Sacramento Kings: The Roller Coaster That Was December

December 27th-December 30th

The Kings, sitting at 12-17 with three games left in 2015, had a chance to take the eight seed with a win over the Portland Trailblazers. Both teams are young and inexperienced, but the Trailblazers have almost no expectations for their squad this season given that they lost four of their five starters this offseason.

As Portland came to Sacramento, they were a bit of an enigma. On one hand, they didn’t have star Damian Lillard once again, who was out with a nagging foot injury. On the other hand, the under-manned Blazer squad had just ’embarrassed’ and ‘clobbered’ a marquee Cavaliers team the night before-105-76.

The Kings soon found out they were facing a team with quite a bit more fight than one would assume they had by merely looking at the Blazers on paper. They played an exciting, albeit sloppy, first quarter in which both teams posted over 30 points and had quite a few turnovers.

Neither team was ever able to pull too far ahead of the other, and as they wound through the fourth quarter, the Kings kept up the pace — only to lose their shot at the game with a little over a minute to go thanks to several ugly shot attempts by Rondo and Cousins.

Ultimately, this was a game Sacramento had little business keeping this close, as they had 22 turnovers on the night, and shot just three of 22 in the fourth quarter.

There’s no preachy message for this kind of game. The team gets some credit for somehow staying in the game despite Cousins taking nearly 30 shots (only making 12) and Gay playing some of the worst basketball of his career (2 for 12 on the night). However, any credit they get doesn’t mean much when you shoot barely 13 percent in the final quarter of a close game. And as the Kings looked ahead, they had a date with the 28-1 defending champion Warriors the very next day.

Still looking to finish 2015 in the playoff picture, the Kings made their way to Oakland to take their shot at the reigning champs and their MVP Stephen Curry. The early storyline was the battle of the two brothers, Steph and Seth Curry. It’s always exciting to see brothers battle, and Seth got some playing time early to make sure this happened.

The two teams were locked in a tight battle, with Klay Thompson and Draymond Green both notching over 25 points. Curry — Stephen, not Seth — even finished with his sixth career triple-double. However, the show was stolen by Omri Casspi, who challenged Curry to a three-point shooting contest with three minutes to go before halftime. Each player would pull up from seemingly further and further, draining 30-foot jumpers like they were nothing.

Before we get serious and lecturing, let’s take a moment to bask in the excitement of these final three minutes of play. Seriously, everyone needs to enjoy Grant Napear losing his mind as the arena erupts after every shot. This was without a doubt the most exciting moment of Kings or NBA action of the year.

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Pelican Debrief

Now that we got the joy out of the way, back to the serious and lecturing part.

The Kings led at halftime, and a few minutes into the third quarter, Cousins got called for a foul on Curry. It was a nitpicking foul, but it was certainly on him nonetheless.

Cousins would have none of the explanation by the officiating crew, and got slapped with a technical. This further enraged him, and he went absolutely berserk, shoving teammate Rudy Gay and assistant coaches away as they tried to hold him back, knowing full-well what was about to happen. Cousins was given a second technical, and was thus ejected from the game.

The Kings simply were never the same. In his post game comments, Coach Karl said he wasn’t, ‘…sure if he liked how [the Kings] responded’.

Shocking, right? When your best player gets tossed in the middle of a close game, it’s really not surprising that the team doesn’t fare well. The Kings went down big immediately, as Golden State went on a 15-0 run and never looked back, winning 122-103. This game may be a pivotal moment in the front office’s decision to move on from Cousins come February as the trade deadline looms.

No one doubts Cousins’ basketball skills or potential. But at this point in his career, it appears no one is able to save him from himself. His anger issues will continue to haunt him as long as he plays basketball, and leads the casual NBA fan to label him as a bad guy.

Unfortunately, what you do on the court is seen on ESPN much more than anything else. Cousins was seen putting on his annual holiday event for underprivileged children, and giving a family a car, but none of that is going to be remembered by the national media next week.

He’s made a reputation for himself, and doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. His selfish behavior even upstaged an amazing performance by Casspi, who scored 36 points and tied Mike Bibby‘s team record for nine three-pointers in one game.

As if the fan base wasn’t on edge enough after that game, the Kings still had one more game to play. They hosted a two win 76ers team — a team known for their impressive ability to tank year after year. Sadly though, it wasn’t the 76ers who tanked on this night, as the Kings were simply outplayed by a team people have labeled the worst team in NBA history.

Next: Divac Has Kings Headed In Right Direction

No one Kings player messed up, it was just the definition of a team failure at every level. It’s safe to say this is not the way the Kings wanted to go into 2016. They are currently 12-20 and sit 10th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference. They have a lot of work to do if they want to play meaningful basketball in April for the first time since 2006.