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Monday Morning Rush: All-star break welcome sight for struggling Kings


Contributed by Blake Ellington of bleedblackandpurple.                                                                                                                                                                                                The Kings are close to getting a break. There likely isn’t another team in the NBA (well maybe the Nets) that is looking forward to the All-Star break more. 2010 has not treated the Kings kindly as they have never really seemed to recover from the two close losses to the Lakers and Cavs around Christmas. They do have two winnable games before the break, but a lot of games this season have been winnable. Paul Westphal still continues to preach that this team is so close to making it over that hump. The recent string of losses, however, seems to only suggest that hump is getting taller and taller.

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The Weeken* Wrap: Kings *on’t play *efense


Maybe the Kings won’t win that elusive 17th game this season. Remember a few weeks ago when we were laughing at all the experts that came into the season pre*icting that the Kings woul* lea* the league in losses?  I’m not laughing any more. Oh, an* by the way, you may have notice* that I’m not using a certain letter throughout this post. There is a reason for that. That is because that particular letter just *i*n’t exist this week for the Sacramento Kings.

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Monday Morning Rush: Calling on the bench


Contributed by Blake Ellington of bleedblackandpurple as part of our weekly collaboration between sites.

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The Weekend Wrap: Better, but still inconsistent


Well, this week was one of the better weeks that they have had in awhile despite only going 1-2. They are at least staying competitive and playing hard out there. The problem remains that they still are not playing for a full 48 minutes and either can’t close teams out or are falling so far behind that it takes everything that they have to get back into the contest. The inability to close out the Warriors almost cost them the game as Golden State was miserable and the Kings were still barely able to win 99-96 despite a 2-22 effort from Corey Maggette and Monta Ellis out with a sprained ankle. The Kings caught multiple injury breaks this week as they next faced off against a Utah squad without Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams. Paul Millsap made fans forget about Boozer and was more than Sacramento could handle as he had a monster game with 32 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists in the 101-94 Kings loss. Last night’s game against Charlotte seemed to be a replay of a game that we have seen far too many times this season as the Kings fell behind by a sizeable margin. They trailed 90-67 heading into the fourth quarter before they launched a furious comeback and cut the lead to 100-96 before they ran out of steam and dropped the game by a final of 103-96.

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Rookies will represent Kings on All-Star Weekend


Coming as a surprise to nobody, the Sacramento Kings will have two representatives at All-Star Weekend festivities as Tyreke Evans and Omri Casspi will represent the Kings in the rookie vs. sophomores game. It will be the first time in six years that the Kings will have a representative present on All-Star Weekend with Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic both participating for the Western Conference in 2004.  The game will be played on Friday, February 12th at 6 p.m. pst on TNT.

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Monday Morning Rush: Time to scrap


Contributed by Blake Ellington of bleedblackandpurple.

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The Weekend Wrap: Rock bottom?


The Kings wrapped up a disastrous 0-6 road trip with a 115-84 drumming at the hands of the Miami Heat yesterday. Is this it? Have we hit rock bottom after a very promising start to the season? Rock bottom was clearly last season when the Kings were the worst team in the NBA, but hopefully this year’s squad can rebound from their recent stretch and show us some of the promise we saw earlier this year. The Kings are wildly inconsistent lately and you never know which team is going to show up from one game to the next. One night they will hustle and play with intense energy as the offense has a flow to it and the next night the club will look like they have never stepped on the same floor together and don’t know what to do with the basketball. Heck, it isn’t even game-to-game with these Kings and sometimes can be from half-to-half, or quarter-to-quarter as they will look great out there one minute and just horrid the next. We just don’t know what team is going to show up on a nightly basis and it has become increasingly frustrating for Kings fans.

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MLK Rush: Kings have a dream, to stop the bleeding


The Monday Morning Rush is contributed by guest blogger Blake Ellington of bleedblackandpurple in our weekly collaboration between sites.                                                                                                                                                      We had to endure another loss for the Kings today on Martin Luther King, Jr. day, and there were some key things for fans to take from it. One is that we know they aren’t just throwing in the towel when things get tough, an attribute that was clearly present last season. A lot of that stems from the talent and determination of Tyreke Evans, who finished with a career-high 34 points. But most of it is that there is no lack of team effort, as evident in the second half comeback in Charlotte. The second note to be taken from today’s loss is that Kevin Martin is not ready for a heavy workload and Paul Westphal realizes that. Martin, who started today, finished with nine points in 25 minutes and sat most of the second half on the bench.

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The Weekend Wrap: The offense goes stagnant, loses piling up


The Kings had an 0-fer this week as they failed to win any of their three games. Even more concerning is that the offense has gone completely stagnant, despite the return of leading scorer Kevin Martin to the lineup. The unfortunate thing is that many pundits will blame Martin for the Kings perceived lack of ball movement and offense but he was clearly not the problem this week. The team just didn’t play well and averaged 87 points this week despite being one of the top scoring offenses in the league. They average 102.5 points per contest and rank eighth in the league in that category. Right now, they aren’t moving the ball very well and their big men are especially struggling. Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes don’t get the press that Tyreke Evans and Kevin Martin get, but if they don’t show up, the Kings have almost no shot at winning. They have taken turns alternating decent games and we have yet to see this team put it all together for a full 48 minutes. That is to be expected from a young squad, but is frustrating nonetheless. The return of Kevin Martin also seemed to put the damper on Beno Udrih’s resurgence this week and Omri Casspi may be hitting the rookie wall. Neither played well after being integral cogs in the offense for most of the season. Paul Westphal’s challenge now is to integrate Martin and get this engine firing on all cylinders. If that happens, it is a squad with one of the best backcourts in the league, dynamic big men that can pass and rebound, and a bench that comes with energy on a nightly basis. This week has been a far cry from the potential that they flashed earlier in the year.

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Kings acquire Hilton Armstrong from Hornets


According to Adrian Wojnarowski of yahoo sports and Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee, the Kings have traded for Hilton Armstrong from the New Orleans Hornets. The deal is reportedly Armstrong and cash to Sacramento for a conditional second round pick.

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