Back to normal
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On February 28th 2001 Kings beat Warriors on the road 122-101 to improve to 38-18 for the season. Kings played really well, shot 52% had 30 assists even out rebounded the Warriors by 1. Kings had 7 players in double figures. Pedja lead the Kings with 24/5/1/3, Vlade had 14/7/4, Scott had 13/10/2/1/2, DC had 13/4/9/5, JWill had 8/1/10. Bench was great. Funderburke had 18/12/1, Bobby had 16/3/2/4 and Hedo had 10/4rb.
Peja Stojakovic led seven scorers in double figures with 24 points as the Sacramento Kings rolled to a 122-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors. Lawrence Funderburke posted season highs with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Bobby Jackson added 16 for Sacramento, which played its ninth straight game without leading scorer and rebounder Chris Webber. The Kings improved to 6-3 without their All-Star forward.
"We are six out of nine without Chris Webber and what it has really done is made everyone step their game up to a higher level," Sacramento coach Rick Adelman said. "We have done a lot without Chris in the lineup. I think it is really going to help us know the level they all have to play to go far in this league."
"I am having a lot of fun with this team," Adelman said. "They are a great group of guys at practice, off the court and in games. It also helps when you are winning games."
"With my defense, the main thing is to just keep myself between my man and the basket," Christie said. "I always try to keep my hands active -- reaching for the ball and trying to touch it as much as I can."
"For them not to have their superstar, they seemed to play better without him," Jamison said. "They did an excellent job passing the ball. Vlade's probably one of the best passers, not just as a big man, but as a basketball player."
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Kings ran out of gas last night and paid the price by losing to the Sixers and dropping to 24-32 for the season which is 3 games out of the 8th and finals PO spot. Kings went 1-3 on the 4 games in 5 night East Coast road trip. Kings are currently 6-6 in February with 1 game to go but have lost 6/8 last games. Beating Bobcats would give Kings their first winning month since November. Over all speaking Kings have the 9th worst record in the league right now.
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March looks brutal unless You are supporting the Kings in their quest for the good draft pick - then it looks promising. It starts with LAL and POR in a back to back on the road where a split would be great but not expected. Then there is a 3 game home stand with IND, SAS and DEN which makes a 2-1 possible but highly unlikely. Then Kings go on the final East Coast trip where they will play 5 games in 7 nights against CLE, CHA, MIA, ORL and ATL.1-4 seams realistic and anything above is a bonus. Finally we finish the month with home game vs MIN, then home and away with the PHO and then a home game against the LAC which looks like 2-2. So that makes it total of 6-8 which is good enough to keep us close to the PO race but not bad enough to improve our draft position.
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Back to back games are hard to play and winning them requires certain depth at all positions. Kings record on the 3nd game in the back to back situation is 3-11 which tells us a lot about what kind of a team we have right now. As You could have seen last night - legs were tired and the fresh legs that came in sucked. That is deadly. If You are extremely lucky, Your 2nd game in the back to back situation will include a good team that would have probably beaten You anyways. Kings don't have luck so we get to play the worst teams who the look like contenders at least for that night. Bottom line - there is no substitute for talent.
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We have been too inconsistent trough the whole season to get any rhythm. Last night was a perfect example. We have Bibby coming from a great game - stinking up the joint. In month of February Bibby's scoring was 10,19,21,7,11,13,8,10,30,3,28,7. I dare You to predict the next game. Just all over the place. His assist career high is 18 BTW. He is supposed to provide stability. Our bench was 4-15 last night for 10 total points. You will not win the 4th game in 5 nights with this kind of production. We also got out rebounded by 15 in a ame where we couldn't make a shot. Frustrating.
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"That's just a reflection of our season," said Kings shooting guard Kevin Martin, who had 23 points. "You come into a game expected to win and you don't win."
I thought that this was funny in a way. I don't understand how a team that is 8 games below .500 EXPECTS to win a game especially on the road where they are 8-20. You know what - why not look at the schedule and circle the games that we expect to wins and then email it to the NBA so they can give us Ws and don't waste our time. Maybe if the attitude was different - the whole situation would be different also. How bout - expect to play hard, work hard, play as a team, rebound, defend, pass etc. When that happens - good things will happen. Good teams go into a game expecting to play well and trying to play as well and as hard as possible. Bad teams expect to win games. Just great.
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Coach's corner is sponsored today by FEMA, enron and world com. Muss is taking the blame and as always he is wrong again. Taking blame for players not being able to rebound is noble gesture but way off base as usual. You can't teach a cat to bark. I am sure when all is said and done there will be at least 3 more power point presentation created. Apparently the kiwi flavor from the last kool aid didn't pay off. Another poor 3rd quarter swung the momentum and we were done. This loss is more a consequence of weak roster and bad individual performances. Kool aid flavor for the next game is melon.
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Sixers didn't really want or need this win but we insisted. You can call it a scheduling loss but we all know that Kings are perfectly capable of losing to anyone even after a week of resting. We were out rebounded by 15 and we 2 players playing well - there was nothing to get there. Being tired is understandable but then other guys have to step up and we don't have other guys.
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AWARD TIME
Joe Smith won the TDM award despite modest numbers. 7/8/3/3st is not much but that is almost everythingthat we got from our bench.
LW-VC award - much more option to chose from. I am going to give it to Bibby due to his seniority on the team and the share of responsibility that he once again could live up to.
JH-KT award went to Scorless who played 6 minutes and coldn't matter less even if he tried.
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Since Bobcats never won @ ARCO - it is safe to assume that this is another game that we expect to win. While Bobcats might not be any good - they do play hard every night. They are capable of doing things that we weren't like sweeping Lakers. All their player combined make less than Mike Bibby or so. We need to take them serious and we should win. They are currently on the west coast trip and we are their 2nd stop of 7 that they will have. They lost to the Clippers but they played hard.
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Mike - will have a good game but then again .. unless, nah
Ron - looks like things are back to normal
Kevin - main reason that we will miss out on a great draft pick
Brad - do it again
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rest - mateen
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Muss - will he finally take a blame for global warming or Britteny's haircut?
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Bobcats have some talent. Okafor might not play which is the only way to prevent him from 20/20/5bl game. GW will have a good game. My TDM favorite is Caroll with Morrison being close 2nd. When things are said and done - You have to "expect" that Kings will somehow prevail - unless they don't
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On February 28th 2001 Kings beat Warriors on the road 122-101 to improve to 38-18 for the season. Kings played really well, shot 52% had 30 assists even out rebounded the Warriors by 1. Kings had 7 players in double figures. Pedja lead the Kings with 24/5/1/3, Vlade had 14/7/4, Scott had 13/10/2/1/2, DC had 13/4/9/5, JWill had 8/1/10. Bench was great. Funderburke had 18/12/1, Bobby had 16/3/2/4 and Hedo had 10/4rb.
Peja Stojakovic led seven scorers in double figures with 24 points as the Sacramento Kings rolled to a 122-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors. Lawrence Funderburke posted season highs with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Bobby Jackson added 16 for Sacramento, which played its ninth straight game without leading scorer and rebounder Chris Webber. The Kings improved to 6-3 without their All-Star forward.
"We are six out of nine without Chris Webber and what it has really done is made everyone step their game up to a higher level," Sacramento coach Rick Adelman said. "We have done a lot without Chris in the lineup. I think it is really going to help us know the level they all have to play to go far in this league."
"I am having a lot of fun with this team," Adelman said. "They are a great group of guys at practice, off the court and in games. It also helps when you are winning games."
"With my defense, the main thing is to just keep myself between my man and the basket," Christie said. "I always try to keep my hands active -- reaching for the ball and trying to touch it as much as I can."
"For them not to have their superstar, they seemed to play better without him," Jamison said. "They did an excellent job passing the ball. Vlade's probably one of the best passers, not just as a big man, but as a basketball player."
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Kings ran out of gas last night and paid the price by losing to the Sixers and dropping to 24-32 for the season which is 3 games out of the 8th and finals PO spot. Kings went 1-3 on the 4 games in 5 night East Coast road trip. Kings are currently 6-6 in February with 1 game to go but have lost 6/8 last games. Beating Bobcats would give Kings their first winning month since November. Over all speaking Kings have the 9th worst record in the league right now.
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March looks brutal unless You are supporting the Kings in their quest for the good draft pick - then it looks promising. It starts with LAL and POR in a back to back on the road where a split would be great but not expected. Then there is a 3 game home stand with IND, SAS and DEN which makes a 2-1 possible but highly unlikely. Then Kings go on the final East Coast trip where they will play 5 games in 7 nights against CLE, CHA, MIA, ORL and ATL.1-4 seams realistic and anything above is a bonus. Finally we finish the month with home game vs MIN, then home and away with the PHO and then a home game against the LAC which looks like 2-2. So that makes it total of 6-8 which is good enough to keep us close to the PO race but not bad enough to improve our draft position.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to back games are hard to play and winning them requires certain depth at all positions. Kings record on the 3nd game in the back to back situation is 3-11 which tells us a lot about what kind of a team we have right now. As You could have seen last night - legs were tired and the fresh legs that came in sucked. That is deadly. If You are extremely lucky, Your 2nd game in the back to back situation will include a good team that would have probably beaten You anyways. Kings don't have luck so we get to play the worst teams who the look like contenders at least for that night. Bottom line - there is no substitute for talent.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have been too inconsistent trough the whole season to get any rhythm. Last night was a perfect example. We have Bibby coming from a great game - stinking up the joint. In month of February Bibby's scoring was 10,19,21,7,11,13,8,10,30,3,28,7. I dare You to predict the next game. Just all over the place. His assist career high is 18 BTW. He is supposed to provide stability. Our bench was 4-15 last night for 10 total points. You will not win the 4th game in 5 nights with this kind of production. We also got out rebounded by 15 in a ame where we couldn't make a shot. Frustrating.
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"That's just a reflection of our season," said Kings shooting guard Kevin Martin, who had 23 points. "You come into a game expected to win and you don't win."
I thought that this was funny in a way. I don't understand how a team that is 8 games below .500 EXPECTS to win a game especially on the road where they are 8-20. You know what - why not look at the schedule and circle the games that we expect to wins and then email it to the NBA so they can give us Ws and don't waste our time. Maybe if the attitude was different - the whole situation would be different also. How bout - expect to play hard, work hard, play as a team, rebound, defend, pass etc. When that happens - good things will happen. Good teams go into a game expecting to play well and trying to play as well and as hard as possible. Bad teams expect to win games. Just great.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coach's corner is sponsored today by FEMA, enron and world com. Muss is taking the blame and as always he is wrong again. Taking blame for players not being able to rebound is noble gesture but way off base as usual. You can't teach a cat to bark. I am sure when all is said and done there will be at least 3 more power point presentation created. Apparently the kiwi flavor from the last kool aid didn't pay off. Another poor 3rd quarter swung the momentum and we were done. This loss is more a consequence of weak roster and bad individual performances. Kool aid flavor for the next game is melon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sixers didn't really want or need this win but we insisted. You can call it a scheduling loss but we all know that Kings are perfectly capable of losing to anyone even after a week of resting. We were out rebounded by 15 and we 2 players playing well - there was nothing to get there. Being tired is understandable but then other guys have to step up and we don't have other guys.
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AWARD TIME
Joe Smith won the TDM award despite modest numbers. 7/8/3/3st is not much but that is almost everythingthat we got from our bench.
LW-VC award - much more option to chose from. I am going to give it to Bibby due to his seniority on the team and the share of responsibility that he once again could live up to.
JH-KT award went to Scorless who played 6 minutes and coldn't matter less even if he tried.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since Bobcats never won @ ARCO - it is safe to assume that this is another game that we expect to win. While Bobcats might not be any good - they do play hard every night. They are capable of doing things that we weren't like sweeping Lakers. All their player combined make less than Mike Bibby or so. We need to take them serious and we should win. They are currently on the west coast trip and we are their 2nd stop of 7 that they will have. They lost to the Clippers but they played hard.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike - will have a good game but then again .. unless, nah
Ron - looks like things are back to normal
Kevin - main reason that we will miss out on a great draft pick
Brad - do it again
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rest - mateen
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Muss - will he finally take a blame for global warming or Britteny's haircut?
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Bobcats have some talent. Okafor might not play which is the only way to prevent him from 20/20/5bl game. GW will have a good game. My TDM favorite is Caroll with Morrison being close 2nd. When things are said and done - You have to "expect" that Kings will somehow prevail - unless they don't
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THANKS for the memories guys. 
