In all fairness to Turnovers, they are quite delicious. I just don't want our guys making so many of them when they're on the court.

Another decent week for our Kings, who are now 7-8, but the easy part of the schedule is now pretty much over. Hopefully we can continue to stay competitive and win a few against tougher teams.

The Good

1. The Ron Artest Trade

The Ron Artest trade is looking pretty darn good for us so far.  Donté Greene and Omri Casspi both had superb weeks, both looking like they could be our starting SFs of the future.  Both of them had their individual nights as well, Donté against New York, and Omri against New Jersey.  The best part is that they're only going to get better, and they're ridiculously cheap for at least 3 more years.

2. The Donté Greene Show

Speaking of Donté's game against New York, what a game it was.  He did just about everything in that game, hitting threes, getting to the basket at will, blocking shots, passing the ball. 24 points (9-13, 6-7 from 3), 6 blocks, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 35 minutes.  Just a spectacular night.  He didn't play much against New Jersey, but when he did he played pretty smart and had a couple really nice passes, and another couple of blocks.  After only having 1 block before this week, he had 8 this entire week.  His shots are also falling a lot more than last year, and he has a True Shooting % of .657 and a 3P% of .483.  If he morphs into some type of Rashard Lewis/Josh Smith hybrid, that would be scary.

3. Our Point Guard Play

TZ had an excellent comparison of our Point Guards PER from last year to this year and the difference is pretty dramatic.  Reke, Beno and Sergio are all doing an above average job handling their duties, and the depth we have at the position means that we usually have at least one player doing great at the position that night.  Against Memphis, Beno really had an off-night but Lt. Surge came in and he and Reke (along with Brockman) were pretty much the only bright spots in an otherwise dismal game.  The best part is that each of them have a different game and they do different things well.  Reke gets to the basket at will, is the best defender, and does a little bit of everythign else, Beno is the best shooter, and Sergio can pass like no other and also uses his lightning speed to slice through defenses to the basket.  Coach Westphal has a lot of options with those 3 guys, and I'm glad.

4. Rebounds

The Kings are now the 5th best rebounding team in the league, with only the Lakers, Milwaukee, Memphis, and Dallas as better than us.  We're also 3rd in Rebounding differential.  That's a HUGE improvement from last year, so props to our coaching staff and the guys for hitting the glass hard.  Keep it up.

5. The Brock Ness Monster

Mancakes earned a regular rotation spot and sightings were a lot more frequent this week, and he played at least 14 minutes in each game this week with a high of 26 against New York.  He averaged 6.5 points, 5.3 boards and an assist in 18 minutes.  He brings a lot of energy and toughness to the floor, and he'll probably be in this league for a while.

6. K-9 (Woof!)

Kenny didn't play much this week, only a couple minutes in Memphis, and not at all against New York, but he was a key factor in us winning the game against New Jersey, playing solid defense on the taller and stronger Brook Lopez, grabbing key rebounds, and scoring on post-ups.  He's obviously not playing worth his contract, but he isn't moping around on the bench either, and every time he comes in, he does something positive, and I'm glad to see that.

7. Spencer Hawes

After a dud in Memphis (in which most of the Kings sucked),  Spencer had two good games against NY and NJ.  He didn't play as much as he could have against New York, who he was absolutely dominating (16 points on 7-8 in 18 minutes) and an injury kept him from going for most of the 2nd half of the New Jersey game, but he played even and at times better than Brook Lopez when he was in.  Lopez didn't really start hurting the Kings until Spencer was forced out because of his knee.  Hopefully the knee isn't too big of an issue because we can't really afford to have Spencer out for too much time with our lack of any depth at his position.

8. Arco Thunder

Well its not really Thunder yet, but the fans are slowly but surely coming back, and the attendance at the New Jersey game (12,725) was the highest since the opener.  The Kings are now 26th in the league in attendance, and I think that number will be out of the twenties by the end of the year.  Kings are 6-2 at home two, which is nice.  Fans like to see wins.

9.  Hack-a-Shaq (Kosher style)

When Lawrence Frank resorted to fouling Omri, I thought it was awesome when Westphal didn't even flinch and let Omri keep playing.  And the trust was not misplaced as Omri hit 3-4.  Also, the 2nd time he was sent to the line, as soon as he shot the ball, I heard someone (sounded like JT), yell "17!" for Omri's 17th point.  The chemistry and support for the team seem great.

10. The Omri Casspi, Hamed Haddadi BFF photoshoot

Good stuff from the NBA.  That's something that should have been shown around more.

The Bad

1.  Turnovers

Turnovers are still a big problem for this team.  The Kings assist to turnover ratio was 60:56 this week, and the team now is the 3rd worst team in the league at taking care of the ball, with an average of 16.46. Only the Grizzlies and Timberwolves turn it over more.

2. Ime Udoka

Udoka is still suffering from a bad case of Desmond Masonitis and he's day-to-day.  Hopefully he gets better soon.

3. Average Jason Thompson

Jason Thompson was consistent, not spectacular, and not really as good as he had been this week.  He had 10 points and 8 rebounds against both New York and New Jersey, 8 points and 10 rebounds against Memphis.  His defense is also becoming a little better, although he does still have a problem with getting into foul trouble (5 fouls in all 3 games last week).  His footwork still needs to improve.  He's back to leading the league in fouls with 4.5 a game, and if he wants to become an All-Star, he needs to be able to stay in the games.  So far its been an up and down season for JT, although he's been more consistent than Spencer, and I'm sure we'll see more up weeks from him than down weeks.

4. Andres Nocioni

Noc didn't play all that well this week, and especially in the New Jersey game (2nd half) really seemed to be forcing the issue.  His mediocre to below average play, along with the great play from Greene and Casspi, doesn't help the case for him remaining on the team past the trade deadline.  More weeks like this from Andres (and probably more importantly, weeks like this from Greene and Casspi), the sooner the Kings deal his contract elsewhere.

5. Sean May

May had limited stints in both the Memphis and New Jersey games when Westphal was looking for anyone to do something on the floor, but he really didn't do to much.  He likes to take top of the key jumpers, but he really shouldn't, as his shot looks pretty ugly at the moment, and for a guy that big, you'd like him to take it inside, which he did once against New Jersey, and it was no surprise to me that that was his only make.  I just don't get too excited when I see Sean May come into the game.

6. Tyreke not breaking Simmons record

By only scoring 19 (SO CLOSE!) against New York, Tyreke Evans merely tied Lionel Simmons Kings Rookie record (boy that's a mouthful) of 7 games straight with 20 points or more.  The good news is that Tyreke is back to 1 in a row, and there is still 67 games left.

The Ugly

1. The Memphis Game

This was the least fun game I've watched since last year.  The refereeing was horrible, yes, but our players still didn't play like they wanted to win (apart from Sergio, Brockman and Reke) and couldn't use the officials as an excuse, because in all honesty, this game wasn't as close as it appeared to be.  The Kings got outrebounded (38 to 35), outshot (53.9 to 49.4) and outblocked (7 to 1).  They had no answer for Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, and especially Rudy Gay.  The Grizzlies weren't even playing all that well either, and the game was there for the taking if the Kings would at least put a semblance of a run together, but it never came.

2. Jack Mai banned from NBA for gambling

Not really much to say here, other than that I'm glad he wasn't on the Kings staff when this was discovered.

3. Abe Pollin passes away at 85.

Abe Pollin, class act and owner of the Washington Wizards died, and that's not good.  Condolences to the Wizards, for they lost a great man.

Player of the Week

Donté Greene

12.7 PPG, .692 FG%, .578 3P%, 2.3 RPG, 2.3 APG, 2.7 BPG in 23.3 MPG

Buckéts gets Player of the Week honors mostly for the absolute show he put on vs. the Knicks.  He was also decently effective in limited minutes against the Grizzlies and Nets.  He also seemingly earned a starting spot, since Beno was available during the Nets game, and we'll see if Westphal sticks to that (something I'm in favor of, because it regains us our matchup advantage in the backcourt) or if he returns to Beno.  Either way, I'm expecting good things from Mr. Doratio Kane for the rest of the season.

Highlight of the Week

Comment of the Week

Johnson Brockman

It’s not the size of your Brockman that matters – it’s what you do with it.

by section214 on Nov 24, 2009 7:53 AM PST reply actions   5 recs

And Nostradumbass Prediction for Next week

v. New Orleans 11/29 W

v. Indiana 12/02 W

@ Phoenix 12/05 L

Nostradumbass Record on the Season (6-7)

And sorry to LTTG for jinxing him.