Category: Sacramento Kings

Kings Surprise the Clips 98-92 in LA

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

Clippers 11-2-14

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings were victorious in their first road game of the season as they beat the Los Angeles Clippers 98-92 at Staples Arena. The Kings relied on strong performances by DeMarcus Cousins, Rudy Gay and Darren Collison on offense and tenacious team defense to walk away with the victory on the road in LA.

DeMarcus Cousins was the star of the game for the Kings. Cousins scored 34 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, distributed five assists and blocked three shots in leading his team to the win. It was Cousins’ second double-double of the season. He was dominate in the paint versus two very strong defenders -the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin.

Rudy Gay had another strong performance to follow up his 40 point game against the Trail Blazers on Friday night. Gay poured in 25 points to go with seven rebounds, six assists, one steal and one blocked shot. He shot 50-percent from the field and made 10 of 11 from the free throw line.

The game was Darren Collison’s first opportunity to face his former team and he showed the Clippers what they lost when they let him walk away in the off-season. Collison scored 14 points, pulled down five rebounds, posted five assists and had one blocked shot in his return to LA.

The Kings shot 50-percent (34 for 68) from the field. They hit on 27 of 33 chances from the free throw line. Sacramento outscored the Clippers 44-34 in the paint.

On defense the Kings held the Clippers 13,5 points under their season average (105.5). LA shot just 37.5-percent (33 for 88) from the field. The Clippers attempted 31 3-point shots but were successful just nine times (29-percent). The Kings outrebounded the Clippers 46 to 35 (+11).

Blake Griffin and former King Spencer Hawes led the Clippers in scoring with 17 points each. Chris Paul added 16 points to go along with 11 assists. J.J. Redick scored 12 points but shot a horrible two for 12 from beyond the 3-point arc. The Clippers’ bench did outscore the Kings’ bench 36 to 18.

The Kings did have a problem with turnovers again in the contest. Sacramento turned the ball over 19 times in the game. The target has to be 10 or less turnovers per game.

The other area of concern for the Kings has to be the lack of scoring production from the two-guard position. That position added just 12 points divided between three players. Head coach Michael Malone did create a different look by using Omri Casspi at shooting guard along with McLemore and Stauskas.

The Kings outscored the Clippers in three of the four quarters. Sacramento scored 28 points to just 18 for Los Angeles in the final period.

The Kings will be back in action on Monday night in Denver versus the Nuggets.

Nothing but treats for the Kings in a 103-94 win over Portland

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Sac logo

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings won their first game of the year on Halloween defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 103 – 94. The Kings rode a 40 point performance from Rudy Gay along with playing solid defense and taking care of the basketball to their first win of the 2014-15 season.

Gay shot 13 for 19 from the field including three 3-pointers. He went 11 for 13 from the free throw line. Gay did not try to dominate the game. The game just kept coming to him and he answered the call. It was truly an unselfish 40 point performance that included eight rebounds, one assist and one steal in 36 minutes of playing time.

Kings point guard Darren Collison also had a strong game. He scored 17 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, posted eight assists and added three steals in the game. Collison went 5 for 6 from the free throw line.

DeMarcus Cousins recorded 17 points in the Kings victory. Cousins shot just 6 for 16 from the field but went 5 for 6 from the charity stripe. He also recorded nine rebounds in just 31 minutes of playing time. Cousins picked up his fourth personal foul midway through the third quarter and spent the rest of that quarter along with part of the fourth period on the bench.

The Kings shot .420 (34-81) from the field. They hit on 4 of 10 attempts (.400) from beyond the 3-point line. Sacramento really helped themselves at the free throw line hitting on 31 of 35 attempts (.886) from the stripe.

The key to the victory was the way the Kings took care of the basketball. After turning the ball over 27 times versus Golden State, the Kings turned the ball over just 10 times against the Trail Blazers. Those turnovers resulted in just 12 points for Portland. Kings coach Michael Malone was very pleased with the way his team protected the ball.

Sacramento also played solid defense versus Portland. The Kings held the Trail Blazers to just .410 (34-83) shooting from the field. The Blazers hit on just 9 of 26 3-point tries. Portland went to the free throw line just 19 times in the game.

The Kings out-rebounded the Trail Blazers 49 – 38.

The Trail Blazers were led by LaMarcus Aldridge who scored 22 points, four rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Damien Lillard posted 20 points to go with seven rebounds and two assists.

After the game, Kings head coach Michael Malone was very excited about his team’s strong effort on defense. He was also very happy about the way the team played unselfish basketball. “Oh, what a great game. I thought our guys played unbelievable tonight on both sides of the ball.”

Rudy Gay said, “I just wanted to be aggressive – for the most part I hadn’t really had a good game this season, preseason or in the season. So I just wanted to make sure this one was.”

Malone said, “The way he (Gay) played tonight, not just on the court but in the huddles, the positive leadership, stressing the ball movement, all the things we’ve been talking about; it’s great when you start hearing the players hold each other accountable.”

The one area of concern for the Kings has to be the lack of production from the shooting guards in the game. Ben McLemore scored just seven points taking only five shots while Nik Stauskas was held scoreless in his 16 minutes of play. The Kings will need to find a way to get the shooting guards more involved in the offense.

The Kings are now 1-1 on the young season and now must ready themselves for their first road contest of the season. Sacramento will face the Los Angeles Clippers at the Staples Center on Sunday at 12:30 PM.

Sac Kings preview: Kings break new ground at new arena and new season

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by Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO–The Sacramento Kings opened up the season against the Golden State Warriors at Sleep Train Arena and also broke ground for construction at the new new arena at the downtown plaza where it will be the future home of the Kings. The new arena is expected to open in the fall of 2016.

On opening night a lot of the Kings success against the Warriors will have to do with their head coach Mike Malone. The grow up part of it has to do with Kings forward DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins is a solid player and we all know he’s an emotional player and its a matter or not if Cousins can’t control that emotion.

So far Cousins has done a great job so far he looks like a leader and it’s something that the Kings haven’t seen and he’s not under the old ownership of the Maloof family. With new owner Vivek Ranadive he won’t toloreate bad behavior and that’s not to say he would get rid of Cousins.

Cousins is solid and Ranadive and the Kings are looking forward to Cousins to produce. He’s defitnitely a superstar and definitely he’s an All-Star player. Were going to see a lot of Cousins this season and the Kings will really embrace him and his role for this year if they haven’t done it already. If Cousins can control his emotions particularly against NBA referees.

It comes down to Cousins and if he’s solid they’ll need him for the players and it’s going to come down to this guy. No matter how solid he is the Kings could make the playoffs this year. It’s important to Ranadive because he knows that Sacramento is not going to put up with a team that loses every year. The city will still support the team but it’s important that the team start winning some games.

It’s important to Ranadive and as long as the players respect this guy and they respect Malone and they do it might be a very good start against the Warriors to open the season. The Kings haven’t had a very good opportunity to to start this season at home. There’s a lot of Warriors fans who are in Sacramento as well and there are a lot of fans who are willing to go to Golden State.

These two teams present the highway 80 competition and it should be a good competition between these two teams and you saw a lot of Warriors fans in Sacramento. Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro and Malone expect the best out of his starting five including Rudy Gay whose at one forward and with Cousins their performing and taking on a lot of the load.

The Kings are also hoping that their second year guard Ben McLemore and Nicky Stauskas can grow and blend in with the veterans Jason Thompson, Reggie Evans, and Ramon Sessions. The Kngs are hoping that happens quickly and D’Alessandro and Malone are looking to see what kind of defense that these kids can play. You got Stauskas whose a former Michigan Wolverine player and he could do a lot on rebounding and helping the Kings capitalize on the turnover.

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

photo credit: google image

McCallum’s Tip In Time Leads Kings Past Lakers

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By Matthew T.F. Harrington

The Sacramento Kings erased a 14-point fourth quarter deficit, then rode a Ray McCallum buzzer-beating tip-in to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 93-92 Friday night from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. DeMarcus Cousins dropped a game-high 21 points for the Kings along with 10 rebounds for a double-double, while Palo Alto’s own Jeremy Lin paced LA with 19 points off the bench.

Apart from Cousins, the Kings received only 16 points combined from the remaining starting five of Ben McLemore, Darren Collison, Jason Thompson and Rudy Gay. Reserves Nik Stauskas (10), Ramon Sessions (13) and Derrick Williams(14) all put up double-digit scoring to push the Kings past their SoCal foes.

The Kings held a 49-48 edge heading in to the half, but LA dominated the third quarter. The Lakers outscored Sacramento 28-15 after 36 minutes of play for a 76-64 margin, but the Kings collected 29 fourth-quarter points, including McCallum’s game-winner, while forcing the LA to settle with 16 points.

With the win, the Kings wrap up preseason play with a 3-4 overall record. They open the season Wednesday night at home against in-state rivals the Golden State Warriors.

Spurs Bounce Back to Top Kings

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By Shawn Whelchel

A dominant night from C DeMarcus Cousins wasn’t enough to hold the reigning NBA champions down for long, as the San Antonio Spurs mounted a third quarter comeback to steal a 106-99 victory away from the Sacramento Kings .

With star Tim Duncan sitting out for the game, DeMarcus Cousin was turned loose in the post, scoring 32 points on 12 of 14 shooting from the field, while adding four assists. But Cousins influence was felt on both ends of the court as the dynamic center also hauled in 11 rebounds, 2 steals and a block, turning in a solid defensive effort to match his scoring outburst.

The Kings solid first half of play gave them an 11 point advantage coming out of halftime. But the Spurs would come out of the locker room hungry, forcing nine turnovers in the third quarter of play that saw San Antonio pull to within one point heading into the final frame.

The Kings kept San Antonio at bay throughout the fourth before giving up a dunk to SG Kyle Anderson that would give the Spurs their first lead of the half. It would be a back and forth affair through the middle of the quarter before another Anderson bucket with 2:36 left looked to lock the game up for the Spurs.

Rudy Gay and Darren Collison put in a good effort behind big man DeMarcus Cousins, with Gay adding 18-points on 4-of-12 shooting, and Collison following him with 14 of his own on 6-of-10 shooting.  The Kings bench was quiet throughout out the game with the exception of PF Carl Landry, who provided a solid 15-points off the bench.

Spurs SG Kyle Anderson led all starters for San Antonio with 14-points, while G Tony Parker followed him with 13 points of his own. The Spurs scoring surge was largely supported by their bench, which featured four players in double figures including Jeff Ayres, JaMychal Green, Austin Daye and Marco Belinelli, who added a combined 56 points to the winning effort.

While the Kings were able to batter San Antonio down low for points, they were anything but threatening from beyond the arc, shooting just 12 percent on 3-point field goals while converting just 1-of-8 attempts.

Game Notes:

The Sacramento Kings announced that they will pick up the 2015-16 option on guard Ben McLemore’s contract, as confirmed by Kings General Manager Pete D’Alessandro. Per club policy, the terms of the contract were not released.

Now in his second NBA campaign, the 6-foot 5 guard averaged 8.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 26.7 minutes per contest as a rookie last season.

Kings down Maccabi Haifa in preseason game

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Sac logo

By Charlie O. Mallonee

Before we give you the score of the Maccabi Haifa – Sacramento Kings game, let us give you a little -background on the team from Haifa, Israel.

Maccabi Haifa Basketball Club plays in the Israeli Super League. The team won the Super League Championship in 2012-13. Maccabi Haifa was the runner-up in last year’s Super League Championship.

Maccabi Haifa is owned by an American, Jeff Rosen. Under Rosen’s direction, the team has risen from the lower divisions and returned to prominence in the Super League Division. Maccabi has its own feeder team, the Miami Midnites, which plays in the ABA Summer League in the United States.

Maccabi Haifa has been playing NBA teams during the preseason since 2010. They have never won a contest versus a NBA opponent.

Maccabi Haifa is still looking for their first win versus a NBA team as they lost to the Sacramento Kings 91-59 on Saturday night. The Kings won every quarter in the contest.

Kings head coach Michael Malone has to be happy with the way his team played defense. The Kings held Maccabi Haifa to just .278 (22-79) shooting from the field. The most points the Kings allowed was 17 in the third quarter.

The Kings shot .450 (27-60) from the field. They shot .364 (4-11) from 3-point range.

DeMarcus Cousins led the Kings in scoring with 15 points in 26 minutes of play. Derrick Williams and Darren Collison each added 12 points apiece. Ramon Sessions scored 11 points while Nik Stauskas hit for 10 points.

Rudy Gay did not play due to an ankle injury that occurred in a team practice.

The Kings next preseason game will be on October 20th in San Antonio versus the Spurs.

News from the Reno Bighorns

The Reno Bighorns, the Kings D-League affiliate, have named a new head coach. David Arseneault Jr. will be the head coach for the 2014-15 season.

Arseneault, who is just 28 years old, has been the associate head coach for Grinnell College for the last four seasons. His father is the head coach at Grinnell. Grinnell is a NCAA Division III school.

The Bighorns have also named Ben McDonald assistant coach. He was an assistant with the Erie Bayhawks last year. The team has promoted Scott Schroeder from assistant coach/video coordinator to Director of Basketball Operations.

Kings Swept By Nets In China.

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The first leg of the Sacramento Kings international trip ended in disappointment as the Brooklyn Nets secured a 129-117 victory in overtime on Wednesday morning, sweeping the two game series between the teams in China.

After starting the game slowly on offense, the Nets were able to carry a strong second half outburst into overtime, where they outscored the Kings 17-5 to earn their second straight victory over Sacramento.

SG Ben McLemore led all Kings scorers with 22 points, with Rudy Gay following close behind, adding 21 points of his own in the contest. The Kings bench provided some additional firepower as well, with guard Darren Collison and forward Omri Casspi combining for 34 points in the losing effort.

With Kevin Garnett sitting out for the Nets, it was Mirza Teletovic who went to work down low for Brooklyn, leading the team with 22 points on the night. Teletovic was aided by his partner in the post Mason Plumlee, whose strong overtime play contributed to his 18 point total while capping off the comeback effort.

With DeMarcus Cousins taking the game off, the Kings relied heavily on plays from the guard and small forward position with 98 of their 117 points stemming from the two positions. While the team couldn’t get much going in the post with Cousins out, they took advantage of their outside opportunities, shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc while putting in 13 three pointers.

After falling to a 1-3 record, the Kings will make one more stop on their international itinerary, taking on the Isreali basketball club, Maccaba Haifa on Saturday.

 

Kings downtown arena: Attorneys argue traffic congestion issues; Kings and City to consider street car plan to ease pain

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by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–Sacramento City attorneys and Sacramento Kings attorneys argued in the Sacramento Superior Court of Judge Timothy Frawley saying that the traffic impact report that plaintiff lawyers who are making claim that there will be well over 17,500 fans in downtown to the higher number of 31,000 plus would be rarer in size. The 31,000 count assesed by attorney’s representing groups concerned about environmental traffic issues say that on non-game nights concerts, ice shows, boxing, WFC, and any other event could draw the 31,000 mark.

Extra seats could be sold where standing room and outside perimiters of the Kings Arena could have concert goers inflate the usual 17,500 that would attend Kings games. Frawley heard closing arguments in lawsuits that were filed by two seperate environment groups. The final decision of the lawsuit is expected in less than 30 days from now.

Frawley contended that most parts of the lawsuits arguing about unruly fans, pollution,fan riots and use of public subsidies by the city had been for the most part thrown out. Former Caltrans director Adrianna Saltonstall whose lawsuit about traffic conditions in downtown was allowed to stay in the fight. Saltonstall said that the city failed to include “enforceable performance standards” that would assist the Kings new arena traffic management in the planning to reduce traffic in downtown.

Most retailers have already moved out of the center portion of the Downtown Plaza and the end parts of the plaza are occupied by Starbucks, Macy’s and Forever 21 on one end and 24 Hour Fitness and Sketchers shoes at the other end of the plaza. It just so happens one of the Kings co-owners Mark Mastrov is the founder of 24 Hour Fitness and his store at the plaza will remain in place.

If Saltonstall’s arguement is found relevant by Frawley the Kings very well might have to revisit it’s traffic obligations if the environmental impact report or the outlines of the California Environmental Quality Act are not met the Kings then would have to develop a budget to satisfy the CEQA standards and spend more dollars to work with Arena Traffic Management in making street access and freeway traffic conditions practical for fans arriving at the arena for events.

Studies have shown by the city’s arena traffic analysis that traffic one hour before events coming from either I-5 North or South off ramps at Third and J Streets would suffer congestion anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour before events. The Kings attorneys said that the team have put $500,000 into studies that would construct a street car plan that would run past the arena by the cities of West Sacramento and Sacramento.

Caltrans officials have concluded that a new street car line going past the arena and into downtown would reduce traffic on the I-5 corridors and the estimated cost of construction from start to finish on such a project would run $130 million. The Kings and City attorneys are studying a financing plan for such a street car project. The approval of the traffic measurement plan by the Sacramento City Council left out one issue after the final drafts were approved and that was paid police officers at the foot of the I-5 ramp at J Street directing traffic.

With Frawley throwing out most of the arguments made by the plaintiff’s attorneys challenging the traffic conditions the Kings and the City will have to tighten down the traffic congestion issues before games and events. City Attorney Shaye Diveley of Mayer Nave said that the oversight on the traffic documents do not affect the traffic’s enforceability.

Sacramento for Shared Prosperity attorney’s Kelly Smith and Don Mooney begged to differ stating that the oversight into the plan could make it more difficult to enforce the traffic mitigation plan. Mooney had called the oversight “fishy” and that the true count for events would be more than the 17,500 that the Kings claim but there would be a outdoor plaza that could fill up to 12,000 fans, and a room for standing only for 2,000 fans.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

Nets beat Kings 97-95 in Shanghai

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By Charlie O. Mallonee

A Mirza Teletovic 3-point basket with less than a minute to play lifted the Brooklyn Nets to a 97-95 win over the Sacramento Kings in Shanghai, China.

Ben McLemore put up a jump shot with less than 20 seconds to go, but the shot was blocked by Brooklyn’s Sergey Karasev.

Ramon Sessions led the Kings in scoring with 18 points. Sessions was 7 of 12 from from the field and was 3 for 5 from 3-point range.

Darren Collison added 15 points, DeMarcus Cousins scored 9 points as did Rudy Gay. Omri Casspi scored 9 points in his 22 minutes of playing time.

The Kings shot .425 (34-80) from the field. They connected on 5 of 13 3-point attempts. Sacramento missed 14 (22-36) shots from the free throw line.

Brook Lopez led the Nets in scoring with 18 points.

The Kings and the Nets will face off again on Wednesday in Beijing.

Kings downtown arena: Judge tosses out most of arena opponents arguments project to continue

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by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–Donald Mooney who represents Sacramento for Shared Prosperity said that his group who has no problem with the construction of the Sacramento Kings arena now under construction at Downtown Plaza. Mooney has stated that his group opposes the public subsidy of $250 million being spent out of the city coffers for the new Sacramento Kings digs.

Opponents say the city’s attention to environmental issues such as noise, traffic, pollution and other California Quality Air Act are issues that the city needs to address regarding the arena in the neighborhood. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley threw out most of the Kings arena opponents arguments last Thursday.

Meanwhile lawyers representing the Kings and the City say that the opponents had other ulterior motives and that using the CEQA air act was just a smoke screen for other agendas. For example plaintiffs for the Coalition Shared Prosperity were more interested in getting the city to spend $40 million for in affordable housing near the arena site.

Former Caltran director Adriana Saltonstall was interested in raising the “secret subsidy” issue with the court that the City Council used public monies to fund the new arena $255 million. Saltonstall said that this money was not earmarked for such a project but for public funding of the city.

On affordable housing Frawley ruled that CEQA had nothing to do with affordable housing. Saltonstall’s arguments that there would be post game rioting in downtown and that the project would encroach on Old Sacramento business were thrown out. The two CEQA lawsuits that would have brought an injunction to stop construction of the arena was tossed out in July and filed again and it looks like it will go down to defeat as Frawley has struck many of Saltonstall’s points about riots and the new arena would encroachment on Old Sac business.

Frawley did leave it open to hear about traffic impacts on sold out nights at the arena and how traffic would impact downtown when there will be more seats sold when the Kings are not playing at home that would exceed 17,500. Saltontall said that there would be outside events that would draw huge crowds, concerts and other shows that could exceed the 17,500 mark that would create nightmarish traffic conditions in downtown.

The arena is set to open two years from now on October 2016, the Kings and the City are looking at two other lawsuits that are pending one opponent wants to challenge the subsidy and in the Southeast corner of the plaza the owners are arguing over the price of the building that housed the old Macy’s Mens department. The groups that are tussling over the sale of the property are CalPERS and co-owners of U.S. Bank represented by their lawyers.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Photo credit: google images