Category: Sacramento Kings

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Golden State Warriors who did make a draft selection on Thursday said they’re confident with who they selected back in the 2012 draft. In that draft they had a four player selection and feel that it should hold with those young players inspite of not selecting any players this year, “We’re pretty good at making our lives exciting, but we couldn’t do it tonight” said Warriors general manager Bob Woodward.

The Warriors who spent $3.2 million in trades said they were capped out during the fiscal trade period and that parting with a player would have been their only other choice during the draft something that Woodward wasn’t prepared to do. Thus the team for the first time ever did not select a player in the draft.

The Warriors are one of the more involved teams in the NBA at this time of the year had a fairly quiet selection at the draft on Thursday. Costs played a part in the top 11 draft picks in contract signing however it was reported had the draft selection went past number 12 and went to 13 the Warriors who were hoping that Doug McDermott would drop to the 13 or below in the selections would have changed that picture.

Nothing doing as McDermott went to number 11 and was selected by the Denver Nuggets and was traded to the Chicago Bulls. The Kings during the draft kept active selecting Nik Stauskas. In recent weeks the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Warriors have kept active in keeping their eye on Kevin Love. Love might have been a Warrior if the Warriors had been able to obtain either Stauskas or McDermott and trade for him.

Since there was no deal the Warriors walked out of the draft empty handed but again don’t feel slighted as they are satisfied with their past selections from drafts since 2012. NBA sources who are following the Warriors and Kevin Love situation said that a deal still is not impossible. The Warriors are still very interested in Love and the Timberwolves still expressed interest in forward David Lee and guard Klay Thompson but the Warriors didn’t want to take back Kevin Martin and $21 million that Martin has left on his contract.

There is some talks left the other option is that Love finish out his last season with the T-Wolves this year and become a free agent and tell the T-Wolves that he will not sign with them for 2015-16. Right now Golden State is $11-12 million under the luxury tax. With the July free agency approaching the Warriors can look at offers in the $5.3 million to $9.8 million range. The traded-player-exception expires on July 10th.

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

by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–With $255 million approved for funding by the City of Sacramento for the Sacramento Kings new arena lawyers opposed to the new arena due to environmental and housing issues and accusations of the city making funding possible by private susidies. Attorneys representing three citizens Patrick Soluri and Jeffery Anderson are working on blocking the Kings new arena which is scheduled to go under construction at the Downtown Plaza.

The city plans to spend upwards to $755,000 to defend itself against the suit that says that the appropiration of the funds to be spent by the city on the arena were done in a back room deal and that the funding transaction was not tranparent as the city and Kings are spending $477 million for the new Kings digs at the Downtown Plaza.

The suit was filed but a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled that the lawsuit didn’t have merrit because a preliminary term sheet was approved last year by the city council when working on the financing plan. Soluri and Anderson readjusted the suit and adding a $255 million contribution which had been approved from the council and that difference allowed for the amendment.

The suit says that the parking lot properties in Sacramento were not listed as gifts when Soluri and Anderson said that the city’s proposal is fraud and they are asking the court to block the construction of the Kings arena. The city has argued in their previous appearence in court that the value of the garage property is worth almost nothing.

The city also argued that the parking properties need extensive upgrade improvements and the city had made it clear to the public that the garage and other particulars of the agreement was made to the public through public meetings and the media.

The city has hired the law firm Myers Nave to defend the city against the suit, funding for the law suit would come out of the city’s general funds. The city so far has dropped some $500,000 already fighting the three citizens in legal fees, represented by Soluri and Anderson. With the additional $755,000 that will bring that figure up to over $1.2 milllion fighting the arena opposition all out of the general fund.

Sacramento Coucilman Jay Schenirer said that the city is already bleeding red ink and this is money that should be going to other city departments that badly need funding rather than fighting arena opponents in court, “it’s $750,000 that we cannot spend on police, that we cannot spend on community centers and cannot spend on providing services for young people, all of which should be our priorities.” said Schenirer.

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

by David Zizmor

San Antonio (4) Miami (1): When San Antonio’s AT&T Center didn’t have cool air in game one of this series and it disabled the Heat to lose the first game of the series it almost set the tone for this match up. The Heat did come back and won game two and the way the Heat played it it looked like it would be a repeat of last season’s championship.

Last season’s finals was a lot closer with these same two teams but this year they traded body blows, and this series didn’t turn out that way. It was not going to be a complete loss for the Spurs as the Spurs took game three in Miami. After the Heat lost yet another game in game four the Spurs took a 3-1 advantage.

The Spurs really took it to Miami and it was the typical in the way that this series went. The Spurs flipped the script by winning game seven by a big margin. No one really believed Miami could come back, the Heat had a very good swarming defense. The Heat was not able to keep up with San Antonio’s passing. This is not the same Spurs team compared to last year.

The Spurs did have some ability to swing the ball out at the parimiter at a whole new level, last year they were able to swing at the parimiter but they were still a post up team. They would throw it down to the Spurs Tim Duncan and get it down to him whenever they had the chance and they would also throw it down to one of the bigger players like center Tiago Splitter.

This year there was none of that this year’s team is primarily a parimiter team they definitely worked some of those post up swings and the options were there but this Spurs team is all about making the extra passes. As good as the Heat defense is and let’s face it their one of the best in the league the Spurs were so good.

The Spurs passed the ball around and they had that extra guy to move the ball and the Heat just couldn’t keep up the Spurs were always one pass ahead of them and over the course of the series the Heat just couldn’t hang with the Spurs speed on passing and working the ball outside the arc. The Heat were just not deep enough.

Miami just could not keep up in this series, they don’t have back court guys like the Spurs have, the problem is everybody thinks that Miami is all about the Big Three but the fact of the matter is that Dwayne Wade has really fallen off. He got a lot of rest this season, this is not the same guy who lead the Heat to the finals in game six over Dallas.

Wade has had knee injuries, he is just simply sapped, he doens’t have the speed to run the parimiter and he doesn’t have the agility anymore to hang with some of the top players and at times he became a liability for the Heat. LeBron James and Chris Bosh played well but Wade definitely took a step back.

David Zizmor covered the NBA for the 2013-14 season for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

Miami (1) vs. San Antonio (3): These past two games (games three and four) both played and lost by host the Miami Heat was a surprise. It was assumed that the Heat was going to come out swinging and sure enough it was the complete opposite as the Heat were blitzed by the San Antonio Spurs 107-86 on Thursday night.

The Heat just stunk it up in game three and in game four it wasn’t even close and LeBron James (28 points) did everything in his power to keep Miami in this game but it wasn’t enough and the supporting cast didn’t come through as Chris Bosh looked terrible 12 points, Dwayne Wade did nothing ten points on three rebounds and 3-13 shooting.

There was no help for LeBron and that’s ultimately the story here, nobody from Miami showed up on their own home floor. LeBron is a great player there is no doubt about it that he’s been the best player in the last five to ten years but you cannot win an NBA Championship all on your own.

When former Bulls player Michael Jordan won those titles yeah he was the biggest part of the puzzle but keep in mind he had a cast around him, he had Horace Grant, Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, Dennis Rodman and head coach Phil Jackson. There were so many different players who contributed to those winning Bulls teams.

Were not seeing that all with this year’s Heat club in this championship, last year’s Miami team had contributions all over the place and on the other side of the ball you have to give praise to San Antonio and they have been playing fantastic basketball. Everybody kind of assumes that the Spurs Tim Duncan who is approaching 40 years old is going to get tired and because a Tony Parker and a Manu Ginobili have been around forever these guys are just going to be slowing down.

It’s true their not as fast as they used to be and they might have lost a step but these guys are fantastic. The Spurs have the best coach in the NBA with Greg Popovich who can be one of the best of all time. He’s selected the right players to play in the right amount of minutes and kept them in the game and his X’s and O’s paid off in this series.

The Spurs succeed when their out on the floor and their smart what they got from a lack of a step from their ages, their still incredibly effective. You look at Duncan he didn’t have to do too much he had only ten points, 11 boards, Parker had 19 points, Kawhi Leonard was the top scorer with 20 points.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Championship Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

San Antonio (2) vs. Miami (1): This was a big game for the Spurs they won the first game with the broken air conditioner out of action and a lot of people would have said Miami would have won game two back in San Antonio if not for the air conditioning and then the Heat came back and win game two.

So a lot of people were thinking the Heat really had a shot to have swept those two in San Antonio, so the Heat might have the advantage now that their going Florida. The Spurs said no were not having any of that talk and they had a pretty decisive win in game three on Tuesday night 111-92 and it really wasn’t that close.

The Spurs jumped out to a 16 point lead in the first quarter, they scored 41 points and the Heat have a very good defense but you drop 41 points on the Heat in one quarter your doing something right. From that point forward it was all San Antonio there was a blip in third quarter as the Spurs were having trouble getting the ball in the hoop.

The Spurs recovered and the Heat was never really able to get back in this game. It was a solid game all around from the Spurs there was really no breathing room for the Heat in this one. The Heat’s LeBron James and Dwayne Wade were impact players for the Heat Tuesday night. All the props go out to the Spurs Kahwi Leonard he really sent a message for the Spurs with 29 points, 10-13 shooting, that’s impressive.

Leonard was all over the floor and not just on offense, he was a tough defender on D, he helped contain LeBron and LeBron scored 22 points on 9-14 shots it wasn’t impactful. LeBron is one of those guys who where you can give up 20 it’s a matter of what points your giving him.

For LeBron these were points that he would not really care about, LeBron got his shots here and there but it’s really nothing he would care about and it was nothing that really would stoke the crowd it was nothing that got the team going. So the Spurs come in and makes a statement in game three, in game two they struggled and in game one they won more because of the lack of air conditioning in their building.

This was a physical game on Tuesday and your going to see players getting a little physical in this series and your talking about two very good defensive teams already and when you get in the finals everybody throws everything out the window. Your getting everything but the kitchen sink and sometimes you can get the kitchen sink. It’s the Spurs and Heat for game four on Thursday night in Miami.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

A Sacramento citizens lawsuit hearing was heard in Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday, 12 citizens in their efforts to try and stop the construction of the Sacramento Kings new arena was heard. The citizens claim traffic, huge crowds creating pollution, noise in the neighborhood, possible public drunkeness and riots after games as part of the reasons given why the arena should not be built at downtown’s Fairfield Mall where all the merchants have moved out in preparation for the Kings demolition for the new arena build.

The lawsuit by the citizens was filed a day after the Sacramento City Council took a vote to approve construction for the Kings new arena, the council voted 7-2 in favor for the new arena. The citizens filed the lawsuit under the California environmental laws, the lawsuit also protests SB 743 which was signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown giving the construction of the arena teeth against CEQA lawsuits.

The citizens went down a laundry list of reasons why the court should over rule the City Council explaining that traffic conditions around downtown’s K and L streets would be a congestion nightmare and that people who live in the neighborhood would have difficulty getting access to their homes before and after games and show events at the area.

The citizens went onto say that noise in the nieghborhood after hours or normally after a game for example around 10pm would be a disruption to the nieghborhood and to those who sleep and have to go to work the next day, parking and traffic was another issue the citizens talked about stating that gridlock before and after games would not allow the neighbors to have the normal access to their homes, parking would be horrendous for neighbors trying to park near their homes according to the citizens lawsuit complaint and creates a huge traffic delays on neighboring freeway exits.

In response to the complaint lawyers for the Kings and the City said that the issues brought up by the citizens to stop the construction of the arena were not going to be the big problem that the citizens say it was. The city and the Kings did not specify why in challenging each complaint, the proceedure for hearings at this stage for not being specific is normal. The Kings and the city plan to list why the arena is good for the city in the next hearing after listening to the citizen complaints.

The lawsuit was not filed against the Kings as the Kings were listed in the lawsuit as “the real party of interest” and the suit was filed against the City of Sacramento.

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

by David Zizmor

Miami @ San Antonio Game #2: We watched game one with the air conditioning broken at AT&T Center in game one in which the Spurs won. While the Heat were able to hang in there for that game for three quarters they completely fell apart in the fourth especially the Heat’s LeBron James who cramped up in that one due to the indoor 90 degree temperatures.

For game two on Sunday night the temperature returned to the normal, 74 degrees indoors and nobody cramped up in this game. LeBron played from start to finish and you could tell he was kind of angry at all of the fun everyone was making of him for cramping up in game one. He took it pretty seriously and he took it out on the Spurs.

LeBron came out and dropped 35 points with ten boards on the Spurs and it was a big 35 points. It was LeBron being LeBron, it was LeBron dominating the game in which the Heat took game two 98-96. LeBron dominated the game especially late, this one was not a blow out by Miami but it definitely was a close one.

LeBron’s superpowers were definitely needed in this one and he delivered. 35 and ten in an NBA Final against a team like the Spurs that is good defensively like San Antonio is impressive and he did it on both ends of the floor. Not only was LeBron getting the 35 in the basket but he was playing great defense.

LeBron made a ton of critical plays and while the Heat’s Chris Bosh hit a three pointer late that put Miami ahead for good it was LeBron who dished it to him. He was involved in everything from start to finish he was the man, he was the guy that controlled the fate of the game and he came through.

Whatever happened in game one let’s write that one off, chances were the Heat were going to split the series in the first two games in San Antonio anyway. It happened to come at an unusual fashion with that air conditioner blow out but never the less the Heat are taking this series back to Miami for game three on Tuesday night.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

Miami vs. San Antonio: This first game on Thursday night was an interesting game and the Spurs won this one pretty handily 110-95 over the Miami Heat. There is kind of a nice side story that goes with this one. If you were watching this game you had to know that something was screwy and it turns out this game which was played at the AT&T Center in San Antonio with no air conditioning.

The air conditioning was just broke and there is nothing like being indoors with no air conditioning in San Antonio in June. It was sweltering and it got to be up to 90 degrees inside the arena. For anyone playing championship level basketball that’s really difficult.

Those are very unusual conditions and the last time we saw anything like it was back in 1985 between the Lakers and the Celtics when Boston Garden famously lost air conditioning and it was a complete swamp in the place. It was just hot, humid, and damp with all sorts of condensation on the floor.

Not quite as slippery in San Antonio but just as hot, just as sweltering and it just didn’t favor the Heat this time around. You got to figure both of these teams are used to hot and muggy weather in the summertime. The Spurs had the home court advantage and at the very minimum knew about the air conditioning so the Spurs were a little better prepared for it.

The trainers had extra Gatorade for the players on the benches and they were making sure that everybody was hydrated, on the flip side the Heat’s LeBron James was doing everything he could to keep in the game. LeBron left the game on a couple of occasions in the fourth quarter because he was so hot and so dehydrated he was cramping up.

LeBron literally had to come out of the game to get himself a rest and get some water in him and get himself on the court. So when San Antonio is in a situation where they can get LeBron off the court it’s very easy to take advantage of the Heat. If you look at the box score you would see that the Spurs took advantage of this one.

The Spurs took advantage of the situation when LeBron had to sit twice during the fourth quarter. They outscored Miami 36-17 to end the game. When you do that your just going to win everytime. The Spurs won by 15 and the game was reasonably close until that last fourth quarter. Next game is on Sunday night at San Antonio for game two, the Spurs say they have assured everyone the air conditioning should be ready for that one.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

San Antonio vs. Miami: At the beginning of this season we were all talking about that great finals last year between the Spurs and the Heat that went seven games and saw the Spurs lose it on a missed shot by Tim Duncan with only seconds left in game seven, giving the Heat their second title in three years for back to back titles.

It was a fantastic series the best in years and the same two teams are back again. The whole season long we thought that the Spurs and Heat were on a collision course and low and behold here they are facing each other again. This should be a great match, you have the Heat’s LeBron James the best player in the game.

You have the Spurs head coach Grep Popovich the best coach in the game and you have one of the best teams in NBA history in the Spurs a team that made the playoffs for 15 straight years. The Spurs have won four titles and they just keep putting together great runs. This is a team that everybody would have thought would have faded by now as Tim Duncan got older.

Just because Duncan is older doesn’t mean he’s not effective and that’s what we’ve seen so far. Popovich has done a great job managing Duncan’s time and allowed him to rest as much as possible for a 39 year old. That has kept Duncan fairly effective here in the late going this season.

You would figure after 82 regular season games, 12 playoff wins, that Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili are all guys who have been around the block a few times. They might be a little bit tired but no, these guys are still playing great basketball and more importantly their getting contributions from other players on this team.

Most notably Kawhi Leonard who has just been fantastic for the Spurs, your really seeing him come into his own this year which is exactly what the Spurs needed to continue being one of the top teams this year. On the flip side of the ball the Heat what can you say about LeBron that hasn’t already been said. The guy’s the best player in the league, even though he didn’t win the MVP this year.

The Heat’s Dwayne Wade has been very good, Chris Bosh has been coming on as of late, and they have a great supporting cast that really knows their role and Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra doesn’t get the high praise that Popovich does but you don’t make four finals in the row without being a good coach. It’s be a series of strategy and skill and Spoelstra and Popovich will be those wizards behind the Heat and Spurs curtains.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com