Kings 88, Spurs 86: Strong Start and a Strong Finish Hands Spurs Their First Home Loss

Say what?

Go Kings, Baby!

I had 100% dislike for Salmons and now its down to only 80%. Thornton needs to learn how to put on the brakes as he has at least on bad charge per game.

JT in the starting lineup is great and I still don’t get why JJ was starting ahead of him.

Salmons may be coming around. He wasn’t as much of a black hole as in the past.

I still can’t fathom why Westphal coached this team for so long and why he didn’t run more like they are now.

Smart for coach of the year if the Kings play .500 ball. Tyreke showing development after just 10 games? Improvement on the court with virtually no practice time? Makes me want to tar and feather the Malindas for being so cheap. We could have had a real coach with our ROY from day one.

And as I have said before when all 3 play well, we have damn great chance to win anywhere against anyone, and thats what happened tonight:

Tyreke with near triple double.
DeMarcus with rare efficient shooting (7 out of 12 field, 3 out of 4 line)
and Marcus was consistently aggressive all night.

I know High Tops does not like his efficiency, but Marcus is close to being back. I expected a big game tonight, and we almost got one. The first two games off injury he was not himself. Against the Pacers he was once again healthy, just not quite to his sharpest form. And tonight, he made plays just not as many as he is capable, but getting close.

The sum amounts to 2.5 out of 3 which was enough to knock of a previously undefeated home team and the BEST win of the season. Congrats to Coach Smart for an awesome job preparing his team against formidable odds.

Especially considering the time constraints.

I enjoy watching them alot, I want them to win and I really like their players. Oh damn, well anyways a great win for the Kings. Like I said, I really enjoyed the game! Keep that streak running!!! (Nice to see Tyreke passing first, he really gets the team going like that)

Loved and agreed with this:

The San Antonio Spurs did not lose this game. The Sacramento Kings won it.

This was our best game of the season. Great basketball played for most of the night tonight.

In the new offense, Evans is starting to show glimpses of making a third year leap.

consistently, he looks like he plays free out there with good decisions.

Loved the Tyreke midrange game. If he consistently includes that in his arsenal, the league will be in deep(er) doo doo. Loved the DMC O board put back there as he just wrestled the ball away from the Spurs guys and put it in. Power basketball baby. Lovin’ the DMC double double action. When he cuts down on the fouls and turnovers…my goodness!!

Does that count the Pacers home game?

Amazing what a couple of wins will do for morale.

You could see the green shoots of a team identity tonight: the running team that rebounds and plays tough man defense. Tyreke played within himself for the most part; we didn’t see too many poor jumpers or threes with 15 seconds left on the shotclock. DeMarcus is turning into a real beast and a game changer. Isaiah Thomas looks like a legit change of pace guard off the bench. I’m not sure where we’ll end up with this team identity, but the last 2 games have got me believing in Keith Smart’s ability to get more than the sum of the parts on this roster.

I was disappointed the last week with the way they are playing, that i say i will not watch them again, but I was wrong. The reason was I wasn’t being patient, just like the young guys out there playing. Now slowly i was seeing good basketball back with the Kings and I am slowly getting back to watching them again.

In one fell swoop, Jimmer converts Parker into a Believer with a subtle bop to the head.

Proves can beat any team that manages to score under 90 points. Reke has been a roller coaster this season. He’s great, than meh, than bad than starts the loop all over the again.

To think, just a couple of weeks ago most of us thought the season was a total loss, but Smart is turning out to have a few tricks up his sleeve. I really wasn’t expecting much from him, but he has been a pleasant surprise. I hope this trend continues and Smart proves that he possesses a combination of qualities to turn our team around.

Nice recap, as usual Aykis.

he’s got 10 already

………next is the Griz.

After that…………….we take China.

with this young team. The players seem to be buying into whatever Smart has been selling to them and wow, what a night and day difference from the PW led Kings squad. They still make a crap-ton of bonehead mistakes but I’m seeing much more intensity on the defensive side of the ball, more passing, more fast breaks, more offensive rebounding, off ball defense and just better overall team cohesion. Since Smart has been HC we’ve seen better decisions with timeouts and quicker recognition when a lineup isn’t working, actual offensive patterns, more vocal and more supportive with and of players, etc, etc, I could go on but I’ll spare all of you.

Go coach Smart!!! Thank you for a renewed outlook for this franchise’s future.

IIRC, he faded away when he shot that three. Was that necessary, or habit? It’s generally so much harder to hit a fadeaway, I don’t know why he reverts to that. Just asking because I seem to remember his technique looking very good in the first game or two.

and the way he swings wide with his dribble—thus telegraphing his slower-moving pull-up and giving the defender more time to react.
Fading away obviously gives him more distance from a swipe or block, but does in fact, make the attempt a lower percentage shot. Looks nice when it goes in, tho.

If I want to catch replays of kings games such as this one, would the league pass provide that for me? Or would the replay of the kings through NBA league pass be blacked out because I live in the Sacramento region??

The Spurs announcers have gone from unlistenable a few years ago when the Spurs walked on water and never committed a foul or did something dumb to merely terrible now, but still, with a couple of minutes left Sean Elliott said (paraphrasing) “Young teams implode under the prssure” and was really wading deeply into the arrogance pool.

It warmed the heart to see our guys get the job done down the stretch. Salmons has been terrible and still made some bad decisions tonight, but there was at least a glimpse of the guy he could be on this team. He could be an asset, it may be asking him to change too much attitude-wise though.

Salmons walked over to cousins to see if he was ok after getting an elbow to the head so he’s not a bad of a teamate. im still pist about his game , and jacking up missed 3s and ball hogging the past games but he played a little better tonight. overall the team played like a team. a fun game to watch.

The half court offense still needs a lot of work. The spacing looked good most of the night, but they’re (mainly Thorton and Salmons) still taking to many shots outside of the offense.

In the second half the Spurs turned up the D and put a lot of pressure on the guards with the bigs stepping out on every screen. They need to stop trying to dribble out of that and make the pass as soon as they see it coming. JT was open at the free throw line almost everytime, and could of made some plays.

Rebounding and defense has won the last two games, hopefully they keep it up tonight.