A Royal Pain
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Game Preview: Kings (13-19) at Timberwolves (5-25)

By Tony Xypteras

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I really don’t want to talk about the Kings 106-84 loss to the Boston Celtics from last night. That game was a complete disaster. If you want a more detailed recap, you can check out our postgame coverage here.

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    • The game itself was a nightmare, and yet I find myself slightly more optimistic than I have been over the past two weeks. Maybe it’s a ‘New Years’ thing?

    My source of optimism is what DeMarcus Cousins had to say after last night’s blowout. He sounded like a player who had finally reached his breaking point. He was directing a lot of the blame back on himself, and while I think he is the last person we can blame for this Kings collapse, I love that attitude.

    He had a terrible game in Boston. I’d call it his worst game of the season by a pretty wide margin, and he basically admitted all of this. I’m going to use some of his quotes from James Ham’s column over at Cowbell Kingdom, which you should definitely check out.

    “We got to come together as a team, myself included,” Cousins said.  “I’m the leader of this team and I got to get my stuff together as well. These guys depend on me every night and I can’t have games like I had tonight. We got to come together and figure this thing out.”

    He said a lot more that I suggest you check out, but a lot of it was a long those lines. I couldn’t help but read what he said and think that maybe, just maybe the Kings had finally hit rock bottom and are ready to start playing basketball again.

    It helps that the Kings first opponent of 2015 is the Minnesota Timberwolves.

    It’s not quite as easy as it sounds, but this is, like I’ve been saying a lot this season, a team the Kings should beat.

    This is the second night of a New Year’s Eve /New Year’s Day back-to-back, and as Tom Haberstroh mentioned on twitter last night, the single longest back-to-back in terms of distance in the NBA this season. Boston to Minnesota. Ouch.

    The Kings may have the three most talented players on the court tonight in DeMarcus Cousins, Rudy Gay, and Darren Collison. The Wolves are young, entertaining, and bad. If the loss to Boston was rock bottom, I shudder to think what a loss to this Timberwolves team would be.

    The one major wrinkle in my philosophy going into tonight’s game is that a suspension for DeMarcus Cousins could be coming for the way he tossed Marcus Smart to the ground last night. You can watch that play below.

    As of this writing, we haven’t heard anything regarding a potential suspension, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the NBA announced something today. If Cousins is out, all bets are off. This team has looked atrocious without him.

    I think this is a win, but I’ve been wrong before. Check back in to A Royal Pain after tonight’s game for our postgame coverage.

    Kings Vs Timberwolves 

    Where: Target Center – Minneapolis, MN 

    Game Time: 5:00 P.M. Pacific, 8:00 P.M. Eastern

    Where to Watch: Comcast Sportsnet California

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