The Sacramento Kings continued their domination of ferocious animals. It wasn't always pretty. It wasn't always fun. But the Kings got the win.
The Sacramento Kings have had so many quality wins so far this season. We have beat some of the best teams in the league, and struggled against some of the worst. With almost all of the Minnesota Timberwolves guns on the bench with an array of injuries, this was a trap game. The Kings played like it was, too. In the first half, they seemed to be more content with hitting the big three or trying to get that big play down low that they forgot the play that has given us most of our wins this season. The second half, while not exactly great basketball itself, showed a little more urgency and got the Kings a double digit lead. In the end, there was good, there was bad, and there was some ugly, but we got the win, and I will take that, especially when it means we are 8-5*.
DeMarcus Cousins led the team with the most effortless 31 points and 18 rebounds of his career. Ben McLemore had his best statistical performance of the young season, with a cool 22 points and nine boards himself. Darren Collison continued his great stretch of games with 19 points and seven assists. I will say Collison had a few more ugly plays than I am used to seeing, but seeing as he hasn't made a habit out of it, I will not read much into it. Derrick Williams was our only bench player who really showed up. Derrick, coming off a good performance on Thursday, was able to get 12 points and six rebounds. He too had a couple of ugly plays, but considering his last stint before these games was a 3 foul in 39 second performance, I will take it. Aggressive Derrick is good Derrick. Omri Casspi, who has been arguably my favorite player not named Boogie, had a very sub-par game by the standards he set. He was forcing the issue a little bit too much, and didn't do much of note outside of a nice and-1. Nik Stauskas appears to have no confidence right now. I feel a stint in that fast paced Reno Bighorns offense could do wonders for him, but as we have learned. Teams do not like sending their lottery picks to the D-League.
On the other side of the court, Andrew Wiggins had his highest scoring output of the season. He found ways to score even when his shots were not falling. This was my first full game watching him this season, and he impressed me. Random veteran presence and baffling former All Star Mo Williams had a great first half; dishing out 10 dimes in that half alone. He finished with 12.
I could nitpick 'til my face turns blue, but in the end, we got the W. And in the words of Kevin's favorite 80's sitcom.
You take the good,
You take the bad,
You take them both,
And there you have...
That Kings game.
For the opposing team's view, visit our pals over at Canis Hoopus.
*9-4