Kings 103, Mavericks 105: Sacramento Plays Best Game of Season, Loses

Very enjoyable game to watch. So close to getting that win. I too thought DMC could have had a jump stop shot right around the free throw line to tie it. DMC or Tyreke are the guys that I want taking those shots with the game on the line. Ahwell. Lets hope the Kings take the same energy, poise, and momentum into the next game.

1. I loved the offense and versatility of the starting five. I hope we see that for at least ten games to see how they gel.

2. What in the he’ll wad Landry doing in the game the last six minutes. It sure as he’ll wasn’t getting a rebound. JT should have been in there. It was when Landry came in during the first half when Dallas came back. He had an awful game. Bad D, no rebounds, and he is a poor passer.

3. Surprised to see a starter with a DNP? I’m not. JT, Donte, Omri, and now Head. It’s a PW trademark. I like Beno, Cisco , and Pooh getting the minutes anyway.

4. I had a lot of appreciation for Dally. When he was on the Sixers. I can appreciate their frustrations.

At least we played better. More ball movement, some decent defense at times. I just didn’t love our fourth quarter coaching. We. Need to create match up problems for other teams, and if a player is having a turrible game, sit his ass down (Lamdry).

I thought it would be best to have Donte in the game , he would have been a good choice to guard Dirk (even though Landry did a decent job). But Donte had his O going and Carl had zip. Carl is one of the few guys Donte could have subbed in for and not hurt rebounding.
He was having a career night, He should have got more PT in the second half.

11 Turnovers. 48% FG, 58% 3ptFG. The Kings only won one quarter: the first.

Thanks for the write up Aykis.I will try and catch NBA TV and/or ESPN for highlights.

I think my main issue with this game is that JT should have been in the game in the last 6 minutes instead of Landry, but otherwise a well coached and played game.

We took a contending team and made them sweat and earn the game. I can absolutely 100% live with a loss like this, even if Cousins kind of mangled the last play.

I kept thinking Greene should have come back in, but seeing as how he was really getting over on Butler, and it seemed like Butler was out most of the 4th, I wasn’t too sour about it. People are bitching about Landry, but he had that crucial block, and still draws double teams better than anyone on the team.

I actually watched the replay of the first half, it was such a well-played effort by both teams.

It certainly answers the question of whether the players have quit on PW. But it also tells us they have the potential to play good basketball, but rarely do. And it figures they bust out a performance like this, but save it for one of the best teams in the league (and still lose).

Still, it’s progress. Further progress would be to play well back-to-back.

But his coaching in last half of 4th could have been better. Watching off the ball there were a few good passing opportunites missed by Evans followed by a bad pass TO. The most memorable was not to JT iunder the rim with Barrera behind him. Its been said before, the young Kings need a solid PG. The same rotation issues with PW showed in the last quarter. No Donte, no JT. With 11 seconds, the floor should have been spread, Evans driving on the last shot. Team is too inexperienced to be moving the ball around on that posession.

I think it was a good play (looked like the same one that ‘Reke beat the Bucks with last year, no?), and I think Cuz made the right decision not to try to pass it to Evans, but he should have taken the open jumper. Maybe he thought there was still too much time on the clock? Anyways, rookie mistake, no big deal. Passing out to an open Carl isn’t a terrible idea. Carl should’ve taken the shot. He was way off last night, not too worried. I just wish Landry’s crazy ill-advised pass at the end would’ve actually made it to Cisco’s hands. If I were to make a list of the shots I’d want to see with our team down 2 and the clock winding down, an “open Cisco catch-and-shoot three” would be right near the top. Dah well. Good effort.

Unfortunately I missed most of the first part of the game, and with the Dish-Comcast issue am not able to record them and go back and see what sounds like a good first-half effort.

So what I saw was a good effort by the Pooh lineup in the third and fourth quarters that featured crisp passing and good shots and got us a 9-point lead and a predictable comeback against the Tyreke unit which stopped passing the ball and got terrible shots late in the game clock.

Even though Grant and Jerry were getting pretty excited about the nine-point lead, I fully expected us to wilt under the pressure. But you have to expect that with a solid team like the Mavericks facing us.

Cousins took a couple of steps backwards in his play during crunch time and started pressing again. Take a deep breath, big fellow, and let the game come to you.

I think Landry could be more effective playing with a true point guard, but we only have one of those and he played 10 minutes last night. I hope Jeter continues to get more burn, because the team has a lot of energy when he is on the floor. That pass to Garcia underneath for the layup was a thing of beauty.

I’m so glad we finally put it together, and nearly won against Dallas. I don’t care about wins/losses, really; as long as we play well, I’m happy.

I loved how the bench was giving shoulders massages to the guys who were playing during timeouts. I remember noticing it a couple times, but the only players I remember who got massages were Beno and Omri. I just thought that was pretty funny.

I predict right now that in the next couple of games (possibly even tonight) you will see a fired-up team going out and playing the best they’ve played all season

http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2010/12/4/1854536/kings-suffer-more-embarrassment-lose-113-80-to-lakers#53529080

Of course it would have been a lot more enjoyable if we had won. But I will go on to predict that last night’s game was not a fluke at all. Road games may still be tough for us. But we have now seen three games out of four where we have played two or more quarters of quality defense and exciting, ball-moving, offense. These guys are learning. They are getting it. And they are pretty darn talented for as young as they are. I hope we don’t do anything to disrupt it. I want to see who we are in another month even.

Final prediction. He won’t win the ROY. But by the end of the season Cuz will be viewed as either the best or second best pick in this draft.

I don’t know if Carl has much of a future on this team right now, and if I was a betting man, I don’t think he’ll be on this team after the trade deadline. Perhaps sooner.

Comes to fruition. He has value in this league, and I hope we can move him for a veteran PG. I’m certainly not impressed with his play this year and don’t see how he fits on the team if he’s not scoring down low.

hand right on the ball – no doubt.

I was concerned that the Kings could no longer hold up against ANYONE in the league. So last night’s loss was very promising. Although I can’t help but wonder if the Kings will even make it to 10 wins this season. All in all, I feel as though we have seriously regressed from last year, which is not good.
Then there is the Arco situation. I feel so sorry for Sacramento! I’m in so-cal, so I won’t be around to watch things unfold..but that situation does not look good either. Sorry to sound pessimistic :-/

and I’m paraphrasing here, but after about 4 calls blaming PW for the loss and everyone talking about how Donte should’ve played more and how the coach didn’t have the right guys out there for the last play he said:

“I love getting these calls because we appreciate everyone that wants their opinion out there, but to me, it’s kinda sad that we’re talking about what didn’t happen instead of focusing on what ACTUALLY happened on the court and how for one night we watch a good basketball performance by the Kings”

I thought it was a pretty telling quote in terms of where this team is at and how it is judged by some in this specific point in time

a really entertaining game. That is probably what the team should have been shooting for this year, competitive and entertaining, not turning into the Celtics overnight.

Developing chemistry when Carl is on the floor, because if he gets stopped then he isn’t a good enough passer to find open teammates. Just my personal opinion.

I am really not a fan either way with this guy. I guess I would say this about what happened last night. They were ready for Landry and knew exactly how to stop him. They knew that when he gets the ball he will be trying to score and were well coached on how to defend against him.

The Mavs had two very tall guys, Dirk and Haywood, collapse on him. They even brought in the SF as well. When 2-3 collapse on your low post scorer it is not going to go well and it didn’t. I think in this case it is more on the coaches than the player.

They ran the plays even though this was going on and there wasn’t much Landry could do about it. Given that they had Landry so wrapped up defensively PW should have had JT in the last 6 minutes.

IMO, that was really the only major flaw in the game last night.

Turned out the Kings had the ball, and we’d all been inadvertently cheering for the Mavs. I put this entire loss on Fresh.

Learning experience, I’ll take it given what has transpired already.