* A slice of Kelly Dwyer's comments from Behind the Boxscore:

On the brighter side, Jason Thompson!!! Kings fans hate me for choosing to shoehorn a lame joke into our Kings preview instead of detailing his role in the rotation, but I'm sure they'll be quite chuffed with the rookie's 18 and 10-rebound debut. He looked great, and polished as well.

* Sam Amick on Thompson's night:

Kings forward Jason Thompson became the franchise's first player to post a double double (18 points and 10 rebounds) in his NBA debut since Jerry Lucas tallied 23 points and 17 rebounds in 1963.

From the same story, Kevin Martin talks about his rough night:

"It's one of them games where I'll forget about it quickly," said Martin, who ended with 17 points. "I cost us a couple buckets. It's just something I'll have to go back and look at on film, because I don't know what was going on there. I think tonight was just on me, personally."

* Spencer Hawes, from the post-game quotes:

"The biggest thing they say, especially with young guys, is consistency. You can't come out one night and do it and the next night not bring it, so I think that's what we're working towards. Doing it on a consistent basis every night."

While the TZ's continue their cruise and I continue to lounge around their house in Lady Z's clothes (not that there's anything wrong with that), our gifted (and sorely missed) leader continues to post time released nuggets at AOL Fanhouse. If you have not been following this, he is doing an "NBA Frankenstein"  series on the impending draft class (Beasley, Rose and B.Lopez so far). Good stuff. Hurry back, young man. We want mo', mo', mo.

Also, just in case anyone missed Ronnie Price stuffing the evil empire.

• All this talk about Beno Udrih's place among the league's most improved and the league's point guards is nice. For what it's worth, outside observers Empty the Bench place Udrih among their top 7 Most Improved candidates.
• Nate Jones has some good insight on what he saw from the Kings last Sunday, and also asks folks to stop heckling Ron Artest so hard.
• Speaking of possibly-evil-but-nonetheless-friendly Lakers bloggers, a link to Kurt's Forum Blue & Gold postmortem on the game is long overdue. He calls the Lakers defensive ineptitude an aberration, and I'd tend to agree.
• The Play in California has a list of reasons to hope KJ wins the mayorship.
• Great stuff going on at BallHype this week: An essay on the state of sports literature, and an essay from a blogger who quit his job to write books about the Padres.

• How are those Reggie Rules going? The whole 'South Beach flu' thing, I thought, was a joke in this instance. Apparently not: "There was some question before Tuesday's game whether Ron Artest would be ready to play that night, as the Kings small forward had missed the shootaround that morning with what was deemed stomach issues and a headache." Awesome. It really was that at least one and likely more guys cared more about having a good time than getting closer to .500. Completely awesome. Glad the band stayed together.
• A Mike Bibby poem.
• Another thing about the South Beach flu -- who cares? It's not an excuse. The Heat were 5-27 at home before Tuesday. 27 times the opponent had all the trappings of Miami at their fingertips and still managed to beat the worst team in the league. Never mind losing by 20.
• Can you tell I'm a little frustrated? I don't throw Guernica around lightly.
• David Thorpe on Spencer Hawes: "Spencer Hawes continues to impress me with his scoring ability, but he hasn't shown me much else. Without a real commitment to reshaping his body -- and improving his agility -- this offseason, I worry that he won't find a place in the Kings' rotation next season." I tend to disagree a little on whether Hawes will stay in the rotation. For all the lip service paid to defense and energy by Theus, he plays guys who score (Garcia over Salmons lately, Hawes over the Williamses). Hawes can certainly score, and that alone will keep him in Reggie's good graces.

• Newest Blogger MVP rankings.
• Via Amick's blog, Orlando Sentinel Tim Povtak has a good column on the perils of Ron Artest, and Florida Today's John Denton endorses the Reggie Theus era.

Not to offend any fellow travelers of this blog world, but there doesn't seem to be much going on out there.

• It looks like the whole youth movement thing is what kept Kevin Martin on the bench so long last night. I fail to understand how the team is served by having its youngest shooting guard on the bench just because he's a starter. Unless you're going to play Quincy Douby at the two -- which you didn't for one second last night -- there's little need to sit Martin. He is part of your youth movement! Brad Miller? Not so much. (Though I understand why it's valuable to play Spencer Hawes and Miller together a little.)
• Quote of the century from Ron Artest: "They were trying to bargain shop. They were trying to get government cheese, and I'm Kraft." What's worse: Eduaruo Najera as WIC cheese, or that Ron-Ron considers Kraft to be good cheese? We need to get our boy a gift certificate to The Melting Pot.
• Gerald Wallace was unconscious for 13 minutes the other night. He suffered amnesia and will be out a few weeks.
• Kevin Johnson recieved the John R. Wooden Lifetime Achievement Award over the weekend.

• Can Tyronn Lue net a first-round draft pick? We'll see; that's about all Phoenix could offer (and they love giving away picks!), and they apparently want Lue to back up Steve Nash. Would they give up Atlanta's choice, now that it appears it will fall outside the lottery? Phoenix has a bountiful salary exception, so the Kings wouldn't need to take anyone back. Unfortunately, if the Suns won't give up Atlanta's pick and Geoff Petrie won't take a second-rounder, it's not happening: The Suns sent the 2008 and 2010 first-rounders to Seattle in the Kurt Thomas salary dump, and thus can't trade the 2009 pick until after he's picked and signed. If this Bibby trade ends up netting Shelden Williams, the cap space, a 2008 first in the late teens and a 2008 second in the late 40s... that becomes a helluva trade.
• It looks like Shelden (and his friends, I suppose) won't be cleared to play until Wednesday versus... the Hawks.
• Sam Amick linked to this neat profile of Shelden from last week. I'm trying to cobble a scouting report on the young man sometime before his debut.
• SI's Ian Thomsen endorses Denver trading Linas Kleiza for Ron Artest. And he gets bonus points for being the first scribe not named Kelly Dwyer to consider points per possession as a team measure.
• Joe Johnson is loving the Bibby trade.
• My first AOL Sports column -- on what we learned (and can learn) from All-Star weekend -- is up.
• A great post on blogs and blogging from Forum Blue & Gold.

• There's some healthy Nene foreshadowing in Marty McNeal's column, with this Geoff Petrie quote: "We want to maintain flexibility, but I'll be the first to say that's subject to change. We might be willing to take on future money, but if it doesn't lead to improved future performances over a number of years, it doesn't make a lot of sense." HMMMMM. I get the feeling a trade for Nene is going to be like a Ron Artest step-back three. "No no no YES!" We'll curse for a few days, and then we'll get used to the idea.
• Steve Novak has played 87 minutes this season. He has scored 47 points. I'd say those last three on his record were a big deal.
• Good news: Excellent bloggers Henry Abbott, J.E. Skeets and Matt from Hardwood Paroxysm will all be in New Orleans for All-Star Weekend. And I'll be holding down the TV/web fort at FanHouse.