The Kings remain prone to long stretches of absolute madness, but under the team has taken a step forward in this young season: it's finally winning at home. This is what separates the truly awful from the bad: the ability to hold serve at home, no matter how ugly things look on the road.
After the win over the Blazers, the Kings are 5-4 in Sacramento this season and 2-11 on the road. This is new. Last year, the Kings finished with equally poor records at home and away: 11-30 in Sacramento, 13-28 on the road. The Kings are, to date, worse on the road this season, but much, much better at home.
That's something to build upon, to begin to expect as players and coaches. To count on wins. Unfortunately, there's not much left at home in February: Saturday's game against the Warriors, a pair next week against the Thunder (TNT Night) and Suns, then nothing until the Jazzaftr the All-Star break. The Kings will go 16 days without a home game, which makes the next three oh so important to continue to build confidence for the team.
The good news is that many of these road games are winnable. The first two games of next week are against the Hornets and Wolves (both potential wins). The six-game road trip that follows the Phoenix game features stops in Detroit and Washington (should be wins) as well as Cleveland and New York (potential wins). There's a chance for the Kings to eek out a couple more home wins and road wins this month, and build on a good start to the season in Sacramento.
Of course, the Kings exist in that dead zone between the very worst teams and true playoff contenders; Sacramento simply isn't getting into the playoffs this season, so the utility of these extra wins remains a legit question. But if the team is winning, that likely means some of our young players are doing well. I'll take that over some ping pong balls, especially considering that the ping pong balls have never been particularly kind.
The Kings announced that Hassan Whiteside has been recalled from the D-League's Reno Bighorns. He'll be back in advance of Saturday's game against the Golden State Warriors.
He played 19 minutes a game in 11 games for Reno, averaging 7.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3 blocks. Yep, 33 blocks in 209 minutes, or one every six minutes and 20 seconds of playing time.
Kings coach Keith Smart has challenged his two top players to play like it, to act like it, to lead by example through words and performance.
Those players are third-year guard Tyreke Evans and second-year center DeMarcus Cousins.
Since taking over for the fired Paul Westphal on Jan. 5, Smart has seen glimpses of their leadership and plenty of their skills. He needs it on a consistent basis, he said.
On Thursday at Power Balance Pavilion, Cousins had an off night with eight points and six rebounds, but Evans had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a 93-90 victory to improve the Kings to 7-15.
"I believe your game has to speak for yourself," Smart said. "And if you're playing great and at a high level every night, your teammates understand that, 'Man, he's... add to del.icio.us.look up in del.icio.us.add to furl
The Kings had fallen behind by two points midway through the fourth quarter Thursday night, and Isaiah Thomas had just turned the ball over.
José Luis Villegas jvillegas@sacbee.com
Kings guard Isaiah Thomas, passing in the second quarter against Portland on Thursday night, made a fourth-quarter block that turned the tide.
Kings rookie Isaiah Thomas made the play of the game, a leaping defensive block on the Trail Blazers Wesley Matthews that helped spark a 95-92 victory over Portland Thursday night.
Marcus Thornton joked Wednesday afternoon that the padding he's wearing to protect his injured left thigh made the Louisiana native feel like New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
José Luis Villegas jvillegas@sacbee.com
Forward Jason Thompson exults after scoring to give the Kings a 92-88 lead with 1:44 left Thursday against Portland.
Kings guard Isaiah Thomas is screened by Portland's Kurt Thomas in the second quarter Thursday at Power Balance Pavilion. Isaiah Thomas finished with four points and three assists.
The inconsistent Sacramento Kings are at it again. After five straight losses, the team rebounded and won a game against a quality opponent. Sacramento played well at home and defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 95-92 on February 2. add to del.icio.us.look up in del.icio.us.add to furl
Sure, Isaiah Thomas isn't the first fun-sized guard to come through the Kings organization - from Spud Webb to Ronnie Price , the Kings have almost always had a pint-sized fan favorite to call their own, but Isaiah Thomas is taking it to another level.
Marcus Thornton scored 20 points and John Salmons had a season-high 19 for the Sacramento Kings, who snapped a five-game losing streak by beating the Portland Trail Blazers 95-92 Thursday night.
Marcus Thornton will be back on the court for the Sacramento Kings on Thursday against the Portland Trail Blazers. Thornton tweeted a message indicating he'd been cleared by doctors after sitting a week-plus with a hematoma on his quad. He'd practiced with full contact on Wednesday, but needed medical clearance Thursday.
Thornton hasn't been terribly consistent in his 14 games this season, but according to the Institute of Small Sample Sizes, the Kings are 5-9 when he plays and 1-6 in his absences. That's quite a difference! There hasn't been word as to whether he'll start at two-guard between Tyreke Evans and John Salmons, but that'd be the expectation.
The Blazers are kinda bad on the road. The Kings are not as bad as they seem overall when they are at home. Science!
The teams play at identical paces: just over 93 possessions per game. Let's imagine this game has 93 possessions!
At home, the Kings average 1.03 points per possession. On the road, the Blazers allow 1.01 points per possession. A reasonable expectation for the Kings would be to score 1.02 points per possession, or in a 93-possession game, about 95 points.
At home, the Kings allow 1.06 points per possession. On the road, the Blazers score 0.96 points per possession. As such, the Blazers would be expected to score 1.01 points per possession, or in a 93-possession game, about 94 points.
None of the Kings wins have come easily this year, and tonight was no different. Sacramento had already played Portland twice this season, and had been easily handled by the Blazers in both games. In the first half of this game, it looked as if it might be the same case tonight, as Portland got up by as many as 13 points in the 2nd quarter, and led by 9 going into halftime.
The Blazers were led by LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 28 points and 14 rebounds. Most of that damage came in the first half, when the Kings seemingly had no answer for him and he couldn't seem to miss. Aldridge is a true star, and it will be a shame if he's not selected as an All-Star Reserve next week, as he definitely deserves it. Portland also got good contributions from Raymond Felton (15 points and 10 assists) and Jamal Crawford (17 points) although neither player shot very well. Kurt Thomas (10 points) was the only other player who scored in double digits for Portland, as the Kings continuously left him open for mid-range jumpers, which is about the one thing Kurt Thomas can hit.
Meanwhile, Sacramento welcomed back Marcus Thornton, who had missed four games in a row, and he didn't disappoint. He had a rough shooting night from the field, going just 4-13, but he was very aggressive attacking the basket, and got 12 free throw attempts because of it. He ended up with a team high 20 points, 8 of which came in the crucial 4th quarter.
Another big contributor for Sacramento tonight was John Salmons, who was clearly frustrated that he had been snubbed by the voters for a spot as an All-Star Starter. He came out with a vengeance and had his best game of the season, scoring 19 points on 8-14 shooting (3-4 from three) to go with 8 rebounds and 2 assists. He also played very good defense on Gerald Wallace, who only scored 8 points and didn't get nearly as many open looks as he did in the previous two games the Kings and Blazers matched up in.
Portland got way too many easy buckets and open jumpers in the first half thanks to poor rotations and miscommunication. One instance in particular saw Chuck Hayes switch off LaMarcus Aldridge, thinking that Jason Thompson would come up to cover him, but instead JT switched onto a different player, giving Aldridge a straight line to the basket for a dunk, with nobody in his way. Portland scored 56 points on 60% shooting in the first half,
The second half brought a change in attitude and effort by the Kings. The rotations were better, shots were contested, and Portland couldn't find an offensive rhythm. Chuck Hayes played a big part in that, helping to limit LaMarcus Aldridge's impact, and nobody else on the Blazers really stepped up. As such, the Blazers were held to just 36 points in the entire second half, and just 13 points in the third quarter when the Kings made their run to regain the lead.
The Kings were never able to gain too much separation from the Blazers in the 4th however, and the Blazers eventually took the lead back on a Jamal Crawford three pointer with 6:26 left at 81 - 79. Marcus Thornton came back the other way and ended up losing the ball, leading to a 3-on-1 Blazers breakaway for what looked like an easy layup.
That block brought the crowd to its feet, and on the next possession, Isaiah found Marcus for a three, which he hit to give the Kings the lead back, and Sacramento led the rest of the way.
It got a bit scary at the end however, as Sacramento made some bad decisions that led to easy Portland buckets the other way. Isaiah had a particularly egregious turnover in which he dribbled into a corner and was trapped and tried to throw it over a few defenders instead of simply calling timeout. That's a rookie mistake for you. The Blazers cut the lead to 95-92 with 13 seconds left on an Aldridge layup, and all the Kings had to do was get the ball to someone and wait for Portland to foul. They did just that, getting it into Marcus Thornton, but Gerald Wallace came over and slapped the ball out of Marcus' hands and came away with it. He probably could have gotten a layup, but instead chose to dish back to Raymond Felton, who missed the three. The rebound was snagged by Wesley Matthews though and he dished it to Jamal Crawford, who also missed the contested three. This time Aldridge grabbed the board, but the shot clock expired before he could get the ball to the three point line himself and Sacramento came away with the victory.
Tyreke Evans had 18 points on 8-20 shooting to go along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Portland is one of the best teams in the league in terms of personnel to handle Tyreke Evans, thanks to athletic, defensive minded wings, and long shotblockers to guard the rim when he does manage to get by them, but he managed to find a way to contribute. His jumper was not falling all night, but he did hit the most crucial one to give the Kings the final bucket and enough cushion for the lead.
Jason Thompson was once again very solid for the Kings, getting his second straight double-double with 13 points (on 5-7 shooting) and 12 rebounds. With DeMarcus Cousins only playing 15 minutes thanks to foul trouble, the Kings needed JT to have a big game, and he delivered.
Coach Smart played a tight nine man rotation, with Chuck Hayes (29 minutes) the only bench player to really see a significant amount of time. Isaiah Thomas provided a big lift with his energy, and has seemingly bumped Jimmer Fredette out of the rotation. Jimmer received his first DNP-CD of his career, and with Tyreke and Marcus both playing heavy minutes (both played 41 tonight), it's probably not going to be the only one. Travis Outlaw and J.J. Hickson rounded out the rotation, and both came in and played their roles well. Outlaw once again had a poor shooting night, but he played aggressively and got to the line at least.
Sacramento finally gets to stay at home for more than one game in a row when Golden State comes into town on Saturday. The Kings probably should have won the last game they played against the Warriors, and hopefully can carry the momentum of tonight's win into that game.
It's February, which means the 2012 NBA Draft is only ... wow, it's still five months away. That's a lot of time. Oh well! ESPN's Chad Ford has his first mock out anyway. The Sacramento Kings are in position for the No. 5 pick right now, and Ford has the team landing a player at the biggest need spot: small forward. The pick is Kentucky freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. A snip of Ford's blurb on the kid:
Few players work as hard as he does, and he also has athleticism, toughness and the ability to defend multiple positions.
A third John Calipari one-and-done in four years? Why not?
The Sacramento Kings didn't see much of Monta Ellis and Stephen
Curry during the fourth quarter of their loss to the Golden State
Warriors earlier this week.
