After coming off a huge victory against the Lakers, the Kings don't miss a beat by controlling the Blazers in a wire-to-wire win against a cold Blazers squad. They absolutely couldn't keep up with the Kings' all-around team play for the whole game despite getting as close as 7 points behind them. They were bringing in "L.A. energy" that they used to beat the Lakers with to beat the Blazers. A lot of fans wanted the Kings to take complete control of the game by blowing out the Blazers as they were down as many by 17 points. And at the very bottom, I'm calling out Lamar Odom for calling the Kings a high school team.
1ST QUARTER
The Kings started off on Ron Artest's 6-2 run. He had 9 points in the quarter to go along with 3 steals, 2 from Steve Blake. Brad Miller hit his first 3 pointer and looks like he's back on track. Later on, the Kings went on a 10-5 run, started by John Salmon's reverse slam on Travis Outlaw. Outlaw came in later with a long dunk, but hanging on the rim will get you a technical. Then Channing Frye hit a half court shot before the buzzer sounded. The Kings went through their whole regular rotation in the quarter, and they had a 34-27 lead at the end.
2ND QUARTER
The benches were cleared out on both teams. It was Salmons, Shelden Williams, Quincy Douby, Spencer Hawes, and Francisco Garcia vs. Outlaw, Frye, Jarret Jack, Sergio Rodreguiez and James Jones. The Kings bench schooled the Blazers' bench with an 8-0 run and ended it as an 13-3 run. Those were the only 3 Blazers points for the first 5:50 of the quarter. In the whole quarter, they were 7-26 FG (26.9%) while the Kings were 10-24 FG (41.6%). Salmons had 7-11 points in the quarter too, something fans want to see more of when he comes off of the bench. Hawes had some great post moves on Joel Przybilla as the Kings led 58-44.
3RD QUARTER
This quarter wasn't great for either team. The Blazers shot 6-21 (28.5%) from the field while the Kings shot 3-16 (18.75%). They made more points (8) on free throws than field goals (6). Kevin Martin tried a huge dunk over Przybilla but missed and on the other side, Outlaw couldn't dunk over Brad Miller. There was a scary moment where Artest was running with Brandon Roy when Roy stepped on his foot and Artest crashed into a screen by LaMarcus Aldridge, which looked like he was leaning in. Artest turned his ankle and had a really bad fall, but he was OK. The Blazers went on an 8-0 run at one point but the Kings were all but ready to give up their lead, as they led 72-63.
4TH QUARTER
The Kings didn't want to fall behind as they started out with a quick 8-2 run. Beno Udrih led the way a with his signature spin move on Brandon Roy, something I haven't seen Roy do in a while. Because of his spin move, color commentator and Director of Personnel Jerry Reynolds nicknamed him the "Tasmanian Slovenian." The "Slovenian Devil" would sound better, but his nickname has got out nationally, and Udrih doesn't seem to mind. Portland answered back with another 8-0 run. The Kings held their ground for the rest of the game, and after a couple of dunks from Garcia and Artest in the second half of the quarter, the game was over, 96-85.
HIGHLIGHTS
*=Team High
**=Game High
KINGS
Artest: 22 pts, 6 stl (season high), 4 reb, 3 ast
Udrih: 14 pts, 8 reb (ties career high), 7 ast, 6 TO
Miller: 14 pts, 7 reb, 4 ast, stl
Salmons: 11 pts, 2 reb, 2 blk, ast (bench)
Moore: 10 pts, 5 reb
Garcia: 5 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl, 2 ast (bench)
Martin: 6 pts, 2 reb (1 off.), ast, stl
Douby: 6 pts, 3 reb (bench)
Hawes: 6 pts, reb (bench)
BLAZERS
Roy: 21 pts, 9 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl, blk, 5 TO
Aldridge: 20 pts, 6 reb, stl, blk
Przybilla: 4 pts, 10 reb, 3 blk
Outlaw: 13 pts. 5 reb, 2 blk, stl (bench)
Blake: 6 pts, 6 ast
Frye: 4 pts, 7 reb (bench)
Webster: 10 pts, 2 reb
The Kings' bench outscored the Blazers' bench 30-24. Although they were outrebounded, the Kings played great defense, causing 20 TOs (2 on shot clock violations) and staying in front of their man. Artest's 6 steals played a major role against this team which could have taken away a potential 12 points. The Tasmanian Slovenian was on his way to a quadruple double, the bad one. He had a 7:6 assist to TO ratio but he did tie a career high 8 boards. 28 first half points in the paint helped out a lot too. Everyone who stepped on the court contributed to the team. Eight Kings scored 6+ points.
Portland just didn't play well out there and performances like that say that the playoffs are not in this team's future, at least this year. The players just didn't play well. Roy was the bright spot, but none of the other players stepped up to try and win like last time in Portland, where Martell Webster and Outlaw were shooting the lights out, but still lost. At least they tried. It's been a long road trip for this team, but in the end it looked like they just flat out quit.
While the Blazers go home to play the T'Wolves tomorrow, the Kings will take on the Suns on the same day, fresh off of a win against the Warriors. The Suns have beaten the then hobbled Kings 3 times already before the new year began. This will be the only time the Kings will face Shaq this year, and he's avoided Sacramento all year. They saw Shawn Marion 5 times this year. The Kings are going in confident and bringing that L.A. energy that they used to beat the Lakers to take on the Suns, because if the Lakers can beat the Suns, and the Kings can beat the Lakers, then the Kings can beat the Suns.
Another thing, I've been hearing a lot, saying that no one takes the Kings seriously. If the Lakers didn't take them seriously, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant wouldn't have had 40+ minutes in that game. Odom had the nerve to call the Kings Dominguez High School (#1 high school team in California). Where was your defense on Artest? I still haven't seen it for 2 games especially when Artest dunked on you. In fact I'm putting up lost flyers around Sacramento because that's where you lost it. Your radio announcers are scared because they think the Kings match-up to your team too well. So before you call out on a team who just beat you, make sure you show up to the game. See you in Sac. Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment