Have any of you seen Grant Napear in broad daylight?  I'm not saying, I'm just saying.  But back to the Kings, oh how the mighty have fallen.  After going 3-0 last week, the Kings did the exact opposite this week.  But still, there were some good things to take from this week, especially considering we only had one game with our main rotation playing (and that's still without Kevin and Cisco).

The Good

1. Tyreke Evans

Aren't you guys glad this guy is on our team?  When's the last time a King's rookie has dropped 29 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists, a steal and a block in a game?  He did start off the year rather poorly for our expectations, but he is definitely showing he will become a force in this league, on both ends of the floor.  I said this earlier in the week, but I think Kevin's injury might be a bit of a blessing in disguise, because it allows Tyreke to focus on being the leader at the moment and getting comfortable with the whole team, instead of deferring to Kevin at the beginning, and then when Kevin comes back, he'll be more comfortable running the team.

2.  Donté Greene

Donté had a good couple games against Chicago and Houston, and even though he played limited minutes against Dallas, he did some good things during his floor time.  He didn't miss a shot against Houston, and he scored a career high 24 points against Chicago, one of the few bright spots of that game (although it came at the expense of him shooting 8 three pointers).  He's still very young and still makes mistakes, but I think we have to like the improvement Doratio has made in his game this year, and I'm going to give Westphal credit for that.

3. 3 Point shooting defense

The Kings continue to do a pretty good job defending the 3 point shot, only allowing 15 threes out of 49 attempts (.306) this week, and 7 of those came in the Chicago game (the one good 3 point game from another team, Chicago went 7-12)

4. Omri Casspi's Free Throws

Omri hit 6-7 free throws this week. Yay!

5. Kenny "Satan of Rebounding" Thomas

K-9 is doing everything we wanted Mancakes to do except for break faces.  He averaged about 15 minutes a game last week and during that time put up stats of .3 points, 6.66! Boards and 1 block a game.  Not bad at all.  Maybe we should re-sign him for the mini... Whoa... I didn't mean it... put the knife down...

6. Sergio Rodriguez

Sergio played really well this week.  He's by far the best passer on the team (3:1 A:to ratio this week), and he even shot well this week.  His game against Chicago was nice all around with 9 points, 5 assists:1 TO, and a steal.  I wonder if we'll see more of him.  Seeing as how handling the ball has been one of biggest weaknesses this season, I think we will.

7. The Return of the Hawes?!?

After looking like he'd have another disappointing week, Spencer finally had a nice game as a starter against Houston, with 24 points (10-16 shooting 2-3 from 3), 9 boards, 2 assists and 2 blocks.  We really need him to stay consistent though.  Hopefully next week this kind of output continues.

8. Wabeno

Wabeno continues to be very effective in his time playing, and looking very deserving of the contract we gave him (who would have thought this last year?). He averaged 17 points (.478 FG%), 6 assists, 2.3 boards and a steal this week, and he's definitely stepped up on defense this year, trying his best even if not always succeeding.  And that's all we can ask.

9. Scrappiness

The Kings should not have been close in either the Dallas or the Houston games.  And yet they fought on, scrapped tooth and nail, and had a chance to win both those games.  Its a kind of basketball I'm growing to love and I can't wait to see it all year.  I think it will bring fans back to Arco, and we'll have to wait and see what attendance is like when we get back home, but its slowly been creeping up.  The Chicago game had the highest attendance since the Memphis home opener. 

10. Noc

The one game we didn't play with Noc this week was our biggest loss and I don't think that's a coincidence.  He is acting the role of energy veteran at the moment and I think the team feeds off of his activity a little bit.  I know we all say he's not part of our long term future, but I would not be surprised if we don't trade him this season at least.

11. Kevin Johnson

The Mayor is definitely being proactive in dealing with the Arena situation and I don't think that can be stressed enough.  I think we're in good hands on that front.  The deadline for proposals sent to his committee is Christmas Eve so hopefully we see a few more realistic options by then.

The Bad

1. Rebounding

We did not outrebound one opponent this week (although two of them were ties).  Still we've come to expect better.  Not one King broke 10 boards this week, with the closest being JT with 9 against Chicago.

2. Ime Udoka

Udoka did not have a good week, especially when his FG% wasn't even worthy of Desmond Mason.  He didn't play against Houston, and you have to wonder if he shot his way out of the rotation, possibly replaced by Sergio.  It's definitely too early to say, but I think he still has a spot, because he's shown he can be very effective.

3. Jason Thompson, Turnover Machine

After totaling 11 turnovers in the first 9 games of the season, Shock had 13 last week, including a horrible 7 turnovers against Chicago.  He also hasn't been getting nearly as many assists as he was early in the season, only getting 4 for the week, and all that being against Houston.  He also got 5 fouls in each of the 3 games last week, not to mention not getting one double-double all week (Side-note, JT double-doubles = victories still a coincidence)

4. Injuries

We missed 3 players (not including Kevin Martin and Cisco) to injuries this week.  Noc to a hip-pointer against Chicago, Tyreke to a sprained finger, and Ime to Desmond Masonitis.

5. Sam Amick's Father passed away

From all of Sactown Royalty, our condolences to Sam Amick, whose father passed away on the 18th. 

6. No more Sacramento Monarchs

What else is there to say?  The Maloofs are backing the Kings 100% now, but it still is a little sad.

The Ugly

1. TURNOVERS

The Kings are not good at taking care of the ball.  Is it cause there young and playing with a new coach? Perhaps.  But it really, really needs to improve.  The Kings had 62 assists to 56 turnovers this week.  A little better than last week, but not by much.  Sloppy ball-handling probably cost us the games against Dallas and Chicago.

2.  Letting role players dominate us.

Against Chicago, Jannero Pargo scored 12 points in 14 minutes on 5-8 shooting.  Against Dallas, Kris Humphries had 15 points, and 5 boards on 7-11 shooting in 24 minutes.  And in Houston, Carl Landry (role player might be a bit strong for Landry, he's alright in my book. Same with his brother Marcus) scored 20 points on 6-8 shooting, had 7 rebounds, and a block in 25 minutes.  We can't let those types of players have great games against us for whatever reason, because it ends up costing us games.

3. The slopfest that was the Chicago game

That game should not have been close.  It was not fun to watch.  Too many bad passes and ugly shots.  We aren't going to win many games playing like this, and I'm surprised we didn't lose by 20+.

4. The Kings didn't get to make Bill Ingram cry again

Bah Humbug.

5. Jasonrp shaved

And as such, the Kings winning streak coming to an end is ALL HIS FAULT.

Player of the Week

Tyreke Evans

24.5 points, .525 FG%, .333 3P%, 5.5 boards, 7 assists

Yes, he only played two games, but he played good both those games, especially against Dallas.  He is definitely giving us Kings fans hope for the future and that we might have a star in the making.  One can only hope this type of production stays when Kevin comes back and that the two can co-exist because that could be an amazing backcourt for years to come.

Comment of the Week

Skelly porn gives me a boner

by ElRonToro on Nov 16, 2009 4:17 PM PST up reply actions   9 recs

And Nostradumbass's Predictions for Next Week

@ Memphis 11/23 W

v. New York 11/25 W

v. New Jersey 11/27 W (I have a bad feeling about this game though.  I don't want to be THAT team)

Nostradumbass for the season (4-6)

On a side-note, if you've read LTTG's "Delusions of Grandeur" FanPost, he is exactly 4-0 on his predictions so far.  Hopefully I don't jinx him, although I don't believe in that type of stuff.