The Weekend Wrap

It was a rough week for Kings fans with news that Kevin Martin will be out for the next two months

Earlier this week, Blake Ellington of Bleed Black and Purple covered the Monday Morning Rush in what will become a regular collaboration between the two sites. He pointed out three key things that we should be paying attention to this week in The Rush and I’ll address each of his key points in The Weekend Wrap as we cover the week that was for the Sacramento Kings.

 1. Attendance: While “Operation Sellout” was a success and the Kings played in front of a packed house in the home opener, Wednesday’s attendance of 11,751 was seriously lacking. With the terrible news that Kevin Martin would be lost for the next six-to-eight weeks with a hairline fracture in his wrist, there is even less incentive for fans to come out and watch a team that is now missing their leading scorer. Tonight’s attendance will be very interesting, but may not even be the best barometer as they are playing the Golden State Warriors and the close proximity of a fellow Northern Californian team may help inflate the numbers a tad. For now, it would appear that the local fans are lukewarm about their current team and with no new arena deal in place, it may not get better any time soon. If this young squad can pull off a few more surprise wins like their 104-99 victory last night over Utah, then fans may start getting excited again.

2. Starting Rotation: On Monday morning we were speculating that there would be a change in the rotation and while that did come to fruition midweek, we certainly didn’t see the drastic changes that would be made by the weekend due to injury and roster changes. As expected, Spencer Hawes and Andres Nocioni moved into the starting lineup. What was not expected was that Desmond Mason would be released, Ime Udoka would be signed to replace him, and that Kevin Martin would go down, further changing the lineup. Beno Udrihwill now slide into a starting unit that will see three players starting that were coming off of the bench a week ago. Beno will guard the opposing team’s point guard and both him and Tyreke Evanswill initiate the offense. Spencer Hawes and Nocioni have likely cemented their roles and starters and Jason Thompsonfinally woke up this week and started to play some ball. The bench looks incredibly thin now with Udoka, Omri Casspi, Sean May, Kenny Thomas, and Jon Brockman leading the charge. Sergio Garcia better have himself ready as he is the only backup point guard on the roster and has seen little playing time to date.

3. Evans’ Numbers: A week ago we were speculating on Tyreke’s slow start and hopeful that he would put up better numbers as he adjusted to the NBA and saw some more favorable matchups. He looked hobbled earlier in the week with an ankle injury, but overcame that little bump before going off for 32 points in the Kings surprising upset of Utah last night. Evans is going to be the biggest beneficiary of the Kevin Martin injury and his numbers are going to increase a great deal as he will clearly be the best offensive threat that the Kings have on the floor. This should even help Evans adjust as Beno Udrih will take some of the pressure off of him by sharing the point guard duties and bringing the ball up the floor. It is definitely unfortunate for the Kings and part of the process this season was grooming Tyreke for the full-time point guard duties and seeing how he meshed with Kevin Martin, but that will need to wait for a couple of months now. What a difference a week makes in the NBA.

As always, thanks for reading and check out Kings Kingdom tomorrow for another installment of The Monday Morning Rush.