Peja did not play due to a hand injury (shooting hand). Both Wells and Abdur-Rahim (!!!) got technicals in the third. Adelman told the team perhaps if they directed their ire at the opposing team instead of the officials, it would work out better for the team. Kings then proceed to cut a 17 point fourth quarter lead down to three before missing shots at the end.
Main problem for this team? Lack of quality play off the bench (Kevin Martin is NOT ready for NBA game play; Garcia has potential, but still needs to control his game within the concept of the King's offense - the major problem we had with Gerald Wallace). Kenny Thomas has been okay, but unhappy that he is not starting.
As for the starters, both Wells and SAR have been playing great (Wells, it turns out, is an aggressive rebounder - who knew?), but King's defense puts them in catch-up mode almost from the opening tip. Lack of atheletism for a professional team getting paid as much as these guys is absolutely disgraceful. Wells tried an alley oop pass to Peja against Milwaukee. Kings bench broke out in hilarity as all Peja could do was prevent the ball from sailing into the stands and tap it back to an unprepared Bonzi, who knocked it back out of bounds. Wells later told reporters he saw Peja point to the ceiling (for an alley oop pass); Peja said he was lying, he had pointed to the floor (for a bounce pass). Jocularity ensued.
Then Seattle and San Antonio jumped all over and around the scrambling Kings, whose sponsorship of "Suction Cup" Nikes has not been going too well.
