The Sacramento Kings lost the Barnum and Bailey Circus Bowl to the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night by the score 136-133. The Kings lost the game roughly 14 times, but The Basketball Gods interceded regularly to demand the Wizards give Sacramento additional chances at victory.
"Hey, there's not s--t else going on, OK?" said Fitzwilliam Leavenworth, Basketball Gods spokesman and budding NBA blogger. "A turnover here, a turnover there and that crapfest is a ratings champion."
The Wizards committed six turnovers in the final three minutes of regulation to allow the Kings come from six down and send the game to overtime. You would think, however, that watching a team commit six turnovers in three minutes would have provided the Kings an opportunity to actually win. But it just didn't work out that way.
In overtime, the Kings scored just seven points as the Wizards held a lead and finished the victory. Sacramento shot 2-8 in the extra frame with one critical, awful turnover -- down two with 15 seconds left, Beno Udrih ran off a screen and delivered a bounce pass right to ... Kirk Hinrich.
The Kings actually still ended up with a chance to tie at the end of overtime, but the Wizards defended the play well (!!!) and Cousins missed a short corner three to finish the game.
Udrih and Francisco Garcia (who drew two crunch time fouls on three-pointers) each scored 26 points, and Carl Landry had 23 points off the bench. Cousins shot 4-19 on the game, and finished with 10 points and eight rebounds in 37 minutes. Nick Young torched the Kings (initially Luther Head, but also Garcia, Udrih and Pooh Jeter) for 43 points on 14-22 shooting (including 7-10 from long-range). John Wall had 22 points, nine assists and six rebounds.
The Kings play the Boston Celtics at 4:30 PM on Wednesday, assuming the team can get through the latest blizzard waging war on the Northeast.