The Sacramento Kings visit Oklahoma City for their last meeting with the Thunder this season. The Kings lost their previous two to the Thunder, including an 11-point loss last Friday.
The 2011-2012 NBA season is winding down for the Sacramento Kings. Cowbell Kingdom’s James Ham goes one-on-one with Kings’ broadcaster and sports talk radio host Grant Napear for his take on the black and purple.
Highlights
Listen after the jump…
The Sacramento Kings (21-43) dropped into Charlotte for a Sunday matinee against the Bobcats (7-56) – the NBA’s worst team. I believe that Kings play-by-play announcer Grant Napear said it best via his twitter account:
I call games for a team that only has 20 wins but with that said…boy is Charlotte awful!!! Worst team I’ve seen in my 24 years in NBA
— Grant Napear(@GrantNapearShow) April 22, 2012
Winning 114-88, the Kings handed the lowly Bobcats their 20th consecutive loss. Charlotte hasn’t won a game since St Patrick’s Day and judging by Sunday afternoon’s performance, they probably won’t win anytime soon.
DeMarcus Cousins led the way with 29 points and 10 rebounds for the Kings, but he picked up a technical in the second quarter that will cost him Tuesday night’s match-up against the Thunder. Tyreke Evans woke up out of his funk, giving the Kings a solid 22 point effort on 10-for-11 shooting. Power forward Jason Thompson made a run at a triple-double, finishing with 14 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high seven assists.
Byron Mullens was active early, but finished with just 13 points and eight rebounds in the loss. Rookie Kemba Walker also finished with 13 and added a game-high 11 assists.
The Sacramento Kings are now tied for the worst record in the west with the New Orleans Hornets. They attempt to avoid falling any deeper into futility against the Charlotte Bobcats, the NBA’s worst team this season.
Updated at 12:40 am, April 21, 2012
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and the Maloofs are reviving talks after the proposal to build a new Sacramento arena collapsed one week ago in New York City.
The mayor returned from Las Vegas following an impromptu meeting Friday afternoon with Sacramento Kings co-owner George Maloof. He called the meeting, which lasted about an hour, with brother George “very productive” and stressed the importance of keeping the lines of communication open “in the spirit of Sacramento.” Johnson says the two sides agreed to a follow-up meeting on possibly Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Below video of the entire press scrum:
For the second time in a week, the Sacramento Kings fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder by double figures, this time losing 103-92 at Power Balance Pavilion.
“I was happy with them,” said Kings head coach Keith Smart after the game. ”The way they competed, the way they played. They made those guys work for some of things that they got tonight. Obviously, we (had) some defensive breakdowns at the wrong time of the game, but we’re going to get better from that.”
The Kings managed to take a seven-point lead, 17-10, early in the first quarter. But the Thunder answered with an 8-0 run to take the lead for good.
DeMarcus Cousins recorded team highs in points (18) and rebounds (9) in 34 minutes of action. Four other Kings scored in double figures, including Jimmer Fredette, who chipped in 11 points off the bench.
The Thunder, meanwhile, have now held 12 of their last 15 opponents under 100 points, including their previous three. Oklahoma City’s triumvirate of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook combined to score 67 of the Thunder’s 103 points.
The Kings fall to 20-43 overall and 15-17 at Power Balance Pavilion. They have a day off Saturday before playing their last game in the eastern time zone against the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday.
As first reported by the Sacramento Bee, Mayor Kevin Johnson flew to Las Vegas today to meet with Kings’ co-owner George Maloof in an attempt to revive talks on the proposed downtown arena deal.
Maloof Family spokesperson Eric Rose issued the following the statement:
This afternoon Mayor Kevin Johnson had a meeting at the Palms Hotel and meet with George Maloof for nearly an hour. The meeting was cordial; however, nothing definitive resulted from the meeting. The Maloof family will not have any further comments on the meeting.
According to the Bee, Johnson and Maloof had been exchanging texts the past few days, attempting to coordinate their schedules for a meeting.
Johnson is expected to be back in Sacramento to attend tonight’s Kings’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The franchise is honoring the 50th anniversary of hall of fame guard Oscar Robertson’s triple-double season.
The Sacramento Kings play two of their next three games against the Oklahoma City Thunder. On the heels of the failed arena deal, Oklahoma City walloped Sacramento in their previous meeting just one week ago.
Last night, the Sacramento Kings hosted a panel discussion on issues related to the past, present and future of the NBA. Along with Geoff Petrie and Keith Smart, the “Generations Basketball” forum featured a duo of NBA greats – Bill Walton and Oscar Robertson, who is in Sacramento being honored tonight for the 50th anniversary of his triple-double season.
Among the topics discussed was this debate on the one-and-done athlete, with Walton and Robertson falling on opposing sides of the aisle.
Bill Walton: The NBA doesn’t want this to happen. The NCAA, they don’t want that to happen. It’s the Player’s Association. It’s Billy Hunter that’s arguing for players who aren’t even in his own union who are not paying dues. And I think that’s a huge mistake.
Oscar Robertson: First of all, that’s not a mistake. First of all, I think it’s illegal to tell a young man that he has to spend a year out (in college) after his 18th birthday for him to play basketball (professionally). He can go to the army, fight in Afghanistan?
Bill Walton: We don’t let them buy liquor. We don’t let them into night clubs.
Oscar Robertson: Can they smoke at 18?
(Walton is momentarily left speechless)
Bill Walton: I don’t smoke.
Oscar Robertson: All (these) rules about one-and-done and after your freshman year is to benefit the colleges. Tell this for me – (Greg) Oden, when he came out of Ohio State, it’s unfortunate he’s got all these problems, he didn’t need to go to Ohio State to play. Could’ve gone right in and played right away. But this is done so colleges can take advantage of a young person for one year if he’s a great player. And that’s all it’s for.
Keith Smart: I also think the year we won the championship, I made “the shot”, it never dawned on me that I wanted to come to the NBA. Many said, “You should’ve made the shot and ran straight out of the Superdome and straight to New York and waited for the draft.” But it never hit my mind – I loved college, I enjoyed college and I had fun in college.
Oscar Robertson: But that’s true because now there’s a vehicle (for) the players to take advantage of it. If the vehicle wasn’t there, they couldn’t go. And I don’t know why everyone gets so upset about it. If you don’t want a player who’s a one year and done, don’t take him. Don’t sign him because a lot of guys are not going to be great basketball players. And really what Procter & Gamble should do is give them all diapers.
After the jump, listen to audio of the debate.
They traded runs with the San Antonio Spurs in the first half, but the Sacramento Kings had no answer after intermission. The Kings were outscored by 24 points in the second half and lost 127-102 at Power Balance Pavilion Wednesday evening.
“I thought we played about as close as we could,” said Kings head coach Keith Smart after the loss. ”We did a really good job in the first half and then they came out and had 39 points in the third quarter, and they wrapped it up a little bit. We didn’t have what was necessary; we turned the ball over 12 times and they got 21 points off of those turnovers. You make a mistake and this team is going to capitalize on them.”
Rookie Isaiah Thomas led Sacramento with 21 points and eight assists. Marcus Thornton was ruled out after suffering a left-quad contusion in the third quarter, but returned in the final period to finish with 20 points.
In their third game in as many nights, Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter led the Spurs in victory. Neal and Splitter combined for 34 points off San Antonio’s bench. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich rested veteran superstar Tim Duncan, who played just a total of 46 minutes in San Antonio’s previous two wins.
The Kings fall to 20-42 overall and 15-16 at home. They host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
