Category: Sacramento Kings

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

By Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO–

The first place Chicago Bulls were in Sacramento to take on the Kings and the Kings outplayed the visiting bulls 103 – 88 at Sleep Train Arena in front of a sellout Crowd of 17, 317 and a on a nationally televised game on TNT.

The Bulls were without two of their key players Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol who did not play because of injuries. Rose has a left hamstring injury and Gasol has a left calf string injury.

The loss prevented the Bulls from starting the season on the road with a 7-0 record for the first time in team history.

The last team to start the season 7-0 was the San Antonio Spurs who started the season on the road with an 8-0 record in the 2010-2011 season.

The Bulls offense became sloppy in the second quarter turning the ball over and the Kings took overthe lead at the end of the half out scoring the Bulls 30-18 in the second quarter.

The Kings Forward Derrick Williams was strong off the bench scoring 10 points in the first half. Rudy Gay led all scorers with 13 points in the first half. Malone spoke highly about the play of his young Forward. “ He’s not played a lot this year, but he stayed ready, he’s been working very very hard.” Said Malone.

A happy Kings coach Michael Malone spoke after the game about the play of his team. “Everybody stepped up, a big win for us to close out the homestand 2-1.”

Up next the King will head to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves Saturday

By Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO –

It was the Tale of two halves between the Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans had the better half defeating the Kings 106-100 in front of 16,526 at Sleep Train Arena.

The Kings got off to another hot start in the first quarter against the Pelicans. And took a 27-20 lead. Jason Thompson scored 10 points to lead all scorers in the first.. DeMarcus Cousins scored 6 points and had 6 rebounds in the opening period.

The Kings play stayed consistent in the second quarter where the Kings out scored the Pelicans 27-25 to take a 54-45 lead at the half. The Kings played solid defensive play in the first half, but the Kings began to break down defensively and get sloppy with ball handling at the end of he first half and in the 3^rd quarter allowing the Pelicans to get back into the game.

DeMarcus Cousins Led the Kings with 24 points and 17 rebounds. But again,Cousin’s performance is not enough for the Kings to get a vicotory

After the game DeMarcus said “the team completely broke down on defense. We gave the team life and we let Ryan Anderson get going. We gave them life towards the end of the game and they took advantage of it”

But the second half looked like a familiar Kings game. The Pelicans outscored the Kings 31-17 in the 3rd quarter and 31-30 in the final period.Former Sacramento Basketball stars were strong for the Pelicans.  Former Kings player Tyreke Evans scored 18 points 5 of 11 from the field and Jesuit High Grad and Cal player Ryan Anderson scored 22 points. Anderson was 9 of 17 from the field including 4 3 pointers where the Kings failed to defend  him beyond the arc.

Another strong player Anthony Davis led all scorers  with 28 points for the Pelicans

The Pelicans have won 3 of their last 4 games and improve their record to 6-4, the Kings record is now 6-5.

Game Notes: The Kings announced they have signed Rudy Gay to a contract extension throught the 2017-2018 season.

If you build it they will come.   The 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament – aka March Madness – will be held in Sacramento. The last time the tournament visited Sacramento was in 2007

by Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO–The Kings were coming off two heartbreaking games on the road that they lost. There was the one game in Dallas which they blew a 24 point lead and then the next game against the Grizzlies where they had a 26 point lead and ended up losing that game as well. It was big for the Kings to come home after losing three straight on the road after that four game road trip.

They got back to Sleep Train Arena and responded in a good way and a lot of it has to do with their bench who are playing a lot better. The Kings DeMarcus Cousins got into foul trouble and that’s what the Kings are going to need their going to need a team effort. It can’t just be a one or two guy show.

Its not only been about Cousins and Rudy Gay who are two key players for the organization and that’s where a lot of the high scoring is coming from especially early in the game before Cousins gets into foul trouble. The Kings were able to hang with such teams in their last three losses with the likes of Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Memphis.

As long as the defense plays four quarters of basketball the Kings are confident they can beat any team in the NBA that’s how Mike Malone and the Kings feel right now. The Kings confidence is starting to build, their 6-4 and after ten games nobody would have believed the Kings would be performing this well.

It is a long season and we are talking right now about only ten games in but it’s 82 games for a whole season in the NBA it can really be tough and you have to be careful about being over confident especially early in the season. Despite the three game loses this last road trip the Kings are playing much better on the road in the NBA that’s very tough to do for any team.

The Kings are playing with confidence and a lot of that is coming from Cousins whose showing leadership like he’s never shown before. Malone talked about that Saturday night after the game and said that Cousins is becoming a real leader. He’s grown a lot this season and he’s growing a lot every game. He’s really a leader that the Kings didn’t have before.

The players look up to Cousins and he’s a big part of the Kings success and he’s been helpful with tips for the younger players. A good example of that is when the Kings were in the game to the very end against Memphis and they lost to them by one point. Malone and the players have alluded to Cousins being a big influence for leadership in making these games close.

Jeff Hall covers Sacramento Kings basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

By Jeff Hall

MEMPHIS –

It’s a brand new day with the same old story. The Kings got off to another hot start for the second game in a row. But struggled again in the 2nd half and the 4th quarter allowing the Grizzlies to win the game 111-110 in a game the Grizzlies were completely outplayed for most of the game. But the NBA is a game that to win you must compete for four quarters.

The unbearable trend is mostly due to DeMarcus Cousins getting into early foul trouble again which is what continues to be a negative impact to the Kings both offensively and defensively. The Kings led the game after the 1st by 26 points, but the Grizzlies scored 95 points in the final 3 quarters of the game and came out with the win in the final second on an inbound pass to Mike Conley who was not covered by any Kings player on the floor. Rudy Gay and Cousins both had another great game, but the Kings are a weaker team once Cousins is out of the game because of foul trouble.

The player showing his biggest improvement for the Kings is Ben McLemore who struggled in the team’s first 5 games has been solid with the 3 point shot scoring 10 points in the first half.

Darren Collison had limited playing time. Collison is suffering with left shoulder stiffness that caused him to miss the previous game against the Dallas Mavericks. Collison made a big three point basket with no time left on the clock at end of the 3rd quarter.

A great first half is not enough for the Kings, who continue to struggle in the 4th quarter. The Grizzlies outscored the Kings 35-19 in the 4th allowing the Grizzlies an opportunity to devastate the kings in the final minute of the game.

Up next, the Kings return home to Sleep Train Arena Saturday to take on the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.

by Charlie O. Mallonee

No Westbrook. No Durant. Beating the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road – no problem. Except there was a problem. It is the NBA Western Conference where winning on the road is one of the toughest feats for a team to pull off. The Kings were not able to make it happen on Sunday as they lost to the Thunder 101-93 in OKC.

The Kings came out of the gate slowly. The Thunder packed the paint and used their zone defense to tie up Cousins and Gay down low. They dared the Kings to make it happen with outside shots. The Kings were not able to hit shots from the wings and went into halftime down to the Thunder 52-39.

The Kings played the first half like they had an easy win in hand versus the injury plagued Thunder. OKC came out with determination and made the Kings pay for their lack of intensity.

After the intermission, the Kings continued to fall back. Sacramento was down by 17 points before they began to turn things around.

The Kings starting five stayed on the floor for almost the entire third period and outscored the Thunder 26-15 in the quarter. Down by just two points, Sacramento had put themselves in a position to possibly win the game. The only problem for the Kings was the starting five were gassed and needed rest.

The Kings second unit was not strong on offense in the game, and they were even weaker on defense. Sacramento gave up 34 points to the Thunder in the fourth quarter which made it virtually impossible for them to win the game.

Sacramento shot 45.0-percent (36 for 80) from the field. They shot a very poor 25.0-percent (6 for 24) from beyond the 3-point arc. The Kings also hurt themselves from the free throw line. First, they went to the line just 22 times in the game versus the 30-plus opportunities they had created for themselves in their previous games. Secondly, the Kings shot a terrible 68.2-percent (15 for 22) from the stripe. They had been an 82.0-percent free throw shooting team before the game on Sunday.

The Kings were also out-rebounded by the Thunder 40 to 37. Sacramento had been averaging 49.2 rebounds per game before the OKC game.

The Sacramento bench provided only 24 points in the contest. The Thunder second unit scored 40 points in the game.

The one bright spot for the Kings was the assist to turnover ratio. They recorded 23 assists against just 10 turnovers.

Rudy Gay led the Kings in scoring with 23 points to go with 10 rebounds. DeMarcus Cousins’ streak of double-doubles was broken but he did score 16 points. Ben McLemore was much improved scoring 16 points including four 3-point baskets. Darren Collison added 12 points, five rebounds and seven assists for Sacramento.

After the game, Head Coach Michael Malone said his bench must play stronger in order to win on the road. Malone also noted the Thunder packed the paint and waited for the Kings to respond with outside shots which did not happen. Malone felt the Thunder took advantage of the Kings lack of defense in the fourth quarter.

The Kings are off on Monday and will return to action on Tuesday against the very tough Mavericks in Dallas.

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings have posted their best start to a season since 1999 by going 5-1 to kick off the 2014-15 NBA campaign. The Kings won their fifth game of the season on Friday night in Phoenix downing the Suns 114-112 in double overtime. The victory was the fifth consecutive win for Sacramento.

The Kings win in double overtime is more amazing when you know that they played both extra periods with DeMarcus Cousins on the bench with six personal fouls. Cousins fouled out of the game with 34 seconds to play in regulation.

Carl Landry, Darren Collison, Ben McLemore and Rudy Gay stepped up in overtime to lead the Kings to the win. A turnaround jump shot by Gay with 1:07 left to play in the second overtime gave the Kings the lead and ultimately the win.

Gay had struggled throughout the contest shooting just five for 22 and scoring only 11 points. After the game, Kings Head Coach Michael Malone revealed that Gay had fought through illness to play 47 minutes and hit that winning basket.

The Kings gave up 36 points to the Suns in the first quarter as Phoenix shot over 60-percent from the field. Down by nine points after one quarter it looked like it would be a long night for Sacramento. The Kings held the Suns to just 22 points in the second quarter, 30 points in the third and just 11 points in the fourth quarter. The game really became about the Kings defense.

Sacramento ultimately held the Suns to just 42.9-percent (42 for 98) shooting from the field. Phoenix shot 32.3-percent (10 for 31) form 3-point land. The Kings outrebounded the Suns 60-42.

The Kings shot 42.9-percent (39 for 91) for field goals. They shot just 18.8-percent (3 for 16) from beyond the 3-point line. Sacramento went to the free throw line 39 times and converted 33 (84.6-percent) of those opportunities.

One stat that will make Michael Malone smile is assists to turnover ratio. The Kings had 16 assists and just 15 turnovers.

Another area that showed marked improvement was the play of the shooting guards. Ben McLemore (15 points) and Nik Stauskas (nine points) gave their team the best production of the season from the two guard position. Malone made note of their play in his post-game remarks.

Cousins recorded another double-double scoring 25 points and grabbing 18 rebounds in 34 minutes on the floor. Cousins did not score his first points until the 7:57 mark in the second quarter.

Darren Collison put up 16 points while Carl Landry added 12 points off the bench.

Eric Bledsoe led the Suns in scoring with 23 points and his backcourt mate Goran Dragic added 22 points.

This game also was the first meeting between Sacramento and former King guard Isaiah Thomas. The meeting turned out to be a non-event as Thomas scored just three points in his 17 minutes of playing time.

The Kings left Phoenix for Oklahoma City where they have a game with the Thunder on Sunday night.