Top > Sport > 2006 > February > 2006-02-27

Fit for a King

The Sacramento Kings have been plagued with inconsistency ever since the start of the season. Now after acquiring Ron Artest the team has shown vast improvement on a number of accounts, yet for some reason they can?t get their act together and play with some consistency. Some nights they look playoff bound, while on others they look like they are heading straight for the lottery. The Kings still haven?t figured out how to take their home game and bring it on the road, but they better do it soon because they have 15 of their remaining 27 games on the road.

Playing against the Lakers on Friday night, once Kobe got a few baskets, all the energy got sucked out of them. On offense they looked sloppy and although 15 turnovers is about their season average many of them were unforced and due to carelessness. The lack of energy was also apparent in their transition game allowing 14 fast break points to the Lakers while getting only 3, a season low.

They were ineffective in the paint with only 28 points, yet on Tuesday they found a way to put in 44. The Kings allowed the Lakers to shoot 52.6% from the field and 62.5% on threes. They were always a step behind. Kobe had his way with them with 36 points on 51.9% shooting plus 10 assists. But it wasn?t just Kobe, Lamar Odom had 19 points on 56.3% shooting and Devean George had 15 points, shooting 60%, wasn?t anyone assigned to cover George.