Kings Lay Smack Down on People’s Eyebrow, Shut Pelicans Down

By Nick Avila | Nov 25, 2014

No Rudy Gay. No Darren Collison. Mike Malone ejection in second quarter? This wasn’t the ideal situation for the visiting Sacramento Kings, but none-the-less, the Kings showed a complete team performance. The Kings (9-5) took it to the New Orleans Pelicans (7-6) and got the revenge they were looking for since last week in the form of a 99-89 victory.

The Kings held Anthony Davis in check and were able to overcome strong performances by Ryan Anderson and Tyreke Evans to pull out the road victory. The Kings defense was able to lay the smack down on the People’s Eyebrow, allowing him only 14 points on 12 shots and the Kings team defense held the Pelicans to their second lowest scoring output of the season, and only 40 points in the second half.

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The absence of Gay and Collison didn’t seem to play a factor early as the Kings stormed out to a 12-2 lead. The Kings defense forced three early turnovers on their way to extending their lead to 19-4. After that, the Pelicans finally woke up, going on a 7-0 run to reduce the gap.

But the Kings pressed on, on the way to a 27-16 first quarter advantage, fueled by 7 points from Ben McLemore on 3/3 shooting and six points apiece from DeMarcus Cousins, Omri Casspi and Collison-fill in Ramon Sessions.

McLemore’s hot-hand remained steaming to open the second quarter as he drained a three, but the Pelicans would take advantage of a porous Kings bench as they cut the lead to three.

Cousins would re-enter the game and all would be right in the world as Sacramento would push their lead back up to nine. But, then, Anderson would once again pour it on against his hometown team, dropping 12 quick points off the bench as he helped the Pelicans rally and tie the game at 49 a piece at half.

At the four minute mark of the second quarter, Sacramento coach Mike Malone was ejected for arguing a no-call. Malone is no rookie when it comes to sticking up for his guys, which has played a key part of the players buying in to his system. He’s even been restrained by Cousins in a game earlier this season while arguing a questionable sixth foul.

Assistant Head Coach Tyrone Corbin took over for Malone as he exited. The Kings only took four FTAs in the first half, something that could have possibly led to some of Malone’s anger.

Another Boogie Explosion pushed the Kings out to a third quarter lead. Cousins was doing it all, defensively and on the offensive end. He finished the third with 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. The only thing keeping the Pelicans in the game was Anderson and his shooting shenanigans. He finished the period with 18 points on 7 of 12 shooting. The Kings held a 74-69 lead heading to the fourth.

Entering the fourth quarter, Corbin put some faith in the bench and Ray McCallum, Nik Stauskas and Carl Landry thanked him for his faith as they kept the Pelicans away.

The Kings got into foul trouble early in the last quarter, putting themselves in the penalty with only three and a half minutes taken off the clock. After Davis split a pair of free throws, the Kings held an 85-79 lead.

A Kings push led by Casspi buckets and a Sessions trey would give the Kings a 14-point lead. The Sessions make would be the dagger as the Kings finished with five players (Cousins, Casspi, McCallum, McLemore, Sessions) in double digits and two players (Landry and Stauskas) with nine point.

The team doesn’t have any time to celebrate their second consecutive road victory, third straight overall, with the Houston Rockets waiting for them in Houston tomorrow.

NOTES:

According to Jason Jones, Mike Malone is the first Kings coach to be ejected for two technical since Rick Adelman in 2003.

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