EmKingsFan4
Starter
Bounce Back…
Hello Sacramento Kings, welcome to the 2005 NBA playoffs.
Sacramento finally showed up on Friday night resembling a team that had won 50 games this season, not the timid, easily-flustered squad that made appearances in both game one and two up in Seattle.
The Kings played with intensity and energy, they did not hang their heads when Seattle made runs, and they really appeared to feed off ARCO’s energy. It was pretty much a complete turnaround that breathed new life into this series and should have the Kings faithful fired up for the all important game four on Sunday.
Should Sacramento pull out another victory, it shifts the pressure back to the Sonics going into what basically becomes a three-game series.
Peja Power…
People are probably going to look at Peja Stojakovic’s box score from Friday and keep harping on the guy for what has been a sub-par series.
But Peja actually had a great game, despite only making 3-of-11 shots, because of the defense he played on All-Star Rashard Lewis. Stojakovic was in Lewis’ face all night, pressuring shots and not allowing the smooth forward to attack the basket free of contact.
The end result was a nine-point output for Lewis, with half of the points coming from the charity stripe. Without that second threat from Rashard, who—granted—does still have a bum knee, the Sonics had to rely heavily on Ray Allen and, gulp, Jerome James, which ended up not being enough to keep up offensively.
Random Thoughts…
The purple glowsticks along with Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion blaring provided more than a few chills up and down the spine during the Kings’ pregame intros.
If some of you are wondering why Erik Daniels looks like a messed up version of Mr. T or M.C. Hammer because of his new haircut, you have his teammates to thank. Daniels couldn’t resist the monetary offer his teammates made to jack up his hair before game one, though teammate Kevin Martin did. The funny thing is that Daniels’ hair actually looked cleaned up for game three, as compared to earlier in the week when it was just a complete mess.
Jerome James is a nice guy, but there are more than a few people in the Kings’ front office who are upset with his story of being released by the Kings. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that a garbage bag was never handed to him to clean out his stuff and that Rick Adelman never told him to get a new career. It just didn’t happen that way, as much as Jerome claims. The Kings are a class organization that doesn’t handle itself that way.
Ray Allen is really, really good. And he is going to make a lot of money next season as a free agent.
The thing about Jerome James is that he’s always had the skills, he just has the confidence now to go along with it. Look at what it did for Steve Nash the year after he played for the Canadian National team in the 2000 Olympics. He became a whole new player.
Did I mention how big game four is? If the Kings can pull out a win, I honestly believe this series will go seven games.
http://aol.nba.com/kings/news/The_Inside_Dishvs_Seattle_Gm-140462-58.html
Hello Sacramento Kings, welcome to the 2005 NBA playoffs.
Sacramento finally showed up on Friday night resembling a team that had won 50 games this season, not the timid, easily-flustered squad that made appearances in both game one and two up in Seattle.
The Kings played with intensity and energy, they did not hang their heads when Seattle made runs, and they really appeared to feed off ARCO’s energy. It was pretty much a complete turnaround that breathed new life into this series and should have the Kings faithful fired up for the all important game four on Sunday.
Should Sacramento pull out another victory, it shifts the pressure back to the Sonics going into what basically becomes a three-game series.
Peja Power…
People are probably going to look at Peja Stojakovic’s box score from Friday and keep harping on the guy for what has been a sub-par series.
But Peja actually had a great game, despite only making 3-of-11 shots, because of the defense he played on All-Star Rashard Lewis. Stojakovic was in Lewis’ face all night, pressuring shots and not allowing the smooth forward to attack the basket free of contact.
The end result was a nine-point output for Lewis, with half of the points coming from the charity stripe. Without that second threat from Rashard, who—granted—does still have a bum knee, the Sonics had to rely heavily on Ray Allen and, gulp, Jerome James, which ended up not being enough to keep up offensively.
Random Thoughts…
The purple glowsticks along with Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion blaring provided more than a few chills up and down the spine during the Kings’ pregame intros.
If some of you are wondering why Erik Daniels looks like a messed up version of Mr. T or M.C. Hammer because of his new haircut, you have his teammates to thank. Daniels couldn’t resist the monetary offer his teammates made to jack up his hair before game one, though teammate Kevin Martin did. The funny thing is that Daniels’ hair actually looked cleaned up for game three, as compared to earlier in the week when it was just a complete mess.
Jerome James is a nice guy, but there are more than a few people in the Kings’ front office who are upset with his story of being released by the Kings. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that a garbage bag was never handed to him to clean out his stuff and that Rick Adelman never told him to get a new career. It just didn’t happen that way, as much as Jerome claims. The Kings are a class organization that doesn’t handle itself that way.
Ray Allen is really, really good. And he is going to make a lot of money next season as a free agent.
The thing about Jerome James is that he’s always had the skills, he just has the confidence now to go along with it. Look at what it did for Steve Nash the year after he played for the Canadian National team in the 2000 Olympics. He became a whole new player.
Did I mention how big game four is? If the Kings can pull out a win, I honestly believe this series will go seven games.
http://aol.nba.com/kings/news/The_Inside_Dishvs_Seattle_Gm-140462-58.html
