The Sacramento Kings are on national television once this year, on February 9 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's poetic in a number of ways, not the least of which is that the Thunder were the last team to be relocated, and our Kings might be the next.

While our friends in the blog game have been excellent at helping us spread the word about the situation here over the past 11 months, this is really the last opportunity for Sacramento to speak to a truly national audience about why the NBA needs to stay here. It's also one of our best opportunities as fans to speak to the greater Sacramento region -- those who watch SportsCenter, those who watch the local news -- about how important the next couple months are in terms of securing the plans for a new entertainment and sports complex. Because it will be on TNT, this game will be covered heavily locally and nationally.

So we need to turn that gym out on February 9. Here We Stay and Sactown Royalty are asking fans to do the same thing we did against the Clippers and Thunder last season: turn up, and turn it out. Blow the doors off. Get the building full -- the Kings are running a few specials, including two lower-level tickets for $65 -- and wear black and get loud. Bring some creative signs to get onto Inside the NBA, too.

Ed will dropping in chant instructions next week, and we'll be asking for volunteers to a) pass out flyers/chant sheets at the entrances before the game, and b) print their own and pass them around their row/section. In the meantime, let's get this game sold out so we can remind the nation why Sacramento has the best fans in the league. We can see the light. Let's go get it.

One bright spot from the past three games (all losses, two of them brutal) has been that Jimmer Fredette is beginning to hit his shots. Fredette is now shooting 36.5 percent on three-pointers for the season, with league average this season at just 34 percent. Jimmer leads the Kings in three-point percentage and three-point makes, and is No. 2 behind Marcus Thornton in attempts.

Given how poorly Fredette was shooting early in the season, this is very positive movement. Here's a visual look at how Jimmer's three-point shooting has improved over the course of the season. Each new line is a different game, with the top line Game 1 and the bottom line Game 19. A red dot is a missed three, a green dot is a made three. The shots in individual games are not in sequential order, just the aggregate. A long black bar means that Jimmer did not take any threes in that game.

It's been just three games of better shooting, and Fredette continues to struggle in all other facets of the game -- defense, creating off of the dribble -- but the team desperately needs shooting, and drafted Jimmer to provide that. He's been doing so, even if the rest of the offense remains a mess.

As a Kings fan, this may be the most frustrated I've been with the team. In 2008-09, our worst year in franchise history, I was less frustrated and more resigned to the fact that this was a terrible team that needed to be bad before it got better. Three years later however, and we're not much better.

I didn't think going into this year that we'd be a playoff team. There are just way too many good teams in the West, and the Kings overall lack of experience really hurts in that department. I was disappointed with our offseason, but still thought the team had improved and added much needed depth. I had also hoped for continued growth from franchise centerpieces Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton and DeMarcus Cousins.

It hasn't exactly panned out that way. Paul Westphal got canned just 7 games into the season, and the team hasn't been all that much better under Keith Smart (although I personally would rather have Smart than Westphal). The constant blowout losses and lack of competition in some of these games, like the Denver game last night, is the most dispiriting part for me as a fan. I understand how young this team is, how little time they had to learn a new system and then another with a new coach, but it's still frustrating.

There doesn't seem to be a go-to solution in sight. The Kings don't have the assets needed to pull off big trades, unless they plan on giving up one of Evans, Thornton or Cousins, and even then, we'd be selling low. There is probably never going to be a big name free agent coming through those doors, no matter how much cap space we have. And we will continue to get screwed in the draft lottery because we are the Sacramento Kings and I'm pretty sure that is in the NBA rulebook somewhere.

The most we can hope for right now is growth from what we have, and that takes time and experience. That's hard for a lot of fans to accept, even the ones that realize its necessity. It's tough, it's painful to watch, and there is no guarantee of a good outcome. That's what scares me the most. This rebuilding effort could fail, with these guys not being able to work together, or not becoming good enough to make the team better. If that happens, then we have to start this long, painful process all over again.

I'm not sure how this ends. That's up to the players, the coaches, and the front office. I'll be here watching, and I hope for the best, but expect the worst, just like every Kings fan since the dawn of time (or 1986).

I am not ashamed to admit that I left this game early in the 4th quarter, after seeing the Kings come out lackluster and the Nuggets playing like the team that was down by 30, needing to make a run. This was just a flat out embarrassing loss.

The story of the night was the Kings porous defense and Denver's superb job of attacking the paint. That shot chart is not lying: Only two of Denver's two point field goals came outside of the paint, and just four total field goals came outside the paint. Denver scored a ludicrous 92 points in the paint, the most since the statistic started being recorded in 2000-01, and almost more than the entire Kings point total. In fact, it wasn't until midway through the 4th quarter that the Nuggets even made a two pointer outside of the paint, which goes to show how dominant they were.

Danilo Gallinari led the Nuggets in scoring with a game-high 23 points, 21 of which came in the first half. Six other Nuggets players scored in double digits and Chris Andersen came close himself with 9. Denver had 29 assists to just 13 turnovers, 8 blocks and 10 steals. They also killed the Kings on the boards, 48-35, with the Kings once again allowing the better shooting team a bunch of offensive rebounds (17).

Sacramento was led in scoring by Jimmer Fredette, who got the start for the injured Marcus Thornton. Jimmer had 19 points on 6-13 shooting, including 5-8 from three. DeMarcus Cousins had another double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds, and Isaiah Thomas had 16 points and 6 assists off the bench.

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Incoming: Nuggets
back for more. Tie up Lawson
and success can come.

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