Game Thread - Kings vs. Lakers

9:09 - Vladdy Radmanovic with the hook shot squares up the match at 8 all.  Couple of dribbles in the paint, step back, kisses the ball off the rim for the soft fall.  Very easy-breezy play from the Serbian, perhaps liberated by his unsually spiky doo.  He must be in a freewheeling mood.

8:07 - Kobe snags Beno Udrih's inbound pass and proceeds to run hoopward with it.  Slam dunk.  Lakers now up a bucket.

6:28 - Vlad goes the bench after picking up his second whistle off some fairly incidental contact with a driving K-Mart.  Radmanovic doesn't agree with the late whistle.  I'm not sure I do, either.  At any rate, he sits and Luke Walton joins in on the action.   

4:39 - Kobe receives the rock a little below the elbow, works a steps to blow past Martin, then picks up the blocking foul on Moore while racking the and-one opportunity.  The freebie doesn't fall, but that's one on the half-spider and Miller's already got two.  The Lakers have done a nice job pinning fouls on Sacto's big men. 

3:02 - A sloppy pass from Gasol to Walton ends up turning into a John Salmons drive to the rack.  The previous possession featured a Farmar turnover (his second in short time) and a Spencer Hawes layup created as the result of said gaffe.  That's five turnobers with just under three minutes left in the first.  I'm not close enough to the Laker bench to hear everything, but I'll go out on a limb and predict Phil's mentioned something about knocking that off.

1:46 - Another turnover by Farmar on a half court, cross-court pass to Kobe.  It's easily read and just as easily intercepted by Ron Ron.  Thankfully, it only results in a missed three ball by Ron Ron, but to say the very least, Farmar's having an awful go at things.  The next dead results in Sasha coming in for the Bruin.  Were he still on the team, we might actually be seeing The Critter on the floor.

42.4 - Kobe pulls a spin move so complicated, intricate and ridiculous in the paint, I'm not even quite sure how to go about describing it.  Suffice to say, it was pretty durn cool.

End of the first, Kings 31, Lakers 29.  Some sloppy play with a capital "S" on display, particularly on the part of Farmar.  The Lakers are also getting beat 12-9 on the board.  The Kings are hardly shooting the lights out (43%), so it's a matter of playing smart and under control.   BK will supervise the effort in the second.

SECOND QUARTER:

PJ gets Farmar back in the game quickly, after pulling him in the first.  Turiaf also in for Luke to start the second quarter.

10:27- Kobe hits three (three!) FTs to bring the lakers back to within two, 37-35.  Then some solid backcourt pressure forces an eight second count and gets them the ball back with a chance to tie.  Which they do, off a Farmar to  Odom alley oop.  JF has made a couple good plays since coming back into the game.  Guess he just needed a quick sitdown. 

8:49- As they did on Tuesday, the Kings are collapsing on penetration, and conceding outside shots to the Lakers.  Unlike Tuesday, though, the Lakers are converting.  I'm talking some seriously wide open looks, the sort that have to be made.  If they keep it up, Sacto will have to start honoring them on the perimeter, and lanes will open up to move with or without the ball to the basket.

Of course, some of the reason they're packing it in now must be because Kobe has found his way through for contact/layups a few times in the early going.  That's the idea- that teams always have to pick their poison.  Lakers shooting nearly 56%, but are down by 1.  In part because they've given up five offensive boards to the Kings.

8:23- A little bit of overpassing for the Lakers, as Ronny goes up for a shot, then spies a cutting Sasha and tries to deliver it to him, except Vujacic was already too deep under the basket and ended up stepping out of bounds, led by the pass.  Ronny should have just shot the ball, and I think was yelling at himself on the way back up the court because he realized the same thing.

6:50- Again, Ronny dishes off to Sasha when he should have probably gone up strong himself.  Ronny had good position in the low post, and if he'd just gone up, would have had a good look/drawn a foul.  But by dishing to Sasha, he gvae the help time to arrive, and the shot got stuffed.  I love when the Lakers look to move the ball and make a good shot a better shot, but there's a limit to that.

5:50- Lakers down 53-45.  Timeout on the floor.

5:00- Udrih was doing some sort of Kung Fu, fast moving hands of fury type defense on Kobe out on the perimeter.  I wonder if that played a role in the miss. 

4:00- Lakers get lucky, as the Kings turn the ball over after getting themselves another offensive rebound.  The Lakers are really getting hurt on that end.  11 turnovers and 6 offensive boards have given the Kings a lot of extra/unearned opportunities. 

No flow at all for the Lakers offensively.  Very little ball movement, very little player movement.  Lots of one-on-one. 

2:48- Timeout on the floor, Lakers down 60-49.  At 29-19, Q2 hasn't been kind to LAL.

2:40- Artest draws a foul on Odom.  Simple play.  Garcia dribble (to my) right, dumps the ball down to Artest on the block, who had sealed Odom on the post.  Quick spin move, and LO had no choice but to hack.  On the other end, the Lakers make Sacto pay for a double team when Gasol passed to a cutting Odom out of the post.  Easy deuce.

Then they give it back when Rad tries to jump a pass to Martin, misses, and leaves KM with an easy lane to the basket. 

1:15- Vlad commits LA's 15th personal of the half, his third, sending him to the bench.  Martin hits the FTs, then Sasha hits a three on the other end. Good swap.

Strange play- With Martin ready to tee up a three, a late closing Sasha tried the ol' "clap while he shoots to distract him" play that we used to do in, like, seventh grade.  Didn't work.  Martin got nothing but cord. 

At least he made up for it by hitting another three.

HALFTIME: Lakers down 71-60.  Fair to say that was an ugly half.  It's hard to say they were bad offensively, since they're sitting on 60 points and shot 50% from the floor... but if there's such a thing as an unattractive 60- and again, I'm not sure there is- this might qualify.  At the very least,there hasn't been the sort of flow we all like to see.  But the biggest problem was obviously the defense.  Too many turnovers and offensive rebounds surrendered contributed to the problem, but the Kings are just beating the Lakers to spots, forcing them to foul.  Not only is Sacramento shooting nearly 55%, they've also been sent to the line 21 times.  Much of that because the Lakers were in the penalty. 

They'll have to clean all that up, or everyone goes home unhappy. At the very least, it's looking like the folks at Jack in the Box are safe for the evening.

Biggest offensive output of the season for Sacto in one half.  It's always good to support achievement.

THIRD QUARTER

10:56 - Vlad fires awaty from downtown and connects, cutting the Kings lead to a single digit 9. But before I finish typing this sentence, Beno Udrih heads in fairly unfettered fashion to the basket and racks a deuce.  On the next possession, Kobe allows Ron Ron way too much coming around from the top of the circle.  Two points for Testes.  Until this game-long issue gets the clampdown, ain't nothing the Lakers do on the offensive end that's gonna matter much. 

8:31 - Nice job by LO holding his position under the basket, forcing a driving Artest to travel.   

8:07 - The good: Fish taking Gasol's pass and banking the 20-footer home (I'm not close enough to hear, but I don't think he called it).  The bad: Gasol needing to pass out because he appeared to struggle getting position against Mikki Moore.  The Half Spider was doing a nice job playing Pau in physical fashion. 

6:20 - HORRENDOUS job by Vlad allowing an out of control, falling forward and losing the rock Udrih to recover and convert the deuce.  All Radmanovic does it reach, and pretty lazily at that.  Move your feet a little bit, my man.  If you don't actually pick up the easiest charge you'd ever accrue, you could at least make it impossible for Udrih to retain possesoin.  I'm not shocked he got pulled for Walton after the time out.

4:52 - LO snags the loose ball and goes coast to coast, putting Mikki Moore on his heels to pick up a foul and two converted freebies.  The Lakers are back within 7.

By the way, for those not keeping score, this game is starting to get seriously physical.  Fish just drilled Artest under the bucket, allowing LO to grab a Sacto miss and shuttle it to Gasol for the dunk.  And speaking of Ron Ron, he and Kobe are quite wrapped up in this mano y' mano they got going.  Both are getting each other's skin in plainly visible fashion.  I wouldn't be surprised to see either or both pick up a T while facing up against each other.

2:13 - Double T's for Gasol and Miller.  As I pointed out earlier, the physical play of some Sacto folk has been pissing off the Spainiard all game.  He just now decided to speak up about it.

1:54 - Barely 20 seconds pass before Kobe gets T'd arguing a no-call under the basket.  It wasn't a hugely demonstrative display, but he's also been giving the refs an earful all game, so I'm not surprised they've had enough.  That's either 13 or 14 technicals for Bryant this season.  He REALLY needs to be careful.  The West is too tight for him to miss a game over something as stupid as a one-game suspension.

1:22 - LO fails to connect on a chippie, but Walton is there for the putback.  The Lakers are now within a downtown bomb from squaring up this ballgame.

The frame closes down with the Lakers still down a three ball.  92-89.  The third quarter has seen some life after a rather bad first half.  They even held the Kings scoreless for about 4-5 minutes.  The ingredients are there.  We'll see if the recipe holds.  BK with the fourth. 

FOURTH QUARTER:

Lakers careless with the ball early, and the Kings have taken advantage to push the lead back to seven.  Three TOs I believe, already in the frame. 

9:30- Garcia hits a jumper, adn the lead is 100-93 SAC. The Lakers D hasn't been good at all over the first three minutes of the quarer, and the Kings are starting to find room again off the backdoor cuts and off-ball screens.  Kobe's been beat, Farmar's been beat- generally speaking the Kings backcourt has put some hurt on LA's, on that end.

8:57- Timeout on the floor.  Lakers come back out with Ronny, Vlad, Farmar, LO and Sasha.  Vlad'll need to crank it up defensively to stay out for very long. This is obviously an important stretch, as tehy try to stick relatively close without Kobe on the court. 

7 :54- Good sequence there results in an easy layup for LO.  Sasha comes across the key to Farmar, who drops it into Ronny, who hits a cutting LO.  The ball never hit the floor. 

7:15- Farmar misses LO on the wing, instead taking the ball deep into traffic.  Overall, the decisions he's made tonight haven't been all that reat.  But he's quicker that Fish, and hopefully can stick on Udrih a little better... although he really hasn't.  In fairness, Udrih has made everyone look bad for LA at some point tonight.

Sasha hits another three, and the Sacto lead is down to two.

6:55- 100, 95 SAC.

6:10- Timeout on the floor, Lakers down by two.  PJ will likely get Kobe back into the game after the stoppage.  After two terrible quarters, the Lakers are on pace to play two pretty good defensive Qs in teh second half.  21 allowed in the third, 8 thus far in the fourth. 

Fish and Kobe both back in after the TO.

I'm a little surprised Reggie Theus doesn't have Artest back in the game. 

4:35- Two Martin drive and dishes to a penetrating (and totally uncovered) Spencer Hawes for easy dunks prompts a TO from PJ, who will likely mention that they might want to stop the ball earlier before the penetration gets so deep.  Two bad breakdowns.  104-100 Sacto.

4:00-  Good cut by Moore, who had LO trailing him when he went to set the screen, then just slipped it and cut straight to the hoop.  Good recognition on his part.  He came around off another screen, though, to get free.  The Kings do a ton of that sort of thing. 

Kobe makes one of two FTs on the other end.  106-104...

2:40- Strange sequence between Moore and Sasha results in a T for the Lakers, which Sasha converts.  Looked Like Sasha got called for the loose ball foul, then Moore for the T b/c of an elbow, and now the officials can't figure out who should get the ball.

Sacto ends up with it, Lakers down one. 

Theus continues to leave Miller and Artest on the bench.  I'm sure they'll be freaking out at Sactown Royalty.com.   Huge possession, and it results in another Moore dunk.  Slip screen, quick cut, easy dunk.

Sasha gets the points back with a triple.  Udrih scores on a tough drive at the other end. 

1:20- 112-109, Sac.

:15.1- Fantastic play by Fish to give the Lakers a one point lead.  Kobe pulls up on the wing, throws the skip pass to Fish at the three point line.  Fish pumps, lets the defender go by, takes a dribble, but rather than settle for the open J, rises and hits Gasol in the lane for an easy lay in.  Fantastic look.  Great play by Kobe not to force the ball, great play by Fish to recognize that someone had a better shot than he did.

:4.6- Udrih trips over a prostrate Sasha, earning two FTs for the Kings.  Shame, too, since the Lakers had forced the Kings into a tough look.  Good pressure high on the floor before Udrih took the ball off Miller at the high post.  Sasha, who wasn't guarding either of them, ended up on the floor, under Udrih.

He makes 'em both.  Lakers call timeout to advance the ball, 4.6 ticks left, down by one.

Kobe gets the ball on the inbound, deep in the backcourt. Good D by Salmons as Kobe worked to penetrate, forcing an awkward, fadeaway look for Kobe that doesn't fall.  Good help from Moore, too, getting a hand up to help alter the shot.  Lakers lose, 114, 113. 

They played better ball in the second half, but the lead LAL spotted Sacto early was too much.  Bad miss at an opportunity to gain a game on the Spurs in the race for #1.