A Royal Pain
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Game Recap: Sacramento Kings Rally, But Fall Short to the Los Angeles Clippers Again

By Rafe Wong

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Despite Rajon Rondo’s 21 point performance tonight against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Sacramento Kings fall short to their rivals again for the second time in three games. With a final score of 114-109, the Kings gave the Clippers another fight down the stretch, but unfortunately it repeated with another loss. Other than Rondo’s 21 points, others Kings that stood out tonight were Rudy Gay with 20 points and 9 rebounds of his own and Darren Collison with 15 points and 6 assists.

Like any game that the Kings play, I noticed both positives and negatives.

Despite DeMarcus Cousins being unable to play in the second half, a negative that I saw from the team was again their perimeter shooting. The Kings shot a percentage of 33.3% from beyond the arc, which is unacceptable to their standards. For the Kings to be able to be efficient offensively, players have to make their jump shots for the offense to become more well-rounded.

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Second negative that I saw from this game was that the Kings fouled the Clippers 34 totals times, which resulted in the Clippers shooting a total of 46 free throw attempts. Even though the Clippers only made 32 of their free throws (still high number), it still affected the way the Kings played on defense.

If they have players in foul trouble, it causes their defense to be less aggressive and stout, which could lead to the Clippers being more confident going against Kings players on the offensive end.

Although there were negatives from this game, I did see positives from this team as well.

For one, Rondo showed up for the Kings again, by scoring 21 points and recording 8 assists for the game. This is the second consecutive game that Rondo has been efficient, which leads fans like myself to feel more confident in him being the orchestrator of this team going forward.

Final, and probably most important positive to take away from tonight’s game is that the Kings were able to hang with a competitive Clippers team for one half without their best player in DeMarcus Cousins. After Cousins left with an achilles injury that sidelined him for the second half, the Kings still held their ground against the Clippers, which resulted in the game being determined in the final minute of the game.

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Although the Kings came out with a loss, what this shows is how deep this roster is compared to last season. If this scenario were to happen last year, I don’t think they would have lasted the third quarter.

Overall, there were both negatives and positives to take out of this game. But what was a big positive to take out of this game was that the Kings were able hang with a competitive team despite losing their best player. The Los Angeles Clippers are a legitimate candidate to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals this summer, and the fact that the Kings made them sweat throughout the whole 48 minutes played deserves some props.

Next: Rajon Rondo Step Up, Silences Doubters

The next opponent for Sacramento will be against the Memphis Grizzlies (another competitive team) on their home soil Tuesday night. If the Kings can limit their foul troubles, be able to make their perimeter shots, and have “Boogie” Cousins play throughout the entire game they definitely have a chance to make a statement win against a playoff contending team.

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