Casspi! Great line for him. Wish I had seen more of the game.

It’s hard to say that when the opponent scores 118, but this was a fast-paced, up-and-down game for the most part. I thought we did a very good job defending the pick and roll, Parker and Duncan. Not too many free passes to the cup for Mr. Longoria. Of course, when denied he kicked it out and they eventually found the three ball.

It seemed like Ginobili barely played (26 minutes), but when he did, the Spurs were really on their game.

Good effort for the Kings. They again had a chance to win a tough game on the road, and that’s very encouraging.

The Kings also have a nice schedule of upcoming games to bounce back with. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Kings take a six-game win streak into the Cavs game at Arco Dec. 23 — at Portland is the toughest game in that stretch, and I think we can beat the Blazers. The Cavs and Lakers will be tough, but we might be able to surprise Denver and should be able to handle Philly to close out the month. So I’ll stick to my call of 17-14 at year’s end.

For now, though, let’s play ’em one at a time.

I thought Westphal did a very good job last night of tightening up the rotation and playing eight guys for the most part (Udoka played about three minutes). Though I love to see Brockman and Kenny, I think we need to play JT and Spencer and then go small to give Omri and Donte more minutes while still giving Beno plenty of burn.

Last night we saw 42 minutes for JT, 39 for Tyreke, 36 for Beno, 31 for Omri, 30 for Hawes, 24 for Donte, 19 for Nocioni, 16 for Sergio — I think that’s a pretty good formula.

I like the rotation as well and believe that, generally, PW will stick to something similar to what you pointed out above. Of course, there are always singular situations that dictate using somebody like KT for solid minutes due to foul trouble or defensive considerations. Frankly, I was surprised KT didnt’ get more burn against Duncan last night as he has always played him well. However, as TZ pointed out, the young bigs played decent (not great) D most of the night.

I can’t agree with your optimistic outlook on the W-L record. I see very little chance that this teams beats Portland home or away. And I don’t think we have to maturity to win back-to-back road games. Hope I’m wrong, however. As I look at the next five, I think a reasonable expectation is 3-2 with us beating the T-Wolves twice and getting the win at home v. Washington. If we end December even close to .500, I’ll be a very happy Kings fan.

I really smell some wins against good teams coming. A less veteran, collected team than the Spurs might have finally folded under the contstant way the Young Kings kept pushing back but . . thats who we were playing.

Defense was good except for the pick and roll – which they execute to perfection. JT and Hawes did I thought not just a good job – but an excellent job on Duncan, but he picked his spots of course. I was watching closely and rewinding, Duncan gets away with a number of non-calls on offense (cleared out JT once or twice) and on defense. Star treatment.
SA just couldn’t miss a 3 ball, Only a couple of which were of the wide open variety, and Everyone gets some wide open 3s in this league. That was the difference (besides that they are a better, veteran team), 3 pointers and FTs. We didn’t shoot many 3’s. As well as Beno was playing/has been shooting, I’d have liked to see them set him up for a few more. Beno has been Amazingly good though, it looks like its here to stay to me.
When will Noce get out of his slump? The damn ball is going halfway down so its not like he’s airballing out there. He could not guard Jefferson.

Casspi was awesome. Its not just the numbers, its the variety of ways he can / will score that impresses me. Perimeter shots of course but also he’s working hard on (and succeeding) developing his game off the dribble, posting up … very encouraging.

Donte’ was OK to pretty good. He’s also working on those aspects of his game but is farther behind. As has been pointed out though, if he really puts it together in the next year or so he could be an explosive scorer. Unfortunately, his TOs tend to be at key moments – though I’m not convinced on that last offensive foul.

‘Reke was great again and I saw the Spurs looking at him several times, Duncan giving that ’I’m getting too old for this shit’ look. Parker and Ginobli just stopped and looked thoughtful a few times after plays. Plotting, the bastards.

I have noticed that Donte has not been on the floor at the end of games (except for limited defensive assignments). I hope last night was a learning experience so he can close out more games.

If you count the moral victories at half wins we’re at 0.718 right now.

Donte’ had long since won a scramble for the ball and called a timeout. Then Bonner came in late and made a pathetic attempt to show toughness.

Probably should have been a T.