This game had all the makings for a new chapter of how sad the Bobcats can be in building up a lead and letting it slip out of their hands, but they managed to hold off DeMarcus Cousins and the Kings' late charge to escape with a 95-87 win.

And when I say, "DeMarcus Cousins and the Kings," I really mean that's what it was like for nearly the whole night. Cousins started off hot, trashing Al Jefferson for 4-for-5 shooting in the first quarter in a trend that would continue all night. Few centers have the quickness and agility with that size and level of intuitive scoring. Jefferson might as well have been standing in concrete shoes defending Cousins.

But the other side of this is that the rest of the Kings were absolute garbage in the first half. Credit the Bobcats defense but Sacramento also wasn't implementing much of a fluid offense. At the half, Cousins had 18 points on nine shots with seven rebounds, two assists and three steals. The rest of the Kings shot 25 percent on their field goals. Rudy Gay had one point on four shots.

Offensively for the Cats, Charlotte found things going pretty easily to begin with. The Bobcats had 35 points in the first quarter, led by Gerald Henderson's 12 and a good sprinkling of scoring with Jefferson, Taylor, Zeller and some threes from Kemba Walker and Ben Gordon.

The Bobcats' offense slowed from it's astounding scoring pace in the second quarter but held Sacramento to even worse shooting, leading a larger disparity. Cody Zeller had another awesome dunk taking a pass baseline and pump-faking his defender in the air before a reverse dunk. Ramon Sessions and the crew were getting to the rim and drawing fouls, though they only went 4-for-9 from the line in the period.

Then the Kings went on a little 11-2 run that kind of foreshadowed the third quarter. Quincy Acy cut baseline for an and-1 as the dribble drive penetration drew the defense. The Al Jefferson threw up a kind of running hook shot from the right block that landed on top of the backboard. Jimmer Fredetted followed with a pick and roll that freed him for an open three because Ramon Sessions decided to go under the screen instead of over against the sharpshooter. Jefferson then had another turnover that led to a fastbreak layup and-1, and finished with a killer pentration entry pass under the basket from Fredette for a bucket.

Still, despite letting the Kings cut an 18-point lead to nine rather quickly, they recovered for a 13-point lead at the half.

But the Bobcats came out of halftime looking like they took a nap. They turned the ball over a lot, didn't penetrate on offense and get the inside-out ball movement that spaced the defense before. Defensively, they looked completely unaware: they didn't fight around screens well or move much. They got caught watching the ball, leading to easy cutting layups. Their double-teams came late, which gave up space for the Kings to exploit. DeMarcus Cousins is not only a great scoring threat but a pretty terrific, even if overconfident, passer.

Thankfully, Kemba Walker stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer. The Bobcats surprised me with how well they exploited the corner three all night, especially for as bad a shooting team as they are. Perhaps they read Zach Lowe's excellent piece from today but regardless, they ran a lot of screens and movement and passed to find openings for Jeff Taylor and Walker in the corners.

The defense improved, too. They were more active in knowing their angles and interrupting passing lanes and came quicker with their rotations and double-teams.

Then came the moment of truth with the fourth quarter starting lineup led by Ramon Sessions and Ben Gordon in the backcourt. That group of folks has been a spot of weakness all season, stagnating an offense lacking in offensive creativity and effective ball movement and struggling with perimeter defense.

Tonight, I feared the usual. The Bobcats once had an early big lead, and they let it dwindle to six measly points heading into the fourth quarter. DeMarcus Cousins abused pretty much anyone thrown at him (though I would have liked to see some Jeff Adrien on him earlier to see if his physicality would affect Cousins) and it seemed with his effectiveness and Isaiah Thomas' shooting, the Bobcats could find themselves down in the fourth quarter once again.

However, as bad as the Bobcats bench can be, the Kings' bench can be worse. Plus, the Bobcats bench was pretty good tonight! Sessions was better than he has been, getting to the rack and even dishing out some assists. Ben Gordon still sucked, but the Bobcats managed to survive for a few minutes until the starters began returning to the floor.

But even when the starters came back for either team, it didn't exactly change the outlook on the game. Cousins had been destroying the defense and Thomas was starting to find some sort of rhythm. Rudy Gay had left a little earlier after some knee stiffness, so the Kings were shorthanded, but he had still been rather ineffective regardless.

Despite Cousins' earlier outburst, the Bobcats held him and the rest of the Kings to extremely meager returns in the fourth. Cousins and Jason Thompson tied for the most fourth-quarter points for Sacramento, with four apiece. Cousins didn't record a single attempted field goal in the box score in the fourth quarter, though he drew some fouls that helped eventually foul out Al Jefferson.

Facing such a struggling offense, Charlotte didn't need a whole lot of their own to keep Sacramento under their thumb. Al Jefferson hit a shot or two before he fouled out. Gerald Henderson had a sweet floater and jump shot. And then Kemba Walker hit the free throws to close out the game as the Kings tried to extend time for a comeback that would not appear.

I still don't understand why they're playing Ben Gordon the entire fourth quarter again (his entries into the play-by-play are: "Ben Gordon traveling" and "Ben Gordon lost ball out of bounds turnover") but hey, if you can win in spite of the inherent tanking of playing Ben Gordon for more than 15 minutes in 2013, I guess, you're just that good of team.

The Atlanta Hawks go for their second straight win and a season sweep of the Sacramento Kings when the two teams meet Wednesday night at Philips Arena.

The Atlanta Hawks look for their second straight win Wednesday night when they take on the Sacramento Kings at Philips Arena. The Hawks have won four of their last five games after Monday's 114-100 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Atlanta defeated the Kings in the first meeting this season 105-100 but this Sacramento team looks a bit different.

The Kings were the first team to jump into the trade season acquiring small forward Rudy Gay in a salary dump from the Toronto Raptors. The move has given Sacramento a little more balance offensively and has paved the way for Isaiah Thomas to become the clear cut starter at the point guard position. Gay is listed as questionable for Wednesday's game after leaving Tuesday's loss to the Bobcats early due to stiffness in his knee. The Kings fell 95-87 and dropped their record on the season to 7-16.

Since a stretch of five losses in six games, the Hawks have won four of five and are looking to climb above the .500 mark to stay. Atlanta enters Wednesday's game with a 13-12 record which is good for third in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta has gone 9-4 at home and is 5-1 over its last six.

If the Hawks are to win they will have to contend with DeMarcus Cousins who was frustrated and held in check in the first meeting. Cousins had just 11 points and six rebounds in 29 minutes in the first meeting with Atlanta. He spent most of the night in foul trouble and was visibly upset about an incident with Dennis Schröder that eventually led to a one-game suspension for the rookie.

Cousins is averaging a career-best 22.4 points per game while grabbing 11 boards a contest. He had 30 points, 17 rebounds and six assists in Tuesday's loss in Charlotte. Slowing him down will be a team effort for the Hawks with Al Horford called upon to do most of the heavy lifting.

Gustavo Ayon has missed the last four games with an ankle injury and is listed as questionable against the Kings. Gay is the most notable injury for the Kings but Carl Landry won't play due to a hip injury.

Game Info:

Game date/time: Wednesday, December 18, 7:30 p.m.

Location: Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia

TV: No TV

Radio: 92.9 FM "The Game"

Kyle Korver hit eight threes to finish with 28 points and helped lead the Atlanta Hawks to a 124-107 win over the Sacramento Kings.

Game Info:

Game date/time: Wednesday, December 18, 7:30 p.m.

Location: Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia

TV: SportSouth

Radio: 92.9 FM "The Game"

The Kings could learn a thing or two from the Bobcats about defense.

Entering last night's game the Charlotte Bobcats had the 29th ranked offense in the league, but the 4th best defense with a defensive rating of 99.9.  That's in spite of the fact that Charlotte has guys like Josh McRoberts and Al Jefferson playing heavy minutes in the frontcourt.  Charlotte as a team has embraced defense, and if their offense could catch up, they would be a dangerous team night in and night out.

The Kings are not a good defensive team.  In fact, they are one of the worst in the league, and it showed last night, particularly during the first quarter.  Charlotte was able to get out to an early double-digit lead thanks to extremely porous defense from Sacramento.  Gerald Henderson and Kemba Walker got into the lane, and Sacramento continuously left open three point shooters, which has been a problem all year.  Even the Bobcats, the worst three point shooting team in the league, will hit their threes if you give them enough space.

Sacramento's offense wasn't doing much better than the defense to start, as the Kings missed a lot of their own open shots, but also couldn't get anyone aside from DeMarcus Cousins going.  Gerald Henderson did a great job on Rudy Gay, sticking with him whenever he drove and making every shot tough.  Gay was never able to get going, and eventually left the game with knee stiffness and did not return.  His status for tonight's game and the rest of the road trip is unknown.

The Kings finally managed to get their offense going somewhat in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, mainly thanks to DeMarcus Cousins.  Cousins dominated Charlotte's big men, scoring 30 points on just 13 shots to go with 17 rebounds and 6 assists.  He was the only option that Sacramento was able to go to consistently for points, which is why it was so baffling when in the 4th quarter, the Kings barely gave him the ball.

Charlotte realized it couldn't stop Cousins, but it also figured out a good way to prevent him from doing much.  The Kings were routinely setting up DeMarcus on the left block and then spreading the court.  Charlotte would immediately send another man to double Cousins.  Now, that means someone is open, but the way the Kings were situated on offense meant the lone man in the paint could effectively guard two men if nobody moved to help Cousins out.  Instead, Cousins would try to throw a cross court pass to the open man, the Bobcats player who was in the paint was able to anticipate it, and Charlotte would get a steal.  This happened about three times late in the 3rd quarter and instead of trying to figure it out, the Kings just stopped going to Cousins.  In other words, they played right into Charlotte's hands.

Isaiah Thomas, as he so often does when the Kings need points, tried to go into attack mode.  But his shot wasn't falling, and Charlotte did a great job contesting his shots around the basket.  This is where he should have tried to feed the monster in the middle (someone get me a DeMonster in the Middle photoshop) as much as possible.

In another case of playing into Charlotte's hands, the Kings passed up several open shots throughout the night to instead take tougher ones.  Jimmer Fredette and Travis Outlaw were especially bad at this, and it's no surprise they finished a combined 2-16 from the floor.

Then we get to Ben McLemore. Ben is going through a serious shooting slump right now, shooting sub-30% for the last five or six games.  For the year he's at just 34%.  I still think he needs to slow his game down, especially when he attacks the basket.  We've made a lot about his shooting struggles from beyond the arc, but he's absolutely awful around the rim when he's not dunking.  If Tyreke Evans was the Layup King as a Rookie, Ben McLemore is the French Knight from Monty Python & the Holy Grail who farts in the rim's general direction.

I'm not giving up on Ben yet though and don't think there's a reason to.  He's got a very bright future ahead of him and I think he'll eventually figure it out.  As Tom pointed out on Twitter yesterday, take a look at Bradley Beal's shooting splits for his first couple months in the league.  They're remarkably similar to Ben's.

Sacramento is a more talented team than Charlotte, especially offensively.  If the Kings can ever figure out how to play even average defense over a large stretch of games, they'll be dangerous.  Until then though, the losses will continue to outnumber the wins.

Random Observations:

• Quincy Acy is a ball of energy.  He's fun to watch, and I like him in the backup PF/C role.
• Derrick Williams should probably be getting more minutes than Travis Outlaw, especially if Gay is out.
• Kemba Walker, sub-30% shooter from three for the year, nails 4-8 on us. Of course.
• The Bobcats played good defense, but the Kings also missed a lot of their own open shots.  Just a bad shooting night overall.
• I thought I saw Pete D'Alessandro watching the game in Charlotte.  I'm not sure, but does anyone recall Petrie traveling with the team during road trips?

A team that beat the Kings in Sacramento lays in wait in Atlanta.

The Kings did not find mercy on the East Coast on Tuesday, as the Bobcats beat them pretty solidly. On Wednesday, the Kings face the Hawks, who have already beat Sacramento 105-100 this season. In that game, Al Horford dumped in 27 points while frustrating DeMarcus Cousins and holding him to 11. Cousins went nuts in Charlotte on Tuesday -- the only King to perform really well -- but Atlanta's post defense is much better.

That means the Kings will likely be relying on help from the perimeter that didn't exist on Tuesday.

MATCHUP OF THE GAME

Isaiah Thomas vs. Jeff Teague.

Charlotte managed to bottle up Isaiah well. In addition to shooting just 8-23, he had only four assists in 35 minutes. Charlotte's defense is better than Atlanta's overall. But the offense is also more potent, and Sacramento's backcourt -- Isaiah included -- has been awful on defense of late, Rockets game excepted. Teague could have a big night. The Kings almost always need Isaiah to do the same.

3 THINGS

1. DeMarcus Cousins needs to play a bunch (no foul trouble), score a bunch and defend. No big deal.

2. My goodness stop some guards! Teague worries me a ton -- he was good in the first meeting, but not as good as he can be. Based on what Walker and Gerald Henderson did on Tuesday, Teague could go nuts ... if the Kings don't stop him.

3. Rudy Gay can't really take games off. Players will miss shots, and that's fine as long as the shots come within the offense. But effort needs to stay high elsewhere on the floor. I don't think Gay was necessarily lacking effort all night, but he wasn't as everywhere as he'd been in the first couple games with the team. If Cousins and Gay go all out, the team will be competitive most nights.

START FOUR

Only 23 folks ahead of me now, even though I've been trotting out some awful lineups. Just for kicks, today I'm picking Travis Outlaw, Quincy Acy, Marcus Thornton and Pero Antic. Who gon' stop me?

PREGAME HAIKU

Ka-kaw! Hello, Hawks!
Nice winning record you've got
there. Shame to lose it.

PREDICTION

105-100, Hawks.

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It's Prediction Time!

Link to The Leaderboard

Below are a series of prediction questions for tonight's game. The first four questions will be asked every game, while the 5th will change each game.

Point value for predictions are listed next to the questions. If you believe that more than one player will lead a category, you can vote for multiple players, and this is worth double points if you are correct, but zero if you are wrong. Alternately, if you only guess one player when multiple players are tied, you get zero points.

All submissions must be input before tip-off. Any submissions after tip-off will not count. You are allowed only one submission and may not change unless specifically stated.

Questions:

1. Who do you think will win the game, and what will the final score be? (1 point for guessing winner. 2 points for guessing winner and correct score of one team. 5 points for guessing winner and exact score)

2. Who will be the game's leading scorer? (1 point for guessing scorer, 2 points for guessing exact points scored)

3. Who will be the game's leading rebounder? (1 point for guessing rebounder, 2 points for guessing exact rebounds)

4. Who will be the game's leading assist man? (1 point for guessing assist man, 2 points for guessing exact assists)

5. Kyle Korver currently holds the longest ever active three point streak in the NBA.  Predict both his 3PM and 3PA tonight (1 point for one right answer, 3 points for both right)

In which we sit down Jason Thompson for some tough love.

[The following is a difficult conversation with Jason Thompson. Jason has a problem. This is his intervention.]

[Please also note that this is in no way meant to mock anyone with any sort of substance abuse issues or the programs that help such individuals. This is for fun, at the expense of nobody else. Except maybe Jason Thompson.]

Jason,

Thank you for coming today. Now, now, don't ask questions, please just take a seat. We're here because we care about you, and we need to say some things to you. This isn't an attack on you. But you need to hear this.

Ok, here it goes.

(deep sigh)

Jason, you commit fouls. Usually at least one per NBA game. Jason. Jason...JASON, stop yelling and looking confused and throwing your arms in the air. Just stop, and please listen.

This is exactly what we're talking about. This kind of reaction isn't necessary every time someone suggests that you've committed a foul. Stop staring at me with your mouth aghast.

You see, Jason, in the course of an NBA game, fouls happen. JASON, stop, please, listen. Just listen. Stop interrupting and whining.

Fouls happen in NBA games. You know how you feel like you get fouled every time you touch the ball? Well, other players feel that same way. That is not an experience unique unto you. They think you foul them. You think they foul you. But there are rules that explain when it is and isn't actually a foul. And we have refs to call those fouls.

Now, they aren't out to get you. They don't dislike you. You're a pretty likable guy, Jason. They have no reason to target you. And when you do things that are a foul in the rule book, they blow their whistle. Now, you might disagree. But you have a bit of bias in that scenario, right?

Now, I mentioned earlier that the refs have no reason to target you, but that's not entirely true. Jason. Jason! Stop. No, you didn't "know it all along". Listen to me. They might target you because it's annoying as hell when someone whines at you incessantly. When you whine all the time, even when the foul is obvious, you lose the benefit of the doubt. Not every call is bad. But when you treat every call like it's bad, the refs stop caring if you think they made a bad call.

Again, we're not angry with you. We want to help you. We're telling you this because we care. So here's what's going to happen next. Do you remember that nice place we sent DeMarcus last offseason? No, not Team USA tryouts, the other place. Right. And have you noticed how DeMarcus stopped whining nearly as much this year, and has finally tapped into his potential? We want that for you.

Can you say it to me, Jason? Can you acknowledge that you've committed fouls?

...

No? Ok, not today. The first step is admitting you have a problem. The second step is admitting that you commit fouls.

It takes time. But we'll get there.

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Greg Wissinger of SB Nation's Sactown Royalty answers some questions on the Kings' highly publicized newcomers, Isaiah Thomas, and what Sacramento's goals are for the rest of the season and beyond.

The Atlanta Hawks are looking to complete a season sweep of the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night. The Kings have been one of the more discussed teams of the season thus far, mainly because of their activity in the trade market. They've acquired Derrick Williams and Rudy Gay, two controversial players who most agreed were in need of a fresh start. To answer questions on how the newcomers will fare with their new teammates and to discuss how roles have opened up for other incumbent players, Greg Wissinger of SB Nation's Sactown Royalty provided us with some insight.

Question: Isaiah Thomas has been getting a lot of buzz around the blogosphere lately. Everyone seemed pretty excited that the Rudy Gay trade would open up starting minutes for him. How has he been since the trade? Has he had an expanded role? How do you think he matches up with Jeff Teague?

Answer:Isaiah Thomas was leading all NBA bench players in scoring before the trade, but more than just scoring, he was leading team in energy and effort. He and DeMarcus Cousins were the lone bright spots on the roster. Isaiah has a rough outing Tuesday against the Bobcats, but has generally been very good since moving to the starting lineup. His first game as a starter this season he had a career-high in assists.

As for matching up with Teague, I’ll have to plead ignorance. I’m not as familiar with Teague as I should be. Hopefully your readers won’t hate me for that. But I know he’s good and he’s a guy I should watch more often than I do. If I had to guess, I’ll say that he’ll put up a pretty good stat line tonight. The Kings haven’t been able to slow down opposing guards at all this season. Isaiah will probably have a nice offensive stat line, but won’t be able to slow Teague.

Q: Speaking of the Rudy Gay trade-- how does Gay fit with the Kings' current roster? Is he part of the long term future as a complementary piece to DeMarcus Cousins? What's been his immediate impact?

A: In the immediate term, he’s a massive upgrade for the Kings at small forward. He’s the best 3 the Kings have had since Ron Artest in 2008. And he’s made the Kings look better in his first few games, even if he hasn’t had a dramatic impact on the win-loss column. The Kings are a ways away from playoff contention still. Rudy isn’t the piece to put them over the top, but I don’t think he was acquired to be.

Long term, I’d be surprised if Gay is a King. He has a player option next season, and while many folks think it’s impossible that he opts out of $19 million next year, he’s already gone on record saying the situation is a lot more important than the money. He could opt out to secure a long term deal. The Kings are building around DeMarcus Cousins, plain and simple. Gay’s future with the team depends on his willingness to accept a secondary or tertiary role, and how he fits with Cousins.

Q: The Kings have been active in the trade market this season, acquiring both Gay and Derrick Williams. What are the Kings' goals for this season? The playoffs? Do you think there are more moves to come?

A: The Kings aren’t going to be a playoff team this year, and they don’t have illusions that they will be. Ownership, management and the coaches have all said that this season’s success won’t be measured in wins and losses. It’s about changing the culture. What you’re seeing is the current management freeing itself from the roster and culture of the past regime. I don’t think the Kings are done making moves. But even though a lot of people saw the Gay acquisition as a panic move, I don’t think the front office is making moves just to make moves. They’re making moves when the right opportunities come along. When another opportunity is right, there will be more moves. That could be tomorrow, at the deadline, or in the offseason. We know moves are coming, we just don’t know when.

Q: Hypothetically, if I were to tell you the Kings won this game by 10 points, what would they have done differently in comparison to their usual play that enabled them to win?

A: The keys for the Kings is limiting turnovers and committing to defense. No earth-shattering secrets there, but the Kings have a lot more talent than their record indicates. DeMarcus Cousins is the team’s leader, but can’t do it alone. Isaiah Thomas needs to have a good game for the Kings to win. But more than anything it’s about the defense.

After leading heading into the 4th quarter, the Kings get outscored 39 to 20 in the 4th quarter.

The Sacramento Kings lost for the second time of the season to Atlanta as the Hawks shot an astounding 58% from the field and 15-25 from downtown.  Kyle Korver led the way for the Hawks with 28 points, including 8-10 from downtown.  Atlanta as a team had an astounding 38 assists on 47 made field goals.

The Kings were in it for most of the game, even leading going into the 4th quarter.  However the Hawks came out on fire and stayed that way throughout, scoring 39 points to Sacramento's 20.  Al Horford, who scored 25 points on 12-19 shooting, seemingly could not miss from 18 feet.

Sacramento got good performances from their big three of Thomas, Gay and Cousins.  Thomas had a double-double with 20 points and 10 assists, but struggled early defending against Jeff Teague's dribble penetration.  Teague finished with 18 points, 15 assists and 8 rebounds for a near triple-double.

Gay bounced back from a rough game against the Bobcats to score 22 points on 8-13 shooting.  He also had 3 assists and 3 steals.  DeMarcus Cousins started off the game slow, but roared back to score 28 points on 10-20 shooting, to go with 7 rebounds and 6 assists.  He had several gorgeous passes out of double teams that led to easy buckets.

One real big bright spot for Sacramento was a bit of a breakout performance for Kings rookie Ben McLemore.  McLemore had been shooting 6-35 for his last five games and tonight shot 5-6 for 10 points.  He looked much more patient and did a good job of using screens and moving off the ball.

Sacramento gets a day's rest tomorrow before finishing up their road trip in Florida with another back-to-back against the Heat and Magic.

We will have a full recap of the game tomorrow. For the Hawks perspective, visit Peachtree Hoops.

Sacramento lost yet another game to terrible defense, allowing Atlanta to get open looks consistently and shoot above 55% for much of the game.

On Monday against Charlotte, the Kings offense was never really able to get going, and the defense wasn't able to get enough of their own stops to make it a game. On Tuesday in Atlanta, Sacramento's offense warmed up considerably, but again, it was defense that cost Sacramento the game.

I saw someone mention on Twitter that it seems like every team has career shooting nights when playing the Kings. That's not simply a coincidence, it's a sign of a terrible defense allowing open shots. It's one thing when guys are making shots with hands in their face, it's a whole other one when they're firing uncontested. In the NBA, anybody can be a sharpshooter if they're left wide open. Remember back in the offseason, when DeMarcus Cousins hit 8-10 threes in Santa Barbara, bested only by Chris Mullin?

Well Kyle Korver is one of the best three point shooters in the history of the game and the Kings left him open way too many times. Sometimes it was because of poor transition defense. On other possessions, it was bad awareness and help defense. The Kings as a team have been overhelping all season to their detriment. Opposing teams have made them pay by finding the open shooters. I have to believe it's becoming part of the game plan against Sacramento, along with running Pick & Rolls, another area of concern for the Kings.

Coach Malone is probably more fed up with the defense than anyone, but he still put the blame on himself after the game. I think he's being a little hard on himself. It doesn't help when the defensive personnel just isn't there. The Kings don't have any stand out defensive vets, and as a whole are a pretty young team. The roster is in flux, and I doubt we've seen the last of the changes this season. Malone can stress and teach defense as much as he wants, but if the team doesn't buy in and execute, it won't add up to anything. I've seen glimpses of great defensive effort from this team, but only glimpses. Tonight those glimpses only came in the first few quarters, and completely disappeared in the 4th when Atlanta took a two point deficit and turned it into an 17 point lead. It didn't matter whether it was the bench or the starters, the Hawks carved up the Kings for open looks and got them.

Aside from the defense, there were several bright spots. Isaiah Thomas finished with a 20 point, 10 assist night after picking up just 4 assists the night before. Rudy Gay also had a bounce back game, scoring 22 points on an efficient 8-13 shooting. Gay had a couple "wow, I can't believe he was able to do that" moves, especially his one up and under take to the rim. I really like it when Gay takes it to the basket, because he's so big and long that he can either get the ball up around the rim, or face up and shoot over the defender.

Meanwhile, Cousins continues to be beast on the offensive end. Horford beat him up early in the season, and it looked like that would be the case again tonight as Cousins got off to a slow start. DeMarcus persevered though, and finished with 28 points on 50% shooting. Most impressive was his passing yet again. When double teams came, Cousins was quick to find the open man or the cutter. Ben McLemore especially did a good job of cutting to the basket at those times, and he was rewarded for it.

Speaking of Turbo Ben, he finally broke out of his shooting slump with 10 points on 5-6 shooting. He looked much more in rhythm when he was shooting, taking his time and staying square to the basket. He got some great looks in the mid-range off of screens, and that's an area where he can really excel.

The Kings will now travel to Florida where they'll play the defending champs in the first game of another back-to-back.

Random Observations:

• I don't understand why Atlanta's fanbase isn't stronger. This is a team that has been consistently good for several seasons now. They've got an exciting team, and yet they're 29th in attendance.
• Atlanta's arena plays organ music literally the whole game. It was driving me crazy, but then again, the arena probably would have been silent otherwise.
• Al Horford and Paul Millsap have to have two of the slowest releases in the NBA, and yet they shoot so well.
• Travis Outlaw, after a great start to the season, has regressed back to the mean. He's back at below 40% from the field and near 30% from three.
• Aaron Gray screened a guy so hard at one point that he got called for an offensive foul. It wasn't an offensive foul aside from the fact that the guy who ran into him (if I recall correctly, it was Shelvin Mack) nearly died.
• The Kings could really use a solid spot-up shooter like Korver. The Kings best 3 point shooters are Thomas and Fredette, and both those guys normally have the ball in their hands rather than spotting up. Hopefully McLemore can become such a guy as he develops.

Kyle Korver hit eight three-pointers and finished with a season-best 28 points as the Atlanta Hawks pulled away late to defeat the Sacramento Kings 124-107. Korver talked about the win and the groove Atlanta's offense is in after the game.

The Atlanta Hawks continued to sizzle offensively Wednesday night outscoring the Sacramento Kings 124-107 en route to their second straight win. Kyle Korver was a huge part of Wednesday's win knocking down eight threes to finish with a season-high 28 points. Following the game, Korver talked about the offensive performance following the game:

"That's the product of a lot of things," Korver said. "It's unselfishness, it's good spacing, it's a lot of guys in rhythm, it's everyone being dangerous and no one's really sure where the help is going to come from (on defense). When Jeff is attacking like that and really going to the basket, it really creates a lot of openings for us."

Atlanta's offense has certainly been on a roll of late. They have gone over 100 points in eight of the last nine games and four straight. That coming after a stretch of six games where they failed to score more than 96. Neither the Lakers nor the Kings should be considered as defensive juggernauts and Sacramento coach Mike Malone called his team one of the league's worst defensive units following Wednesday's game. However, Atlanta is clicking offensively and the numbers reflect that.

The Hawks have scored 238 points in the last two outings making 92-173 field goal attempts. They have gone 26-52 from three-point range over that span and are 28-33 from the free throw line. A more telling stat is that they have 72 assists over the last two games as well. That means that just 20 field goals have been converted without an assist in their last two games.

The best part is that its not just one player but like Korver says is a collection of several. Al Horford has turned in back-to-back solid performances. Paul Millsap has been solid all season. Jeff Teague is starting to find his way and nearly got a triple-double against the Kings. Getting comfortable is a good thing and the Hawks are settling in at the offensive end of the floor.

Andy Miller, like the other owners of the Sacramento Kings, has been successful in the business world by capturing the mentality of Silicon Valley, which translates into some creative ideas for the sports world.

Kings co-owner Andy Miller grew up watching the Boston Red Sox and has been a fan of baseball in general for a long time.

After moving to California from Boston and working for a little company called Apple, he made a move into the baseball world four years ago when he became a co-owner of the Modesto Nuts Minor League Baseball team. With technology and data front and center in his professional life, Miller, much like majority owner Vivek Ranadive, is able to glean the principles that have made the companies of Silicon Valley successful and apply them to sports.

His experience as the former vice president of mobile advertising for Apple and the current chief operating officer of Leap Motion Inc. has led him to the conclusion that one of the reasons Major League Baseball is trailing the other major sports in popularity is because it isn't appealing to the "Instagram generation."

Miller recently wrote about the conundrum baseball has found itself in for Peter Gammons' site Daily Gammons. His unique perspective of fan turned to technology star turned to minor and major league team owner is one that Gammons wanted him to write about. In his article, Miller states that the MLB should use Facebook's Core Values to kick the league into the next gear: focus on impact, move fast, be bold, be open and build social value. The principles are intertwined with solving problems with the fan experience, being more open with data and including fans in the decision-making process through social media - all aspects Miller and Ranadive have seemed to implement this season in Sacramento.

The goal, among others: activate the Kings social media generation.

"Trying to open everything up because we don't really own the team, the city owns the team and the fans own the team, and if they're not feeling like they are participating and building this thing then it is a big mistake and it won't have lasting social value," Miller said.

From gathering fan feedback on Twitter to online fan surveys on the new downtown arena, the Kings have made several attempts this season to make the fans feel included in the ride.

In his Gammons piece, Miller wrote about how Major League Baseball should be more open with its data because "the common thread is that an open platform gives equal access to data where folks can take and add to the platform to build their own creations in other ways than the platform host intended."

Miller is heading up the Technology Committee for the Kings at the request of Ranadive. His first major duty on the committee was launching the new Kings app at the beginning of this season. The app, which is now available on the iOS and Android platforms, incorporates the data capabilities of Ranadive's company Tibco to "allow people to do things that they couldn't do before." It adds new functionality, including targeted information for season ticket holders, the ability to purchase tickets and merchandise and has a digital cowbell feature. But for Miller, a man who once reported directly to Steve Jobs, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

"The app is definitely a work in progress and we wanted to get something out very quickly for opening day, and obviously, only had a short period of time to work on it, so Phase 1 was to add more functionality," Miller said.

Phase 2, according to Miller includes enhancements to the user/social experience over the next few weeks based on fan feedback, followed by a complete redesign after the NBA All-Star break.

"We want people to go to the app to have a conversation," Miller said.

Outside of the app, Miller and the Kings' Technology Committee is full steam ahead on the technology aspects of the new downtown arena, with the endgame of developing an arena experience that is visual and packed with technology.

"We want to make it the top sort of integrated technology experience ... just step into a Kings world that is all connected and follows you around, and I think a couple years from now, that will be a big reality and we'll be a model for the rest of professional sports," Miller said.

And then there's the crowd noise in the new arena. Earlier this season, Kings fans broke the Guinness World Record for indoor crowd roar. Miller said he wants to see the new arena enhance that home court advantage possibly through the design concepts that some football stadiums utilize to create sound pockets around the end zones.

"It's something I think we can do here as well, but I don't think we need any artificial help for the Kings fans to be loud and engaged in the game," Miller said.

While Miller isn't exactly expecting to be Major League Baseball's next commissioner when Bud Selig steps down in 2015, he, along with his fellow Kings owners, seem to have some innovative ideas that any team or league could learn from.

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• The Kings' Sign Lady is in the Fan Hall of Fame
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: 2013-14 Week Seven
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Sean Highkin of USA Today joins me to talk Kings, trades, and the week that was in the NBA.

The Sactown Royalty Show is back!  This week I was joined by Sean Highkin of USA Today.  Sean and I covered a wide range of topics in this episode.  We started with DeMarcus Cousins, Ben McLemore, Rudy Gay, and Isaiah Thomas.  Sean's a Trailblazers fan so we talked about their hot start and the Kings' decision not to keep Robin Lopez.

From there we ventured into general NBA news, talking about Kobe Bryant's injury, Omer Asik's trade situation, the Knicks ineptitude, and why everyone hates Mario Chalmers.

It was a fun show, be sure to check it out.

Like the show? Subscribe to us on iTunes or on Stitcher! Leave us ratings, leave comments, let us know how we're doing. Ratings and comments on iTunes really help us out with promoting the show. And of course, continue the discussion in the comments below.

As always, thanks for listening.

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It's Prediction Time!

(As of 12:15 PM Pacific Time, the comment system is still unavailable.  As such, I'm making the executive decision to cancel today's Prediction contest.  To make up for it, the next five games will have a 6th question)

He never had a chance.

Ben McLemore was just a good, fun-loving kid. He liked videogames, hanging out with his friends and playing basketball. That is, until he tried to take a charge against LeBron James.

via Danny Martinez (@DannyMartinez4)

Let this be a lesson to all the youngsters: Don't try to take a charge on LeBron. Poor Sacramento, another first-round pick gone to the big draft in the clouds.

As for a tip to avoid this in the future? Maybe take up golf, I guess.

The Kings got off to a hot start but weren't able to keep up with the torrid pace of the Miami Heat.

The losing streak continues for the Kings.  Despite shooting 58.1% from the field against the Heat, the Kings still lost by 19 points.  The last time a team shot that well and lost by that much was in 1986 per Tom Haberstroh (funnily enough, it was against the Kings).

How did this happen?  For starters, the Kings allowed Miami to shoot an even better 61.4% from the field and 43.5% from three.  Miami also dominated in the fast break, outscoring the Kings 22 to 6.  The Kings also shot themselves in the foot by missing 15 of their 22 free throw attempts.  Rudy Gay, Isaiah Thomas and Derrick Williams, all 80% or better shooters from the line, shot a combined 3-12 from the line.

The Heat also did an excellent job of forcing turnovers (20) and then capitalizing on those turnovers (32 points off turnovers).  Chris Bosh was the man for Miami, scoring 25 points on 11-16 shooting to go with 8 rebounds.  LeBron James had a pedestrian (for him) 18 points on 8-11 shooting, 6 rebounds and 8 assists.  Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen added 20 and 18 points respectively.

For Sacramento, they got good offensive performances from their starters, all of whom scored in double digits.  DeMarcus Cousins led the way with 27 points (11-15 from the field), 8 rebounds and 5 assists.  His shooting performance tonight officially puts him above 50% from the field for the season.

Rookie Ben McLemore had a breakout game with 20 points on an efficient 8-13 from the field and 4-7 from three. Isaiah Thomas scored 11 points, but struggled shooting the ball, going just 4-11 and 1-6 from downtown. He did dish out 7 assists though.

The Kings finish up their road trip tomorrow night in Orlando before heading back to Sacramento.

For the Heat perspective, visit Hot Hot Hoops

The tables are turned on the king of the videobomb Friday night...

The Magic have lost three straight at Amway Center.

The Orlando Magic continue their six-game homestand Saturday night against the Sacramento Kings.

Tipoff between Orlando and Sacramento is set for 7:00 PM Eastern on Fox Sports Florida and ESPN 580 AM in Orlando. The Orlando Pinstriped Post GameThread will appear at 5:00 PM in this StoryStream and on the cover.

Orlando's last time out: The Magic lost their third straight home game Wednesday, 86-82, against the Utah Jazz. Rookie point guard Trey Burke stuffed the stat sheet with 30 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists for the visitors, while Orlando managed to shoot just 32.6 percent in the absence of Arron Afflalo, its leading scorer and a possible All-Star.

Sacramento's last time out: The Kings could enter Saturday's game tired, given that they played Friday against the Miami Heat and lost by a 122-103 final. The Kings' defense could not stop the defending NBA champs, who shot 61.4 percent from the floor. Sacramento went just 10-of-24 (41.7 percent) from the foul line. In defeat, DeMarcus Cousins came up in a big way, tallying 27 points on 15 shots to go with eight boards, five assists, and two steals.

In 2012/13: The Kings swept the two-game season series from Orlando. On February 27th, Sacramento built a 30-point lead through three quarters at Amway Center before taking its foot off the proverbial gas in the fourth, prevailing by a 125-101 final.

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This is one dunk to remember....

Sacramento basically can't stop anyone most nights. That's not good.

After another blowout loss -- this one was 122-103 in favor of the Heat -- the Kings defense is now four points per 100 possessions worse than league average, good for No. 27 in the NBA. It feels worse. The Kings' defense since the Rudy Gay trade has been stunningly bad.

The Kings have played seven games since the trade was announced on December 9. The first two were played with Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray. Here are the opponents' offensive efficiency against the Kings compared to their own season average.

So that's two great defensive performances (against Dallas and Houston), one acceptable one (Charlotte) and four really bad performances (the rest). If this were soccer, that'd be a 2-4-1 record on defense with a huge negative goal differential.

Miami shot an effective field goal percentage of .675. That's incredible! (A good way to think of effective field goal percentage: Miami scored the points equivalent to shooting .675 all on two-pointers all game. That's almost 70 percent!) That's been the Kings' defensive problem: the shot defense is horrid, currently No. 29 in the NBA. Sacramento's peripheral defensive stats are fine. The Kings rank No. 10 in forcing opponent turnovers, No. 11 in defensive rebounding and No. 17 in foul rate. (A team with DeMarcus Cousins should be top 10 in defensive rebounding; they should get there by the end of the season now that the small forward position has a reputable rebounder there.)

The Kings have struggled to challenge shooters all season, and guards continue to get free all over the place. Chris Bosh posed all sorts of problems on Friday, going for 25 points in 25 minutes on 17 shooting possessions. In many ways the Heat are a unique offensive team because of Bosh and LeBron James: they are scoring 111 points per 100 possessions this season for a reason, of course. But the Kings' defensive problems -- challenging shots and preventing easy looks -- were exacerbated by Miami's attack. Think about the numbers again: the Kings shot 58 percent from the field and still lost by 19.

I accept that the Kings may not have the necessary defensive personnel to win on that side of the ball. But the defense really can't be this bad (again) all season, not with a defensive coach and improvement as a stated goal. The team really has to figure out lineups or schemes that can get stops regularly.

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• Miami dominates the Kings 122 to 103
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