piksi
Hall of Famer
Mavs winning streak is about to end
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On December 1st 2002 Kings beat Rockets 103-83 to improve to 14-5 for the season at that point. This game is known as Gerald Wallace game. Pedja was hurt and GW got the start and had one of the best games in his short Kings career. Rockets had Mo Taylor and we swept them that season. It is also a game that showed the dept of that very special team.
So, GW lead the Kings with 21/8/4 (10-11 FG), Bobby had 20/6/5/4, CW had 19/5/1/2bl, DC had 14/7/4/4, Vlade had 11/3/5. D Jones lead the bench with 10/2/2.
No matter how many injuries they have, the Sacramento Kings keep finding players to fill the void.Gerald Wallace scored a career-high 21 points and Bobby Jackson had 12 of his 20 in the decisive third quarter as the Kings rolled to a 103-84 victory over the Houston Rockets. Sacramento has won 14 of its first 19 games despite having ChrisWebber, Peja Stojakovic, Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, Hedo Turkoglu and Scot Pollard all missing games due to injuries or suspensions. The Kings placed Turkoglu on the injured list before the contest, but Wallace responded with his best career game.The second-year forward made 10-of-11 shots from the floor in his third career start. He also grabbed eight rebounds, falling two shy of his career best.
"I felt more comfortable and relaxed tonight," Wallace said. "I was playing and having fun. Once I'm more comfortable with the role, I can go in there more relaxed and hit shots in the game. You need to do your job and let the game come to you."
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Kings are currently 8-5 on a 3 game winning streak entering a tough stretch i the next 4 games. It is interesting that we played 8 home- and 5 road games which makes our record mediocre but still 6th best in the way, way better conference. While it won't be easy to keep this position - it is encouraging that our guys are getting healthy whatever that means these days. No reason not to look forward to this 2 game Texas back to back road trip. Split would be nice.
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Where are they now ? - a new segment of this pre game piece mostly because there isn't much to write about all the time. I will use it occasionally if I get inspred/intrigued by a character who has played some part in the past 8 years or so of the Kings history.
Let me start with Rick Fox tonight. While I was waiting for the Magic @ Sonics game - I was flipping the chanells and I stumbled upon some kind of show involving basketball and while I could care less about such garbage - I couldn't believe I saw Rick Fox acting. For some of You who just crawled from under the rock - Rick Fox is a dirty sleezeball who used to play for the Lakers back in the day when Bavetta was their best player. He was famous for his dirty play and his nasty hair. Anyways, it got me curious. So I watched it a bit and I was right - the show is garbage and Rick Fox plays a perfect role of guess what - a sleezeball. At least his chin healed nicely
.
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SO it finally happened. Kevin Martin came back to earth and looked human. What is a big deal anyways ? We played a game where he wasn't needed and for that matter none of the kings players were needed because we would beat Clippers playing 0 on 5. Kevin was defended hard and just didn't have it. He looked like that DNP-CD kid from his rookie year. I like the fact that it happened this way first because we still won the game and second because we will get the opportunity to learn some more about Kevin. We get the chance to see how he would bounce back from such a bad game because in his hopefully long career as a King he will have more nights like this. Not too many but definitely some more. Also, it is not like he went 2-21 which is also a credit to a coach. BTW Kevin will be just fine
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I like the fact that our coach handled this situation in the best interest of the team. I am not a believer in "shooting ones way out of slump" because it usualy hurts the team. How else do You get to be 2-21 ? When a played doesn't have it for a night - there is no need to push it. There is another player who can get the job done for a night and during such a long season You need such players because every player will have a night off at some point of the season. One should earn the playing time in every game and most importantly the team should always be allowed to have a chance to win a game by allowing the players who are performing the best at that particular moment to play. You just have got to go with what works the best at that moment.
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Tradition is tradition - and we own Clippers. It is pretty simple and it works at all times and under any circumstances - hence tradition. I think we should legaly have a right to win every time just to keep that balance in this universe going. Just imagine how it would be without Thanksgiving or Christmas. Imagine how it would be if someone would take Your pleasure of gaining another 5-10 lb by eating Yourself unconscious. Imagine how it would be if You would take a pleasure away from you relatives when they buy You gift being yet an other pair of socks or underwear in which You wouldn't even want to be caught dead. We can't have that - can we ? Traditions are important and Clippers seam to know that too.
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Not that long ago - eventhough it feels like it was an other lifetime - Kings and Mavs were the hottest teams in the league and their games were "must see TV" and those games usually held their side of the bargain.
Kings were more succesfull opponent but most importantly there were some truly incredible games. Looking back - I have got to ask this question - what the hell happened ? If someone told me 5 years ago that Mavs would reach the NBA finals before the Kings - I would have laughed, made fun of that person and maybe even cursed him out. Wouldn't You ? Anyways - Mavs are still there, maybe even better and we are considered an underdog every time we play them. While they are a contender - we are stuck in "no man's land" desperate for a player of even a Shawn Bradley's caliber. One knee injury changed everything for good.
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We beat the Clippers or as people in Sacramento call it a groundhog day. We played well for stretches of the game and even when we didn't play well, Clippers were there to play even worse. It seamed like they would have never let us lose. It also seamed that ARCO rims were great defensively. The fact that Caveman and Golumn didn't play has nothing to do with Clippers losing because that was a given. However - it did help in terms of esthetics of the game and the ambient. Much easier on the eyes - isn't it ?
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AWARD TIME
TDM award went to Livingston - compliments of Mike Bibby's famous defense. A career night that luckly meant nothing only because it was the Clippers
The LW-VC award went to Maggette. While Kevin and Tim Thomas and Ross were solid candidates - Cory sucked on another level and the award was never in doubt. Keep it up.
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Mavs are next to open a back to back short Texas trip. Dallas has won 11 straight or so and that has got to stop at some point and may as well be us. Somebody has got to do it. If we can stop Dirk to some degree and stop penetration - we will have a chance. they are a good team tough.
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The game is on BSPN and it is my duty to issue
WALTON ALERT !!!
You know the drill and if he does the game it will be the most hoooorrrrrible exerience You can have in history of western civilisation. JB does make it somewhat easier by making fun of BW all the time.
Anyways - take neccessary precautions. Better safe than sorry Don't watch the half time show either. It won't be worth it.
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Mike - Terry is always an interestin matchup and Mike is really due for a good shooting night.
Ron - is dirk too tall to fit in Ron's pocket ?
Brad - say "hi" to D. Harris in traffic for me please!
SAR - if he guards Dirk - we are in trouble
Kevin - here is a chance to bounce back.
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Corliss - too bad that Bradly isn't around for the battle of the titans of the paint
KT - to short for Dirk which is a bad bad news
Salmons - not too bad
rest - mateen
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Muss did well the last game. I am interested to see - how much zone we will play Friday night ?
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I never liked Mavs much and now that they aquired D. George - I even like them less than that - if that would be possible. I would love to see Cubans face in case of a loss. You have Dirk, Jet, Stack and Howard who will get theirs minus Ron effect. Then You have former TDM award winners like Johnson or croshere or Dampier. My TDM award tip is Harris "guarded" by Bibby. Lw-VC award might go to one of our "bigs" or whoever is guarded by Ron. Time for that streak to end and for us to split trip.
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Go Jazz !!!
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On December 1st 2002 Kings beat Rockets 103-83 to improve to 14-5 for the season at that point. This game is known as Gerald Wallace game. Pedja was hurt and GW got the start and had one of the best games in his short Kings career. Rockets had Mo Taylor and we swept them that season. It is also a game that showed the dept of that very special team.
So, GW lead the Kings with 21/8/4 (10-11 FG), Bobby had 20/6/5/4, CW had 19/5/1/2bl, DC had 14/7/4/4, Vlade had 11/3/5. D Jones lead the bench with 10/2/2.
No matter how many injuries they have, the Sacramento Kings keep finding players to fill the void.Gerald Wallace scored a career-high 21 points and Bobby Jackson had 12 of his 20 in the decisive third quarter as the Kings rolled to a 103-84 victory over the Houston Rockets. Sacramento has won 14 of its first 19 games despite having ChrisWebber, Peja Stojakovic, Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, Hedo Turkoglu and Scot Pollard all missing games due to injuries or suspensions. The Kings placed Turkoglu on the injured list before the contest, but Wallace responded with his best career game.The second-year forward made 10-of-11 shots from the floor in his third career start. He also grabbed eight rebounds, falling two shy of his career best.
"I felt more comfortable and relaxed tonight," Wallace said. "I was playing and having fun. Once I'm more comfortable with the role, I can go in there more relaxed and hit shots in the game. You need to do your job and let the game come to you."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kings are currently 8-5 on a 3 game winning streak entering a tough stretch i the next 4 games. It is interesting that we played 8 home- and 5 road games which makes our record mediocre but still 6th best in the way, way better conference. While it won't be easy to keep this position - it is encouraging that our guys are getting healthy whatever that means these days. No reason not to look forward to this 2 game Texas back to back road trip. Split would be nice.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Where are they now ? - a new segment of this pre game piece mostly because there isn't much to write about all the time. I will use it occasionally if I get inspred/intrigued by a character who has played some part in the past 8 years or so of the Kings history.
Let me start with Rick Fox tonight. While I was waiting for the Magic @ Sonics game - I was flipping the chanells and I stumbled upon some kind of show involving basketball and while I could care less about such garbage - I couldn't believe I saw Rick Fox acting. For some of You who just crawled from under the rock - Rick Fox is a dirty sleezeball who used to play for the Lakers back in the day when Bavetta was their best player. He was famous for his dirty play and his nasty hair. Anyways, it got me curious. So I watched it a bit and I was right - the show is garbage and Rick Fox plays a perfect role of guess what - a sleezeball. At least his chin healed nicely

------------------------------------------------------------------------
SO it finally happened. Kevin Martin came back to earth and looked human. What is a big deal anyways ? We played a game where he wasn't needed and for that matter none of the kings players were needed because we would beat Clippers playing 0 on 5. Kevin was defended hard and just didn't have it. He looked like that DNP-CD kid from his rookie year. I like the fact that it happened this way first because we still won the game and second because we will get the opportunity to learn some more about Kevin. We get the chance to see how he would bounce back from such a bad game because in his hopefully long career as a King he will have more nights like this. Not too many but definitely some more. Also, it is not like he went 2-21 which is also a credit to a coach. BTW Kevin will be just fine
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I like the fact that our coach handled this situation in the best interest of the team. I am not a believer in "shooting ones way out of slump" because it usualy hurts the team. How else do You get to be 2-21 ? When a played doesn't have it for a night - there is no need to push it. There is another player who can get the job done for a night and during such a long season You need such players because every player will have a night off at some point of the season. One should earn the playing time in every game and most importantly the team should always be allowed to have a chance to win a game by allowing the players who are performing the best at that particular moment to play. You just have got to go with what works the best at that moment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tradition is tradition - and we own Clippers. It is pretty simple and it works at all times and under any circumstances - hence tradition. I think we should legaly have a right to win every time just to keep that balance in this universe going. Just imagine how it would be without Thanksgiving or Christmas. Imagine how it would be if someone would take Your pleasure of gaining another 5-10 lb by eating Yourself unconscious. Imagine how it would be if You would take a pleasure away from you relatives when they buy You gift being yet an other pair of socks or underwear in which You wouldn't even want to be caught dead. We can't have that - can we ? Traditions are important and Clippers seam to know that too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not that long ago - eventhough it feels like it was an other lifetime - Kings and Mavs were the hottest teams in the league and their games were "must see TV" and those games usually held their side of the bargain.
Kings were more succesfull opponent but most importantly there were some truly incredible games. Looking back - I have got to ask this question - what the hell happened ? If someone told me 5 years ago that Mavs would reach the NBA finals before the Kings - I would have laughed, made fun of that person and maybe even cursed him out. Wouldn't You ? Anyways - Mavs are still there, maybe even better and we are considered an underdog every time we play them. While they are a contender - we are stuck in "no man's land" desperate for a player of even a Shawn Bradley's caliber. One knee injury changed everything for good.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
We beat the Clippers or as people in Sacramento call it a groundhog day. We played well for stretches of the game and even when we didn't play well, Clippers were there to play even worse. It seamed like they would have never let us lose. It also seamed that ARCO rims were great defensively. The fact that Caveman and Golumn didn't play has nothing to do with Clippers losing because that was a given. However - it did help in terms of esthetics of the game and the ambient. Much easier on the eyes - isn't it ?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AWARD TIME
TDM award went to Livingston - compliments of Mike Bibby's famous defense. A career night that luckly meant nothing only because it was the Clippers
The LW-VC award went to Maggette. While Kevin and Tim Thomas and Ross were solid candidates - Cory sucked on another level and the award was never in doubt. Keep it up.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mavs are next to open a back to back short Texas trip. Dallas has won 11 straight or so and that has got to stop at some point and may as well be us. Somebody has got to do it. If we can stop Dirk to some degree and stop penetration - we will have a chance. they are a good team tough.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The game is on BSPN and it is my duty to issue
WALTON ALERT !!!
You know the drill and if he does the game it will be the most hoooorrrrrible exerience You can have in history of western civilisation. JB does make it somewhat easier by making fun of BW all the time.
Anyways - take neccessary precautions. Better safe than sorry Don't watch the half time show either. It won't be worth it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike - Terry is always an interestin matchup and Mike is really due for a good shooting night.
Ron - is dirk too tall to fit in Ron's pocket ?
Brad - say "hi" to D. Harris in traffic for me please!
SAR - if he guards Dirk - we are in trouble
Kevin - here is a chance to bounce back.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Corliss - too bad that Bradly isn't around for the battle of the titans of the paint
KT - to short for Dirk which is a bad bad news
Salmons - not too bad
rest - mateen
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muss did well the last game. I am interested to see - how much zone we will play Friday night ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I never liked Mavs much and now that they aquired D. George - I even like them less than that - if that would be possible. I would love to see Cubans face in case of a loss. You have Dirk, Jet, Stack and Howard who will get theirs minus Ron effect. Then You have former TDM award winners like Johnson or croshere or Dampier. My TDM award tip is Harris "guarded" by Bibby. Lw-VC award might go to one of our "bigs" or whoever is guarded by Ron. Time for that streak to end and for us to split trip.
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Go Jazz !!!