That was absolutely amazing. With all the hype going into the game beforehand and the fact that Oklahoma City was the best team in the league, this was a night that seemed like it could have been ripe for disappointment. But it lived up to all the hype and more as the Kings pulled out the victory over the Thunder.

In many ways, this game was a parallel to last year, and the efforts to keep the Kings from moving to Anaheim. Not many people thought that Sacramento would succeed in keeping the team here, just as not many expected the Kings to win tonight. In both cases, the fans indirectly influenced the outcome by showing their support. The grassroots movements last year spurred Mayor Johnson and the city to action to begin the process of saving this team and keeping it here, and tonight the sellout crowd energized the players all night long. In the end, that support was rewarded with victory, improbable as it may have seemed.

The Kings as a team didn't have a single individual who truly stood out as the hero of this game. It was a team effort all around, with every player on the court making a meaningful contribution. The Kings were also relentless and fearless attacking the basket tonight, scoring 60 points in the paint. That's despite the efforts of Serge Ibaka, who had 10 of Oklahoma City's 17 blocks. Tyreke Evans led the Kings with 22 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. The Kings also had 21 assists to just 12 turnovers, half of those occurring in the first quarter, meaning they took better care of the ball as the game went along. The bench also outscored Oklahoma City's bench 34-19.

Oklahoma City had big production from their main weapons. Kevin Durant had 27 points on 9-19 from the field, James Harden had 17 on 5-11 from the field, and Russell Westbrook led all scorers with 33 on 15-26 from the field. That's over three-quarters of the Thunder's points coming from three guys. Those three players also combined for 15 turnovers though (Westbrook had 7 himself) and that was a big problem for the Thunder. They had just 13 assists to 23 turnovers, as the Kings defense did a good job of deflecting and swiping at the ball all night.

Continue reading this post »

National TV audience. Win over a powerhouse playoff team.

Dance, you fools.

Tonight the Sacramento Kings will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder before millions of viewers nationwide tuned in to TNT. Hopefully, you'll be among the 17,317 in the building. (Get tickets now if you don't have them. 1-888-91-KINGS or the box office or Kings.com.)

We will have the attention of the Sacramento City Council, of the NBA league office and of any potential future owners of or investors in the new facility or the basketball team. (AEG, Burkle ... they are paying attention.) More importantly, we will have the attention of the national media, who won't be able to avoid writing about the amazing fight and panache of the people of Sacramento and our elected leader, Kevin Johnson. The Maloofs tried to leave our city a year ago, and we didn't lay down. We stood up, and we fought. And we're still standing. And we're still fighting. And we won't stop until there are shovels in the ground.

All of those parties watching: let them hear it.

1. Wear black, wave your rally towel and cheer the hell out of the Sacramento Kings.

2. At tip-off, jump with the Goon Squad. The section behind the Kings bench always gets into it, but on such a special occasion, it'd be wonderful to get the whole building into it. (This comes at the request of Sign Lady. You don't want to dissapoint Sign Lady, do you?)

3. Lead and join into "Here We Stay" and "Sac-ra-men-to" chants during stoppages in play, coming out of timeouts and Thunder free throws. Print and pass out Here We Stay chant flyers. We've heard these chants come through television broadcasts in the past. That's on the local broadcasts. TNT loves to crank up the crowd noise. Let's do the work for them.

This is an incredible opportunity for us to be heard on a national stage with focused local attention. It's time to show the country what being a fan of the Sacramento Kings is all about. Let's do this.

Continue reading this post »

A quick congratulations to Ash_Ketchup, who rallied to win the Blackout Contest and will be receiving two tickets to tonight's game. We do wish all contestants could go -- those were all exceptional FanPosts.

Thanks to everyone for participating, either as a contestant or voter.

Introducing the Timeout Tapper

At the beginning of this season, we posted "Threadiquette for a Truncated Season" (please read this if you have not already). Most members have followed these rules, a select few have not. One of the issues that we have faced along the way is how to handle a member that is mucking up an otherwise fine thread through general douchebaggery, being a general nuisance but perhaps not to the point where Sactown Royalty would want to completely revoke the membership. Additionally, the site was not prepared for how polarizing a single player could be, and how lovers/haters on both sides of the issue would line up to blast home their point, common sense and reason be damned.

Continue reading this post »

Our friends James Ham and Rob McAllister of Cowbell Kingdom have a double dose of sourced entertainment and sports complex news. McAllister reported this week that the NBA is expected to bridge any feasible funding gap to get a plan for a new downtown facility approved; Ham reports that the city is looking for $80 million of that to come in the from of an up-front lease payment from the Kings and the NBA. The lease would be for 30 years, breaking it down to $2.67 million per year.

The other $50 million in private capital would come from AEG, the arena megalith that would operate the facility year-round. The city is hoping to receive City Council approval this month on a deal to lease the operation of downtown parking structures for $200 million in up-front payments -- the lease could be for 30-50 years. That leaves another $50 million. The hotel association has committed to some level of investment via a room fee, but not at that level, and not necessarily with advance capital.

The NBA is doing something different than the normal Rookie Challenge at All-Star Weekend in Orlando this year. Instead of teams featuring the best rookies and second-year players facing off, Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley will each be drafting teams from a pool of the top rookies and second-year players.

The NBA announced the pool today. Only one Sacramento King -- DeMarcus Cousins -- was included, leaving rookies Isaiah Thomas and Jimmer Fredette on the outside. Nine players from each class were picked; the rookie guards who made it over Zeke and Jimmer were Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, Brandon Knight, Kemba Walker and MarShon Brooks. Kawhi Leonard, Tristan Thompson, Markieff Morris and Derrick Williams also made the cut.

It's really too bad neither of our prominent rookies will make the game (unless there's an injury replacement for the nicked-up Brooks); Cousins, Omri Casspi and Tyreke Evans have been loads of fun in this event. Cousins should be no worse than the No. 4 pick in this game, and would be my pick at No. 2 behind Blake Griffin. See the full pool at SBNation.com.

We had 10 entries to the Sactown Royalty Blackout Contest. Instead of cutting that down, we'll let the community pick a winner from the 10 FanPosts. The links are just below this paragraph; the poll is after the jump. The poll ends at 9 p.m. Pacific today. The winner receives a pair of lower bowl tickets for TNT Night at Power Balance Pavilion on Thursday.

Links, in order of entry (FanPost will open in a new window):

baykine
herewestayandrise
Sac555
dbaron3
Schneezel
Kyle_B
CowbellKings
bballkingsrule
Ash_Ketchup
Mike Garza

Vote below the jump.