Spencer Hawes had 24 points to tie his career high to lead the King, who were without Tyreke Evans tonight because of a sprained right middle finger and a sore right ankle.
Luis Scola led the Rockets with 22 points and Carl Landry added 20 points off the bench.
--Jason Jones
HOUSTON - After falling behind 69-60 the Kings used an 11-0 run to get back in the game and lead the Rockets 84-80 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Kings trailed by 15 in the first half but have stayed in the game thanks to Spencer Hawes (20 points, nine rebounds), Omri Casspi (17 points) and Donte' Greene (13 points).
Sacramento is shooting 55 percent.
--Jason Jones
HOUSTON - The Kings are relying on its two young big men to keep them in the game. Spencer Hawes has 14 points and six rebounds. Jason Thompson has 11 points and three rebounds, but the Rockets still lead 59-52 at halftime.
This might be the best stretch of basketball Hawes has played lately. His outside shot is falling and he's even working in the paint. Thompson has been steady all season and tonight is no different.
Hawes' contribution is helping pick up the scoring slack with Tyreke Evans out. Omri Casspi has 11 points off the bench for the Kings. He's made all four of his free throws, which is a feat after his struggles at the line to start the season.
Luis Scola has been the biggest problem for the Kings wit 16 points and six rebounds. The Kings are shooting 54.1 percent so the offense isn't the biggest issue. They're behind because of turnovers (nine) and second-chance points for the Rockets (13).
--Jason Jones
HOUSTON - Spencer Hawes is off to a good start with 10 points and five rebounds but the Kings trail the Houston Rockets 33-27 after the first quarter.
Hawes made two threes in teh first quarter which is significant because he'd missed his first 13 to start the season.
The Kings are without Tyreke Evans, who is not playing because of a sprained right middle finger and sore right ankle. Donte' Greene started in place of Evans.
Luis Scola has 14 points to pace the Rockets.
--Jason Jones
Evans is coming off one of his best games last night in Dallas. He had 29 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in the loss to the Mavs, but injured his hand when he hit it on the floor during the second half.
Evans said last night that X-rays on his hand were negative.
--Jason Jones
]]>***
HOUSTON - The last time the Kings won was eight days ago against the Rockets. Just in case you forgot here's how the Kings did that:
The 21 turnovers in each of the last two games hasn't helped the Kings as they've lost to Chicago and Dallas.
But another emphasis has to be rebounding. The Kings outrebounded Houston 54-35 in their first meeting.
The Kings have finished even with their opponent in rebounding in each of the last two games. Dallas forward/center Drew Gooden had offensive rebounds last night. The Kings had 11 offensive rebounds as a team.
The Kings are 3-2 when they outrebound their opponent. They are 1-2 when even with their opponent in rebounds and 1-2 when outrebounded.
--Jason Jones
The Mavs (10-3) used a balanced attack to overcome another solid game from the Kings' rookie to beat Sacramento 104-102 at American Airlines Center.
Evans finished with 29 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. But five Mavs scored in double figures, led by Dirk Nowitzki's 20 points. Nowitzki also had seven assists. Jason Kidd had 15 points and 11 assists for Dallas. Jason Terry had 10 points off the bench for the Mavs.
Beno Udrih had 20 points and five assists for Sacramento (5-6). Jason Thompson added 18 points and eight rebounds.
--Jason Jones
DALLAS -More than once it looked as if the Mavs were about to blow out the Kings but that's not the case. Dallas leads Sacramento 68-65 at the end of the third quarter.
The Mavs were up by as many as 10, but the play of Tyreke Evans (16 points, nine assists) is keeping Sacramento in the game.
Jason Thompson has 16 points through three quarters and Andres Nocioni has 12 points for the Kings.
Dirk Nowitzki has 14 points for the Mavs. Drew Gooden already has 15 rebounds for Dallas.
--Jason Jones
DALLAS - The Kings held a five-point lead at one point during the second quarter but couldn't maintain the advantage and trail the Mavs 47-42 at halftime.
Jaosn Thompson has 10 points to lead the Kings. Tyreke Evans has eight points and six assists. Kenny Thompson came off the bench to grab seven rebounds.
Kris Humphries' 10 points off the bench lead Dallas. Drew Gooden has 10 rebounds for the Mavs.
The Mavs are shooting only 40.4 percent but have nine points off 12 Sacramento turnovers.
--Jason Jones
DALLAS - The Kings overcame an early 7-0 deficit less than two minutes in to the ame to take a 24-22 lead over the Dallas Mavericks after the first quarter.
Jason Thompson had eight points to lead the Kings, but he picked up two fouls. Defense led the comeback for the Kings. They scored eight points off five Dallas turnovers. Dallas had eight offensive rebounds, but didn't do a lot with the extra chances, shooting 9 of 28.
Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with seven points.
--Jason Jones
***
Tonight won't be the first time Tyreke Evans goes up against Jason Kidd.
Evans said he worked out in New Jersey with Kidd when Evans was still in high school. He doesn't remember exactly if it was before his junior or senior year, but meeting Kidd made an impression on Evans.
"I was bigger than him," Evans said. "I was younger but I wasn't as strong as I am now. But I was taller than him but he was stronger than me. He's a hard worker. He was in the pool, had the rope pulling him, still training hard."
During the conversation Evans sounded more like a veteran as he offered his take on Kidd's play. He said Kidd's, "not as good as he used to be but he's still a veteran, he still knows how to play the game and run a team." Evans also called Kidd a "great player."
Evans even offered a take on Kidd's game that made him sound like he's been playing against Kidd for years.
"He worked on his shooting," Evans said. "He's improved a lot on his three-point shooting. I think he shot almost 45 percent (actually 40.6 percent) last season. I had a good time working out with him and I learned a lot."
Evans should get plenty of chances to go against Kidd, especially when Jason Terry is in the game. Unlike most teams, Kidd is a point guard has the size to go against Evans.
Evans usually finds himself defended by shooting guards or small forwards. If Evans scores 20 points, it will be his sixth-straight game doing so.
The longest such streak by a rookie in team in recent team history is by Lionel Simmons recorded seven straight 20-point games during the 1990-91 season (Feb. 12 - 27, 1991).
--Jason Jones
That word was uttered again this week when former Kings forward Chris Webber was interviewed by Colin Cowherd on his nationally syndicated ESPN Radio morning show.
"If anybody's has been in that position and made the choice to stay in a cowtown, it was me," Webber said Tuesday.
The answer came in response to Cowherd's question about LeBron James' future and whether James should leave Cleveland or go to Miami or New York next season when he is a free agent.
"Many times it has been brought back up to me, what if I had gone to LA. Many times it has been brought back up to me what if I had gone to a place that was bigger...", said Webber, now an NBATV analyst.
Here is a link to the interview.
Now, before you jump all over Webber, the comment "cow town" can be taken out of context here. Cowherd loves to make fun of smaller markets and had called Sacramento a cowtown elsewhere in the broadcast. Cowherd is fun to listen to (he's broadcast daily on 1320 KCTC), but he also is brutally honest.
-Bill Bradley
]]>"He practiced some. We held him out after a while. I think the nature of that injury is you don't want to overdo it and get bumped again. But I'd say he's a little more likely to play next game than he was last game but he's probably questionable to doubtful."
That's the only injury of note before the team leaves for Dallas tomorrow.
I'll have more later on that game as Westphal makes his return to Dallas. He spent last season as the executive vice president of basketball operations for the Mavericks and was an assistant coach for the 2007-08 season.
--Jason Jones
Salmons, who was traded to the Bulls in February, had 23 points to lead the Bulls to a 101-87 win over the Kings at Arco Arena.
Donte' Greene led the Kings with a career-high 24 points. Tyreke Evans added 20 points for the Kings, who had their winning streak ended at four games.
--Jason Jones
Luol Deng found eight points in the third quarter to keep the Bulls' offense rolling and Chicago ahead of the Kings, 86-71 heading into the fourth quarter.
Deng has 12 points but the offensive star for Chicago continues to be John Salmons, who leads all scorers with 20 points. He had nine in the third.
Donte' Greene leads the Kings with 19 points but the Kings are shooting 44 percent thus far while the Bulls are up to 52 percent.
The Kings hurt themselves with seven turnovers in the third and have 16 for the game that have led to 24 points for the Bulls.
--Jason Jones
The Bulls offense picked up in the second quarter and Chicago took a 61-47 lead into halftime.
Jannero Pargo's 12 points of the bench lead the Bulls. Former Kings John Salmons (11 points) and Brad Miller (nine points) have also looked good in their return to Arco Arena.
Donte' Greene has 14 points to lead the Kings and Sergio Rodriguez addes seven points in six minutes off the bench. Tyreke Evans has eight points on three of 10 shooting.
--Jason Jones
The maturation of Donte' Greene's game continues to yield positive results.
Greene started his first game of the season and ended the first quarter with 11 points, but the Kings trail the Chicago Bulls, 27-23, at Arco Arena.
Greene started in place of Andres Nocioni (right hip pointer). The Kings missed for of five three pointers to start the game.
Former King John Salmons leads the Bulls with eight points.
--Jason Jones
And while a league source confirmed the Kings and Philadelphia have discussed a deal involving Thomas and Dalembert, the deal appears to be dead for the foreseeable future largely because of the Kings' lukewarm interest in the eight-year veteran who has two years and a combined $24.9 million left on his contract. Yet if it's up to Marc Cornstein, the talks won't stay quiet for long.
Dalembert's agent, who is clearly on the lookout for a better situation for his client, said Tuesday that his client would be a good fit for the Kings.
"I think it would be a good fit if he was here," said Cornstein, who also represents Kings point guard Beno Udrih and is in Sacramento today. "He can run the floor well, and this is a young running team. He can block shots, he can rebound. Those are his strengths. Those are the things he brings, and I think the skill set that he brings are things that the Kings can use. If he were to get here, I think he'd be a very good fit."
A Boston Globe report said the Celtics have no interest in Kings small forward Andres Nocioni, as was reported by ESPN. - Sam Amick
]]>Follow Sam and fellow hoops scribe Jason Jones on Twitter - sam_amick and jejones_sacbee.
***
The Kings' chances of extending their winning streak to five and continuing to protect the home floor have taken a hit - square on the right hip of Andres Nocioni.
The Kings small forward said at this morning's shoot-a-round that he's unlikely to play against his old team tonight. I've been told that second-year small forward Donte' Greene will likely get the nod. And while Greene is certainly in the best stretch of his young career, Nocioni had been playing very well too.
A Nocioni absence would certainly take away one of tonight's bigger storylines, but there are more. Former Kings Brad Miller and John Salmons make their first visit back to Arco since being traded to the Bulls in February. Miller said it has been a busy trip already, as he caught up with old Kings colleagues last night and even signed the final papers on the sale of his Sacramento-area home. He stayed there last night, just to make the most of that final mortgage payment.
As for tonight, Miller said he's less worried about how the game will go than he is the prospect of using the outdated and less-than-luxurious showers in the visiting locker room afterward. He also talked about his night out with third-year center Spencer Hawes and his new friend.
The Bulls may have an identical record as the Kings (5-4), but they surely feel as if they should be at least 6-3 after a last-second apparent game-winning shot by Miller against Denver was called off by the officials on Nov. 11.
Otherwise, second-year point guard Derrick Rose isn't playing very well at all just yet for the Bulls. He'll matchup against Kings rookie Tyreke Evans as the University of Memphis products see who's the best former Tiger on this night. Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro would love for Salmons to start hitting a few shots to open things up for Rose, as Salmons is shooting just 31.7 percent from the field so far this season. - Sam Amick
]]>***
Forward Andres Nocioni was limited to non-contact drills in today's practice because of right hip pointer. He's officially listed as questionable for tomorrow night's game against Chicago.
Nocioni spent more than four seasons with the Bulls before being traded to Sacramento last season so I'd expect Nocioni to play if he continues to improve.
Kings coach Paul Westphal was coy about who might start in place of Nocioni is he's not able to play.
One possibility is Omri Casspi. The rookie said he's "100 percent" and ready to play after dealing with a sprained left ankle.
One thing the Kings would like to see from Casspi is for his free throw shooting in practice to carry over into games.
When Casspi made just one of three last week against Oklahoma City, Casspi joked he might want to shoot free throws from behind the three-point line.
Casspi has made 47.4 percent (nine of 19) of his three pointers but only 20 percent (three of 15) of his free throws.
The day before the Oklahoma City game, Casspi made 50 straight free throws in practice.
*One thing that doesn't come across on the court is Casspi's sense of humor.
That was on display again today when a reporter asked Casspi, the first Israeli-born player in NBA history, his thoughts on Thanksgiving.
"Not my holiday," Casspi said with a laugh.
--Jason Jones
***
The Kings have shown a style of play during their four-game winning streak that's hard not to admire.
The effort of the Kings is already winning over the coaching staff. The wins are important, but there's a pleasure the staff has in watching young players begin to understand what's being asked of them and doing it in a game.
"That's really one of the main reasons our staff is here," said Kings coach Paul Westphal after today's practice.. "I look at Coach (Pete) Carril. When he sees them really moving the ball or diving on the floor or just laying it on the line he almost gets a little tear in his eye. And I'm not being melodramatic. Coaches love to see effort and teamwork. And I think fans do too."
One reason the Kings have to play like that is because it will take a lot more victories before this team can be viewed as anything more than an afterthought when it comes to playoff contention or even having a winning record.
Oklahoma City and Los Angeles Clippers are teams considered worthy of being discusses as on the brink of getting into the playoffs.
"I think we pretty much still are the underdogs every time we play," Westphal said. "And I don't think that can ever change the way we approach the game. The only way we'll play well is to work as hard as we possibly can and we'll live with the results."
*Rookie forward Omri Casspi practiced on his sprained left ankle. If the ankle will keep him out of Tuesday's game against Chicago will depend on how the ankle responds to today's practice.
--Jason Jones
Follow Sam and fellow hoops scribe Jason Jones on Twitter - sam_amick and jejones_sacbee.
***
Nice time to revisit the Byron Scott storyline, huh?
I've got to admit it works out pretty well on this end. It's interesting stuff and a chance to elaborate and expand on his situation in New Orleans and how it related to the Kings over the summer. Meanwhile, the Kings are playing so well under Paul Westphal that you won't find many folks in town who wish they would've bought Scott out of his deal and brought him to Sacramento at the moment. This story was a tad more sensitive in the summer.
But make no mistake, as his agent of 24 years, Brian McInerney, made clear, Scott's interest was real. And the driving force was the fact that they knew long ago that Scott wouldn't be in New Orleans past this season. We wrote in the summer about how Scott had interest that was never reciprocated, but below is more background on what led to the chasm between Scott and the Hornets' ownership family (owner George Shinn, his brother-in-law/team president Hugh Weber and vice president/Shinn's son, Chad).
It had everything to do with the price at which the Hornets' success came. Specifically, it was the fact that his latest two-year extension ($5.5 million per season) came largely because he had a buyout for the 2008-09 season in his deal that they wish he never had, and bonuses totaling nearly $1 million in the season prior that - hypothetically - could have paid for just about all of the said buyout if he chose to walk. Can you say leverage, everyone? And resentment, too, perhaps.
Be sure to read the story first, as the below quotes are simply the ones not included in the piece in the paper...
]]> MCINERNEY"After the Coach of the Year season (2007-08) and the 56 wins, the Hornets wanted to negotiate a new contract. They offered four years, and he elected to take two because he was unsure of the direction the team was going to go - not only personnel wise but also geographically. This is a team that obviously by an act of God had relocated from New Orleans to Oklahoma then back down to New Orleans, and then there were discussions of how many tickets you had to sell to stay in New Orleans. Maybe they'd go to Kansas City, maybe they'd build a new practice facility, maybe they wouldn't. I think the feeling was the two years...contrary to what the rumor was, it was a coincidence that (Lakers coach) Phil Jackson's contract was up at the same time. That wasn't it. That was a coincidence. People like to talk about it, and that's really premature because I don't think Phil Jackson is ever retiring. This was a situation where there was a lot of internal confusion as to what the culture of the team was going to be.
On how they saw this coming a long time ago...
"This wasn't an unexpected situation...He was hamstrung - last season that's kind of the way it was. Last season they were so beat up at the end of the season but yet unable to spend any money. When you're reading you're supposed to contend for the Western Conference...but look at Mark Cuban and the (Dallas) Mavericks, the money Houston's got and obviously the money the Lakers have. And when you can't give Jannero Pargo a million dollars (without losing him to Chicago in free agency last summer), you get a little frustrated. I think we'll all get to watch with interest as (new Hornets coach and GM) Jeff Bower tries to take this group of guys - we all wish him well; I know Byron does - but it's going to be challenge. They're still trying to get under the luxury (tax). It isn't just a problem with the New Orleans franchise, but really the small franchises.
"You don't want it to wind up being like a Yankees situation where you're going to have a handful of healthy teams. Then you'll have other teams with good markets but they're just not going to have that kind of money. Obviously the change and what has happened in New Orleans was foreseeable, unless there was an infusion of money.
On what's next for Scott and the relationship with Shinn...
"As far as Byron, he's grateful...I'm flying out tomorrow to New Orleans - he's playing golf. ESPN already wants to know if he wants to do something...As far as Byron is concerned, I'm concerned, anybody who has been around this for a long time, there are personal issues and business issues and they're not the same. - he hopes that George Shinn and his prostate cancer is a whole different matter. If Pat Riley and Byron Scott can be out on a dance floor together last summer, everything is possible (laughs). He's too old to be upset. He's fine. I just think that the chemistry was really beginning to fade.
"I see us going to see that new movie 2012 in the next few days, because he's got nothing else to do. I see, like in all matters, taking a step back and watching how the season progresses for a lot of teams. Of course he wants to be a head coach. That goes without saying. And sometimes the team that is going to offer the best opportunity you're not going to see in November. " - Sam Amick
]]>The deal would be ideal for the Hornets, as Thomas' expiring contract worth $8.7 million is just the kind of contract that would trim their enormous payroll. The question, of course, is whether the Kings see Okafor as a big man solution worth the five years and $62.5 million left on his deal.
The 6-foot-10, 255-pound center who was the second pick of the 2004 draft out of Connecticut has averaged 13.9 points and 10.6 rebounds in his six-season career. He spent his first four seasons in Charlotte before being traded to New Orleans in late July for Tyson Chandler.
No deal is imminent and this is merely a discussion between the two sides at this point. - Sam Amick
]]>