There is no telling which Sacramento Kings team will show up each and every night. On Monday, it was the powerful, fun, punch you in the face Kings team that ran through a very good Oklahoma City Thunder club on their home floor by the final of 116-104.
After a rough three-game losing streak, the Kings have won two straight and now sit at 14-20 on the season. Once again, they are right back in the mix for the eight spot in the Western Conference and looking to build off the win.
“It’s big for our franchise, it’s big for our team,” Rajon Rondo said following the game. “We’ve been struggling on the road and to come out and the set the tone with a great start in the first road win (on the trip), is good for our team.”
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[RECAP: Instant Replay: Kings get past Durant-less Thunder]
DeMarcus Cousins scored 30 or more points just one time in the month of December, but he’s accomplished that feat in both games of the new year. Cousins’ 33-point, 19-rebound performance against a very good Thunder defensive front left no doubt that he is getting close to 100 percent health wise.
“I guess the ball just kinda rolled my way tonight,” Cousins said. “Their bigs usually do a great job against me.”
Cousins wasn’t the only King to have a big night. George Karl has been waiting for Marco Belinelli to lock in and give him consistency at the two. Over his last three games, the Italian-born shooter has found his game, averaging 22.7 points on 58.5 percent shooting from the floor and 43.8 percent from long range.
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“When we put Belinilli in the game, offensively we got some rhythm, some excitement” Karl said. “I challenged the team. I thought our bench was pivotal in this game. I thought our bench was dominant.”
On most nights, Karl has turned to a three-man bench of Belinelli, Darren Collison and Kosta Koufos. It’s a solid and versatile unit that can compete with the best second teams in the league. With rookie Willie Cauley-Stein either joining this group or pushing Omri Casspi back to the bench, the Kings look set with a nine-man rotation.
Karl pointed to Cauley-Stein and Koufos as one of the keys to the team’s defensive improvement, specifically in transition where Sacramento has been notoriously questionable.
“Every team has strengths and weaknesses, and I think their strengths cover up for some other guys' weaknesses,” Karl said.
We’ve been here before. This team has shown flashes of brilliance only to follow it up with moments where they look completely disengaged. With the season nearing the midpoint, it’s time for this group to start putting it together.
Beating a quality Thunder team on the road, even with Kevin Durant sidelined, is a big step forward for Sacramento.
THE WALKING WOUNDED
It started before the game when forward Omri Casspi couldn’t go due to a sore upper back. But by the end of the night, he was just one of the three Kings players that walked into Tuesday’s game a question mark.
Ben McLemore tweaked his mid-back in the first half and wasn’t able to return to the action and in the fourth quarter, the entire Kings franchise held their breath when rookie Willie Cauley-Stein began bleeding all over the court from his previously injured right hand.
There is no word on Casspi, but his injury is unlikely to keep him out long. This was just the second game of the season the 27-year-old has missed. Casspi has started the last 13 games in place of Cauley-Stein, averaging 15 points and 7.3 rebounds while shooting 50.6 percent from 3-point land.
McLemore has never missed a game in his two-plus years in the league and it’s hard to imagine him not suiting up against the Mavericks. The 22-year-old wing is in a dog fight for minutes with Marco Belinelli and he’s facing an uphill battle with the way the veteran has played of late.
The good news for Cauley-Stein is that he didn’t injure the index finger on his right hand that just cost him a month of the season. The bad news is that he needed three stitches in his middle finger on the same hand. Both Cauley-Stein and Karl said they expect him to play in Dallas. I guess he’ll just rub some dirt on it and fight through the pain.
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
The Kings return to the court on Tuesday with every card in the deck stacked against them. First up, they haven’t won in Dallas since February 27, 2003. That’s a brutal stretch of 21 straight losses.
To put that date in perspective, the Kings needed overtime to pull off the 126-124 victory. Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, Peja Stojakovic, Chris Webber and Vlade Divac were your starters, while Bobby Jackson, Jim Jackson and Keon Clark came off the bench.
Stojakovic led the way with 36 points for Sacramento. A 24-year-old Dirk Nowitzki scored 36 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for a star-studded Mavericks team that included Steve Nash, Michael Finley and Shawn Bradley.
If the long-term track record of failure in Dallas isn’t bad enough, the Kings are 0-8 this season in the second night of a back-to-back.
But this Sacramento Kings team is unpredictable. Most of the time their inconsistency has been a bad thing, but not always. This is a winnable game. Dallas is a playoff team, but they have lost two straight and have had bouts of inconsistency of their own.
The Kings want to be a good team. If they can get through Dallas with a win, they have a legitimate shot of stringing together a four-game win streak heading into Saturday’s showdown with the Golden State Warriors.
A BIG NIGHT FOR KARL
With the win, Karl moved ahead of Phil Jackson for sole possession of fifth place on the all-time coaching win list with 1,156 victories. It is a mark that was a long time in the making for one of the game's coaching legends. Next up for Karl, Hall of Famer Pat Riley at 1,210 victories.