going 9-12 from the free throw line. He shot 2-6 from the field and added 5 rebounds and 1 assist. To end the quarter, the Kings pushed the ball, playing to their up-tempo offense and were only down 72-69 to end the 3rd.

The Kings looked to make a stand and tried to pull out a win against the Spurs only down by 3. However, for the Kings, they allowed their opponents to score with ease. The Spurs began to pour it on when they went on a 22-0 run. Patty Mills contributed to this run by not only putting up 7 points while adding 6 assists in the 4th alone. Mills finished with 8 assists and 9 points. Omri Casspi was the little offense the Kings had, scoring 9 points on 4-6 shooting with 2 rebounds. All of the Kings star players, Gay, Rondo and Cousins did not do much on either end to help the Kings. With the Kings down, fans began to leave with 6:31 remaining in the game, as they were tired of watching the Kings get outrebounded and out hustled. The Kings’ players began to play selfishly and when the ball movement died down, the Kings did as well. The 4th quarter was the difference in the game as the Kings never found any moment on either end of the court, losing 106-88.

When asked about the 4th quarter, Coach George Karl said “Bad offense, creates bad defense.”

The Kings’ poor shot selection created easy opportunities for the Spurs to score.

In his first game back, Cousins was out of sync with his mid range jumper. Typically Cousins is money from mid range, but being a little rusty he shot 5-20 from the field. Cousins did a good job of getting contact at the rim and shot 11-15 from the charity stripe. Rondo played all 48 minutes and after a good scoring first quarter, he finished with the same 8 points and totaling 6 rebounds and 12 assists. The Kings shot 40.5% from the field for the game and 36.8% from behind the arc. The team was out played in the 4th quarter and hopefully the Kings can find a quick solution.

The solution might not be that easy though, as the Kings seem to have some issues in the locker room. Cousins told reporters that their would be a players only meeting and said “Just to make it clear, I believe in every single person in this room. We just got to stick together.”

Cousins reiterated this idea throughout the post game interview and it will be interesting to see if the Kings can figure it out at tomorrow’s practice.

I asked Gay if the difficultly of their schedule has played a factor in their 6 game losing streak.

“Not having a rhythm completely, and then playing against playoff teams, it doesn’t help,” said Gay.

The Kings will once again be tested by a good team as they take on the Pistons at home this Wednesday. The Kings will need to find an answer on the defensive end of the floor as newly crowned player of the week, Andre Drummond, looks to continue his domination.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Flags scoreboard (you can measure the frontrunners)

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–With every Golden State Warriors win(undefeated this young NBA season)you can see more and more yellow and blue Warriors flags flying in cars around the Bay Area. However interestingly enough the San Francisco 49ers flags, are not seen as often. Could it be the Bay Area is your “front-runners’area for sports teams? Furthermore; Giants flags are in storage for the winter, but the San José Sharks are still flying high in the South Bay, interestingly enough they are not selling out every game like they used to at the tank.  Of course, everybody wants to be identified as a winner, and it is just human nature, but sometimes its so obvious that the only thing you can do is laugh.

Notice I didn’t mentioned Oakland Raiders. I think the Raiders fans are in a conundrum, since it could be soon the famous logo could have L.A underneath, a possible move of the Raiders Back to The Future flag could be in the foreseeable future, although they are also competing with the Rams. That make the Athletics fans dream of a ‘nicer and gentler’ Oakland Coliseum,without sharing it with the Raiders, maybe even Mr Wolff would even considering remodeling the maligned park?
These are very interesting times in the Bay Area, a football team with uncertain future, another one with no quarterback, a basketball team that refuses to lose and two baseball teams licking their wounds because less that memorable seasons, and a hockey team celebrating their 25th season but with more empty seats.
Buckle your seat belts, it is going to be a bumpy ride this winter.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez is a talk show host on Sports Radio Service and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Golden State Cruises Past Nuggets To Stay A Perfect 6-0 On The Season.

Published on by swhelchLeave a comment

By Shawn Whelchel

The Golden State Warriors stayed perfect on the season at the conclusion of Friday night’s contest, as an explosive first-half of play saw them easily dispatch the Denver Nuggets in a 119-104 victory at Oracle Arena.

The game seemed all but won for Golden State at the conclusion of the second quarter, when the reigning NBA champions took a 30 point lead into the locker room. But Denver refused to be downed quietly, mounting an admirable second half charge- outscoring Golden State by 15 through the final two frames- before ultimately suffering their fourth loss of the season.

Golden State’s hot start was too much to handle for the Nuggets, who gave up 74 first-half points to the Warriors before heading into the locker room. Leading the pack was none other than Steph Curry himself, who finished the night just shy of a triple-double with 34 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists and three steals. Harrison Barnes followed Curry with 21 points and five rebounds, Klay Thompson had 18 points and six rebounds, and Draymond Green finished just short of his own triple-double with 12 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

Although Curry stole the offensive show, he wasn’t alone in his endevour, as all of the Warriors’ starters finished in double-digits. The team as a whole shot 49.5 percent on the night while tying their second highest point total on the season. Golden State has now scored 119 points three times through their first six games.

The Warriors put on an unselfish clinic on the night too, as their 28 first-half assists were a new franchise record.

Denver was led by SF Danilo Gallinari, who had an efficient night from the field, shooting 7-of-13 for 25 points. Golden State was able to contain the talented Kenneth Faried, who scored just eight points- the least amongst Denver starters- in 21 minutes on the court.

Golden State is now a perfect 6-0 against Western conference teams, and 2-0 against those in the Pacific division. The team has another divisional matchup on Saturday, as the Curry brothers will meet when Golden State takes on Sacramento at Sleep Train Arena. Tip off starts at 7 p.m.