A wrong turn on road to playoffs

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
A wrong turn on road to playoffs
Minnesota passes Kings in standings with big win
By Sam Amick - Bee Staff Writer

The court hasn't adjourned quite yet, but it's getting close.

And no, we're not talking about Ron Artest's arraignment in Placer County this morning. Even that situation has some potential for a happy ending, with the Kings small forward focused on putting his sordid past behind him and rectifying the matter.

Artest and his teammates, meanwhile, continued to try unsuccessfully to change their own state of affairs in a 95-89 loss to Minnesota on Wednesday night at Arco Arena. Despite playing with a tenacity that was mostly absent on their recent five-gametrip, they fell three games behind the Clippers for the eighth and final playoff spot in what was a battle of the fringe foes. They played without forward Kenny Thomas and center Brad Miller, both of whom sat with their respective foot injuries.

The Kings and T-wolves entered play separated by a half-game in the standings and holding the 11th and 12th spots in the West, respectively. But with just 14 games remaining and a juggernaut-heavy final stretch on the schedule, the gavel appears on its way down with a verdict.

"I think we recognized that we needed to come out and take care of business, but we just came up short," said forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who started in Miller's place. "They made shots and made plays down the stretch, and we didn't. We didn't execute as well as we did earlier in the game, and that's what it came down to." Again.

A 75-67 lead with 9:23 remaining became a 78-78 tie when rookie Randy Foye found himself all alone for a fast-break dunk at the 4:36 mark. But more than Foye's play, it was the strange sight of Corliss Williamson on the other end that signified the unraveling. The Kings forward who had been otherwise stellar pulled up for a jumper in the lane that came far short, the airball sparking the T-wolves' break.

Six lead changes and more than four minutes later, Foye was at it again with 16 seconds left. Foye, who finished with 24 points off the bench, dribbled beyond the arc, ran off a screen from Kevin Garnett that left Kevin Martin behind and buried the jumper to put Minnesota up 92-87.

The play was Martin hitting the literal wall long after hitting a virtual one, as the Kings shooting guard had missed the morning's shootaround because of illness and had one of his worst outings this season.

Martin had just nine points on 2-for-10 shooting.

Abdur-Rahim had no such trouble with his energy level, as he was sharp from inside and out while scoring 19 points and even blocking three shots. And two games after playing a vital part in the defensive job against Orlando's Dwight Howard, Abdur-Rahim held Kevin Garnett to 7-for-18 shooting. Garnett, though, was dangerous in other ways. Before his face-planting screen on Martin, his pass down low in traffic to Craig Smith led to a layup with 1:18 left and put the T-wolves up 90-87.

Minnesota ended a 10-game road losing streak and entered play having lost 14 of its previous 15 games away from the Target Center.

"Things are tough right now, but we just had to stick together and pull this one out," Foye said. "No one ever got rattled."

It wasn't for lack of opportunity. The Kings led 48-43 at halftime, with a John Salmons three-pointer at the buzzer ending the second quarter with some measure of momentum. They finished the third quarter on an even stronger note, leading 70-63 after capping the period with a 5-0 run.

Kings coach Eric Musselman was rattled by a postgame question regarding Artest's travel plans, saying that he would fly with the team Wednesday night to Phoenix. Artest, however, must appear in court this morning and will take a commercial flight thereafter to face the Suns. Artest had 11 points on 5-for-12 shooting and did not speak to reporters after the game.

http://www.sacbee.com/351/story/142168.html
 
Kings coach Eric Musselman was rattled by a postgame question regarding Artest's travel plans, saying that he would fly with the team Wednesday night to Phoenix. Artest, however, must appear in court this morning and will take a commercial flight thereafter to face the Suns. Artest had 11 points on 5-for-12 shooting and did not speak to reporters after the game.

Okay, maybe I'm really nitpicking here, but if I was a supervisor and someone in my department was facing pretty serious charges I think I'd know when he was scheduled to go to court, especially if it might impact his job performance...

Sorry, but to me this is just another indication that Musselman simply isn't connected to the players the way he should be.
 
Okay, maybe I'm really nitpicking here, but if I was a supervisor and someone in my department was facing pretty serious charges I think I'd know when he was scheduled to go to court, especially if it might impact his job performance...

Sorry, but to me this is just another indication that Musselman simply isn't connected to the players the way he should be.

cut him some slack. Too busy working on his next brilliant half time speech. :p
 
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