Kings ARE getting hammered. Before AND after the games, it seems, and not just during.
Why, you ask? Mainly because their team leadership got traded to Orlando and Philadelphia, or outright released to sign with the Lakers. The idea that Bibby or Peja or Miller would step in the void and become team leaders is a dismal failure. Mobley is vocal, but he's kind of nuts. The new guys are just that, and none of them have the presence to be a team leader, except maybe Williamson, but he's a bench player.
Without a true floor leader, we have five individuals playing as individuals. The ball movement that spells success for the Kings is kept in a locker at Arco Arena and not allowed to travel with the team for away games.
Worse, the coach keeps preaching to the media about guys getting aggressive and playing hard and working within the framework of the team's offensive strategy, then stands sternly on the sidelines during the games with arms folded, eyeballs rolling, and coyly passing his discussed message on to his players by sulkily walking back towards the bench with his glowering gaze on the floor in front of him. His counterpart is screaming at his players if they miss a minor defensive set. His timeouts are lectures on allowing the opponent to do anything he wants on offense, then backs it up by pulling players who don't listen. Adelman ends up pulling his entire starting unit in disgust, then lets the bench players exhaust themselves pulling the Kings out of the hole the starters got the team into without bringing in his rested guys.
The Sonic players are all playing for something. Playoff advancement as well as free agent deals, as nearly everyone on the team is playing out a contract. The Kings are playing for tee times in early May.
I have never been more down on the Kings before, even when they were NBA patsies. At least then you could expect no effort with the players the Kings had. But now, we all can see how overrated some of these guys really are. Bibby is getting outplayed by a rookie point guard who is playing horrible himself, but still better then Mike. Adelman actually had (and as much as I would like to be, I am not kidding) Corliss Williamson defending Jerome James for most of that third quarter. Corliss, bless him, did not shirk this duty, though at 6', 7", his efforts were hardly noticed by the 7'2" James, who proceded to score at will over the puny efforts of the littliest center in the League.
Where was Greg Ostertag? After nine first half minutes, he entered the Adelman doghouse once again and never emerged.
Somebody, bomb Arco and put me out of my misery.
