Frustrated Sacramento Kings Looks For a Win In Indiana Tonight
Another game, another twenty-point loss on the road. This is getting tiresome, and I’m just watching the team play. I cannot imagine how frustrated that locker room is.
Let’s be real. No one expected the Kings to beat the red hot Cleveland Cavaliers at the Q last night, but a better team effort would have been nice. I’ve seen the word ‘apathetic’ thrown around on Kings twitter recently, and it’s an appropriate term to describe a lot of the fan base, and even more worrisome at times, the players. Do the players care? Does the front office care? Does anyone care that this ship is sinking?
@ARoyalPain wow. Like a 2.3 the cavs were giving the kings the game!sad Kings didnt want it! Until a "kings team" shows up. No wins in sight
— 🏁Mr$uper$port916🏁 (@MrSuperSport916) January 31, 2015
It’s a rhetorical question, really, because the obvious answer is yes. The players care. The coaches care. The front office cares. The fans care. It’s just apparent that whatever this organization is doing right now isn’t working.
That goes without question. And we’ve gone from passion to apathy because it’s the same story game after game after game. I can tell you with certainty that questioning a team’s effort is not fun. Nobody wants to feel this way.
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But this is the NBA. You cannot dwell on the past, especially on the second night of a back-to-back, which is the exact scenario the Kings are in tonight when they face the Pacers in Indiana. Indiana isn’t very good, but they have a few pretty legitimate excuses.
They’ve been without their best player, Paul George, all season, and I couldn’t have more respect for Frank Vogel as a coach. Despite their talent deficiency, Vogel will have his team playing hard.
One of these teams is going to get a win tonight, which I know it’s obvious. But considering the fact that the Pacers have only two wins in their last 10 games, and the Kings only have one, a win for either team is kind of a big deal.
They both need it.
The Pacers actually match up fairly well with the Kings. On most nights, DeMarcus Cousins has a clear skill and size advantage inside, but the Pacers have a pretty large man defending the paint in Roy Hibbert. I still can’t make sense of Hibbert. He’s shown flashes of brilliance on both ends of the floor, but he so ridiculously inconsistent.
Could Cousins get him in foul trouble and take him out of the game tonight? Of course, but on paper, the Pacers have the size and toughness inside to keep Cousins under control. The Pacers are defensive team. Vogel is a defensive coach. Their leading scorer is George Hill at 13.6 point per game.
With some effort, the Kings should be able to defend this team and outscore them on their way to a win. But this is the Kings, expecting anything would be a mistake.
On a positive note, news broke yesterday afternoon that DeMarcus Cousins would be replacing the injured Kobe Bryant on the Western Conference All-Star Team. I couldn’t be happier for him. It’s unfortunate that it took an injury to get him in the game, but he’s in, and that’s what matters.
As always, check back in to A Royal Pain after tonight’s game for our postgame coverage, and follow our Twitter feed, @ARoyalPain.
Sacramento Kings at Indiana Pacers
Where: Bankers Life Fieldhouse – Indianapolis, IN
When: 4:00 PM Pacific, 7:00 PM Eastern
Broadcast: Comcast Sportsnet California
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM