It’s even more apparent when you watch the replay the next morning knowing that every posession is key. There was one sequence in the first quarter where the ball clearly went off of LBJ’s hands and everyone started heading the other way including LeBron. The refs gave it to the Cavs and everyone looked stunned. LeBron ran a backdoor cut on the inbounds for the dunk. Then, to compound it, they call Tyreke for the carry on the other end. Tyreke does have a crossover that borders on a carry and he does get called for it often, but this one looked like he was fine. That was a big swing on both sides as it cost the Kings points.

Anyway, no reason to point to that as the young Kings had lots of chances, but there were some bad calls out there last night.

I love this team. I love that people are disappointed that they didn’t win. In the big picture, these are just part of the lumps that a young team needs to take. In the future, they will run the right play to end the game and Tyreke will know to pass it out if the double team is coming, etc. Second youngest team in the NBA and somebody else posted that it was the youngest starting lineup ever out there. It’s pretty amazing and exciting that this club is doing what they are doing.

Not happy, but I am not bummed by this loss. The Kings played good enough last night to beat just about anybody. A championship caliber team with more poise and experience, also playing at a very high level, made the plays at the end. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the Kings’ performance last night.

Again, if the Kings play like that every night, they won’t lose very many more times.

This was their biggest problem, to me. They didn’t transition back to playing their game on offense. Thus, they didn’t even score.

How big does ’Reke’s airball at the rim look in retrospect? He hesitated thinking Lebron would be there and he wasn’t. He makes that and its the highlight of the night on Sportscenter

Can we quit letting unathletic white big guys have great games against us?

It’s the only game I’ve been to all year and (regulation anyway) was outstanding. Good crowd, great play by the Kings.

Just so you know, Ilgauskas can shoot from outside.

Merry Christmas!

LPA

They hadn’t been calling that foul all night, so it probably wasn’t going to happen in OT.

Hope your Chanukkah was joyous!

LPA

The fact that LeBron was guarding you made you legit already. You didn’t need to try to hit a game-winner by driving past him. And two other guys. Next time, pass out. Getting a shot attempt when you’re tied with 3 seconds on the clock gives your team at least a chance of winning. Being trapped on the sideline, not so much.

Something to mull over as you approach the game on Saturday, when you’ll probably have Artest and/or Kobe guarding you at various points.

Happy Holidays!

LPA

Nevermind cowbells, I thought I heard chicken sounds when the Cavs were shooting free throws in the first half.

Nice to see Jim Crandell. I haven’t seen his face in a loooong time since I’m not local.

Wished our bench took more advantage of the Cavs when BronBron wasn’t on the floor. Credit to the Cavs for staying afloat without their King on the floor.

JT, please do not try to be Wes Unseld and just make the easy in bounds pass.

I hope Shaq retires at the end of this season. I hate seeing legends end their great careers on a downward spiral.

Loved seeing Omri Won Kenobi take the challenge of guarding LeBron. I dig seeing Omri’s competitive fire!

Liked seeing Shareef yelling at JT to shoot as soon as he gets the ball 15 ft out. I really feel JT should go to that more (we all know Jerry agrees).

Overtime was puzzling. I’m sure the Kings’ offense will be a lot more multi-dimensional as the season goes. We have too many good shooters to not score in overtime.

Big ups to the Cavs’ defense and Big Z and Parker for hitting huge jumpers.

Super entertaining game. Happy Holidays and Go Kings!

Beno has been a big reason the Kings have been winning lately. The Cavs effectively shut him down, especially in the 4th QTR. He had 8 pts,but seemed to be a none factor.

The fact of the matter was the Cavs brought their A game to Sactown , and they barely beat the Kings. I’m kind of ignoring the overtime when making that statement. In the past if a upper tier team had a mediocre game the Kings might have been in it, but if they were playing well it would have a double digit, rest the starters type of game for the other squad.
I love what I’m seeing.

If this deal was on the table and you knew he would 100% sign an max extension with Sac this summer, would you go for it?

Evans, Speed, and K-9 for LeBron + fillers

First: A magnificent game for the most part by a lineup whose oldet guy was 23. Really amazing. Which leads me back to –
Too Young.

It didn’t really show itself other than moments here or there until an experienced team put the pressure on late.
The Cavs did not bring their B game last night, it took their A game to beat us – and even then they won on defense and execution and poise.

Lessons: Tyreke, look at the way LBJ finished that game. He was the focus of our defense, was missing the shots he did get up – so he turned to passing and rebounding, he trusted his teammates to make the shots. And He was Still the Hero. Tyreke is not ready to take over for five minute stretches, few ever are.

Lessons: Westphal overused a few guys. Omri in particular clearly had no legs left late in the game, something we’ve seen before. Next year it will be a non-issue, but to me he hits a wall around 30 minutes. Sergio should have spelled Tyreke for a few more, Donte’ / Noce should have spelled Omri ectc for a few. Nice to see he’s putting it in the hands of the young guys but . . . .

Credit the Cavs and by extension Beno: They perceived him as the biggest threat off the bench and really focused on shutting down his mid-range game. The Kings didn’t do much to help free him up either, the picks they set were mediocre at best.

Dispite a mistake here or there, a few missed assignments and a few missed opportunities to score from mid/long range, JT and Hawes played excellent games. They still have to learn to trust their advantages when it really counts.

Omri also has to learn to trust that outside shot late – and team needs to run a play or two for it.

Boy, did they look young in OT.

There was a little bit of a buzz in the building before the game. It was nice to hear and feel it.

They showed the comeback on the jumbo screen as warm-ups wound down. The crowd got into it a little.

Sean May wished everyone a happy holidays from the Kings. I suppose May was chosen because he is the most shaped like Santa.

Shaq is loathed in this building. Big boos when introduced, bigger boos throughout the night.

The crowd went wild for Evans during introductions, and the cheers for Casspi were just slightly louder than the reception that JT received. Appreciative applause for Greene and Hawes, and a nice ovation for Westphal.

The game itself has been well chronicled already, but I will add a few things that I noted as the game played out -

Spencer Hawes actually dove on the floor, and he looked active and interested throughout the night. And Hawes and JT worked pretty well off of each other.

When Evans and LeBron squared off 1 on 1 one late in the 4th (Kings on “O”, Cavs on “D,” the crowd in the lower bowl at that end of the court all rose to their feet. Had Evans hit the baseline jumper, the place would have come unglued.

Ditto when Evans went to the hole in overtime, left LebRon and the other Cavs flailing but then short-rimmed the shot. There was an audible gasp in the building when Tyreke made the move – too bad he didn’t finish.

At the time that Westphal did not call the timeout with 13 seconds left in regulation, I thought that it was a brilliant move – don’t give a great defense like Cleveland’s a chance to gather itself. But for some reason Evans walked the ball up the floor, and that did not give them enough time to really space the floor and run a decent final play. That said, I still think that it was the right call for this young team, as it is a lesson learned the hard way.

Casspi was brilliant covering James in the 4th quarter.

I hope that as this team continues to develop, they learn how to make the extra pass off of the high pick and roll. That is, if Evans and Hawes (for example) are playing the two man game, and Hawes winds up with the ball, he is a gifted enough passer to find a cutter on this play, and not always just give it back to Tyreke. JT has the same skill, and you’ve got some guys like Greene and Casspi that know how to go to the basket. At the very least, I’d like to see a pass or two to the weak side – Udrih was all by himself on the weak side on a couple of those overtime plays.

This team bleeds, and it bleeds together. I can’t describe how awesome that is to witness after the past couple of years. Get out to ARCO and catch a game if you have the means. You will be very glad that you did.

Yeah, that Tyreke short-rimmed move was incredible. If he had made it Nike would’ve destroyed the film.

I agree on the end of regulation TO. Another thing I think is that with more experience, Tyreke might have called the TO when it was clear that the spacing was off and we still could’ve had 3 seconds or so to draw up and run a play.

No post game article on the game? Just a LaBron knows Tyreke article?

JT should never again inbound the ball.
Noc no longer has a defensive advantage over Omri or Donte
Tyreke is one 2 foot shot away from living up to the comparison to James hype.
Spencer has owned Shaq for almost a year now.
We don’t need a big as much as we do need Martin.
Individual defense is improving but team defense isn’t, and has a way to go.
Donte is better playing the 3 than the 2.
Omri is our best rebounding SF.
We need to find more minutes for Sergio, while Martin is still out.
As loved as Brockman might be, his offense hurts us as much as K9’s, and it must improve.
The Kings only had 9 turnovers. More of that please.
The Kings only sent the Cav’s to the line 17 time. Much more of that please.
Evans shot 2 or 7 from the arc. No more of this ever again please.
PW showed a lot of faith in his NaPG on the last possession of regulation. Bravo Coach.

A few observations:

The place was deafening and my ears are still ringing. I may need to start bringing earplugs if I don’t want to completely lose my hearing.

It is really amazing to watch the best player in the world. I never saw Jordan, I’ve never seen Kobe, and I never saw Shaq in his prime. Lebron has incredible body control. He is incredibly big and strong and fast and quick, and he just seems like he’s under total control at all times. Dude is just amazing.

Shaq looked downright svelte. At the same time, he is a long, long way from his once-dominant self. The chorus of boos that greeted him was deafening, but I detected (or perhaps imagined) a hint of respect behind it. He was pretty chummy with the Maloofs too. The crowd also got pretty loud when Shaq got pulled due to foul trouble. But he really wasn’t that much of a factor in the game from what I could see.

There was a guy about three rows behind me who was a first-rate trash-talker, and he was cracking up everybody in our section. When Lebron didn’t score much in the second half, the guy kept yelling things like: "Wutchoo gonna do now Lebron? Yer ineFFECtive!" 30 points on 14-of-30 with 16 boards and 10 assists doesn’t quite qualify as ineffective, but our resident trash-talker was totally hilarious all the same.

At halftime, they played a spoof Greatest Hits of Rock and Soul featuring JT, Donte, and Brockman, and it was absolutely F’ing riotous! All three guys were wearing ridiculous wigs and singing badly out of key on songs like Bon Jovi "Living on a Prayer" (Brockman), and Marvin Gaye "Let’s Get it On" and "Sexual Healing" (Donte), and The Commodores "Brick House" (JT), etc. etc. etc. I tried to find it on YouTube, but no luck. As soon as anyone finds it, please post it immediately. It’s even funnier than the Slam-Wow videos.

Props to Casspi for playing really solid defense against King James. I also thought Beno played good D, even though Mo Williams kind of went off in the second half. Mo hit a lot of contested shots that couldn’t be blamed on his defender. Finally, JT just continues to impress. The guy is such a workhorse. He is always solid and rarely spectacular.

Our guys scrapped and fought and did not let up the whole game. Guys shots abandoned them at the end, but I never saw anyone dogging it for a moment. These guys like each other, they like playing together, and they clearly like Coach Paul who also likes them. It is really great to see the team culture develop in such a positive way. Compare Golden State, Chicago, Philly, and other youth movements. The Kings are heading in the right direction, and it really shows.

Helluva game.

I am surprised no one has brought up the wonderful play of Mo Williams. I thought he was the difference maker for the Cavs (excepting the awesomeness of King James).

The game was played at a very fast pace. Part of this is LeBron who along with his being very strong, very athletic and has impressive foot speed. (For a glimpse of the future, look at how much LeBron has improved his outside shooting – Lil’ Bron should be expected to make this leap too in the seasons ahead) For this young team, who are fast-capable, they adapted well and I am surprised that PW hasn’t had them play this pace more often.

To add to this, Sergio was a factor and I was surprised to some extent he never re-entered the contest despite the score showing no signs of needing him. PW went with the current Mr. Consistency – Beno Udrih who was guarded well and was a bit timid at times, which was surprising.

Overall, one heck of a game. How did the Kings become this season’s team of the future? OKC was last year’s team, Portland the team the season previous. Great great stuff, this has truly been a season to be jolly.