.
No Bobby = no problem. No Chris = no worries. No Vlade, Mike, and
Mateen = no win for the Phoenix Suns. The Kings have shown they can
win this year no matter who is out with an injury. Perhaps if all twelve
guys on the team were hurt the other team might have a chance.
.

WIN STREAK NOW AT 8 AS KINGS GRAB SHARE OF LEAD

Reno Lady

Wasn't pretty? It was downright ugly - but it's a win and I'll take it! Hopefully the rest of the rust will be chipped away from the Kings when they play the Cavs on Tuesday (and thank goodness it's the Cavs and not the Mavs!). The only one who looked like he was really ready to play at the beginning tonight was Webber: a double/double in the first half! I think he could have had a monster game but chose to get everyone else involved, especially Christie and Peja, both of whom were struggling. Chris basically turned into "Vlade" in the 2nd half, forgoing scoring in the main for passing and defense. That last 3 of Christie's was great, another assist from Webber, and Peja finally got going by driving to the basket and getting to the line. The Kings were pretty good from the line tonight BTW, over 80% which is quite respectable. The game shouldn't have been as close as it was; the Kings hurt themselves with too many TOs tonight; luckily the Suns weren't able to capitalize on all of them.

Webber did a really good job tonight, didn't force his offense, mixed up his inside and outside play well, & distributed the ball quite well too. He made a couple of really good plays with those big hands of his, literally plucking the ball out of thin air a couple of times. I think his play is now on a level with what it was the first half of last season, maybe even a little better because he's passing more.

Critic

Webber's box score tonight is a hall-of-fame-level box score. 10-12 FTs, 2 blocks and 13 rebounds say he was a force inside and his points-to-shots ratio and his assists suggest he was making good decisions with the ball. Wish I could afford him in fantasy ball. Don't worry if it was pretty -- that keeps the string going and moves them into first, with Shaq about to sit for a while.

Bonsy

Before the game, Mike Bibby was out shooting baskets and running the floor. He looked fine, maybe a bit rusty on his shots. But he was running well, no hobbling or favoring any knee. I expect he'll play Tuesday.

The Kings offense looked rusty, but mostly, it looked like it badly missed Mike Bibby's play. Even though the offense mostly runs through Chris or Vlade (Chris last night), there are other times where a point guard needs to control the plays. Even Bobby admits he's not good at that. In the post game interview he said he was trying to get others involved, but he can't seem to help shooting too much. Too often he passed the ball off but with only about 5 seconds left on the clock. Webber was most often the recipient of that pass, and had nothing to do put put up a shot himself. One went into the hoop as the buzzer sounded on the 24 second clock.

It's hard to fault Bobby much when he brings in so much energy and makes some spectatular shots. But I'll be happy to see Mike back in the starting lineup.

Webber is so good that I think people just expect it from him. That's as it should be. He had some absolutely beautiful give-and-gos, three in a row. The first was with Bobby, who just missed the lay-up. The second was Christie, and the next was Peja. I think those came right at the end of the 1st half. After the last one, Hardaway was just walking away shaking his head. You just can't stop that.

Everybody but Webber looked rusty. But everybody still brought energy and made the rebounds that were necessary. I'd say that the rebounding and good free throw shooting were the difference.

On man, that one huge down the floor pass from Webber to Wallace, that was gorgeous!!! At the next time out, Wallace walked off he floor with Webber rubbing his hair hard like a little brother. Wallace, the junior Webber?

It's funny, but the Kings played at about 65%. LOL! I think you have to say that since two starters were missing and they were rusty after the 6 days off and almost no practice because of all the injuries.

The sad part is, the Suns were taking even worse shots than the Kings. Marbury went for long spells where he was the only one to touch the ball.

I laughed at one point when they took him out and put in Delk. It turned into the Jackson and Delk show. There were probably 4 straight series where nobody but Tony and Bobby touched the ball.

And now, we're done with the Suns. 3-1 in the series.

Jeff

I thought the Kings had pretty good shots most of the night, but their shot was off (probably to be expected after so much time off?). The turnovers were a bad problem, maybe the lack of players healthy to practice hurt them there.

I really liked how Jackson calmed down after a rough start. Stephon was abusing him and he was doing nothing for the team at either end of the court. But, he settled down near the end of the first quarter, and his level of play picked up.

I was impressed with Webber's defensive attitude. For a long section of the game he was covering everyone on the Suns. He went everywhere the ball went.

Hope Bibby is healthy to go soon. The Kings didn't protect the ball so well when Christie was running the point. And Webber should NEVER bring the ball up against pressure.

RPO

Fellow Earthlings, tonight's (last night's) win matches the longest win streak in Sac history (=8 games). I just read in one of the recaps that the longest in franchise history was 9 games. With Cleveland coming in next, I think we can match the franchise record, and given the schedule coming up I think we can really add to this baby, esp if Vlade and Bibs are available soon. It's really cool how each season we get to hear "the Kings set a new franchise record..." and also "the Kings are off to the best start in franchise history..." But isn't all this winning getting a bit boring? (just kidding...)

CAMBY AIN'T NO SHAQ

Fireplug

This was plain and simple premeditated violence. Kobe Bryant admitted in a post game interview that Shaq said he would take out Miller if he was fouled hard again. Visions of Rudy Tomjanovich's career ending injury went through my head as I watched Shaq go berserk. Anything less

Critic

Ultimately, the steepest penalty Shaq might encounter for going after Miller is that the refs may stop letting him clear people out with his upper body (which they all seem to let him do). If he has to play by the same rules as others, they'll also send him to the line a lot more when he gets hacked, which they really don't do now. I think they've figured it evens out and "let them play." I don't think it does even out (Shaq shooting fouls doesn't offset Shaq sitting down with too many fouls to play) and I think it will hurt Shaq and the Lakers if they call the game a bit differently when he has the ball in his hands than they have in the past. I don't think they've given him much extra leeway on D, but on offense, a significant percentage of his moves are fouls when Jahidi tries them.

No ref is going to want to let the game get as out of hand as it did the other night. The clips don't show the whole game. I suspect there may have been a smidge of truth to the Zen Master's claim that they let it get out of hand. Doesn't matter now -- they'll be calling touch fouls for a while. Would YOU want to be the ref who had to try to restrain Shaq once he goes off? Not me. I'd turn it into a no-touching game for a while to make a point with him and those guarding him that we can't have any more of that or someone will get badly hurt. He may not be a serious threat to hurt someone when "punching," but he sure would be a threat in that scrum. He's strong as ten bears.

Bottom line? Shaq is going to regret losing it for a long long time and perhaps in a lot more ways than just a suspension. How happy could Pepsi be with their Shaq ads? Bet they don't run them for a while. If he gets paid extra based on exposures, he'll be losing some more there. Other advertisers won't touch him with a pole for at least a while. No one wants to have their product pitched by someone getting bad publicity.

Shaq may have to rely on his legit moves and watching a Laker game will be more enjoyable. I seldom watch them now because I get almost as annoyed as many here do with watching what they've allowed Shaq to do with the ball in his hands. I think he is good enough to adjust his game, but are the Lakers good enough with him on a leash on offense? Probably, but it would be interesting to see.

SandB Bill

I see the proverbial s* hitting the fan with this one.. The New York papers are going to have a field day over this.

There is no way in hell you can ever tell me that the League is not biased towards this overgrown creep.

I'm wondering what this will do to future calls from the refs now? will they tighten up on the calls when Shaq gets any contact from a defender? will they start calling the offensive fouls on him?

This is just a bunch of crap!

Kingboy00

So lemme get this right. You get an automatic 1 game suspension, accompanied with a $7500 fine for getting attacked by the fattest guy in the NBA???????

Just think, if it was Kobe that had attacked Miller, he'd (Miller) have been suspended for a year.

Hallama

Shaq must have told Stu Jackson that he saw a mosquito on the back of Brad Miller's skull and he was just trying to "remove it."

Didn't the league set a precedense last season with Camby? Five games for a missed punch. I don't get it. How can the league explain this one?

That deserved only one more game than McBaby's suspension last year? Are they serious?

I am at a loss.

Hopefully, Mark Cuban will be making a nice new donation to charity after he (only owner with ballzz) calls out the NBA on this one.

Streets

Shaq will miss the Spurs road game, along with Memphis and Miami at home.

That roundhouse punch was as frightening as anything I've seen in a sporting event, excluding what happened to Jimmy Superfly Snuka one time in WWF, but that's not really sports.

Should've been more. 5 at the ABSOLUTE minimum.

Anyway here's to hoping the psychological effect of all this mess unseats the Lakers.

I wonder if maybe in the smallest corner of Shaq's huge raging skull he was thinking: "hey, it's a free one, i'm not gonna be playing anyway. . ." and really let his restraint go accordingly.

PS. I'm still smiling about the whupping the TWolves gave them. The dunks! The snarls! Beautiful!

Ken

Shaq is NOT the victim here.

Throughout his career, he hacks as much as he gets hacked. It seems like he has endured a lot of hacking just because the refs AWLAYS calls a foul on the other guy, resulting in Shaq's FT. Shaq mugs the other teams' big men with equal if not higher frequency game in and game out but it was not talked about much becuase those freaking refs (directed by pro-big-market-teams God Stern and co.) give him a rediculously huge allowance every single play.

Most people prefer to fool themselves by thinking it as "inconsistent officiation". But face it, this very inconsistency consistently go in favor of the Lickers.

Comparing to the Camby and McGrady incidents, the ruling on this one is a solid proof of the favorism.

John114AAA

It is a farce, a travesty, unmitigated gall, abuse of power, etc., etc.. If it had been Scot Pollard under same circumstances, he would have probably received a ten game suspension. Jahadi White or any other guy considered a big, tough center would probably receive the 10 game variety punishment. I agree reno lady, Shaq and the Lakers just received special, favorable treatment. What ever happenned to the principles of a careful and full review of the facts, precedent and taking into account the person and team's response? The facts here were ugly, the precedent is clear from last year's Camby incident and Shaq and the Lakers have shown no sorrow or made no apology for the incident. In fact the lakers have done just the opposite, blaming the league and the officials and the other team's players for the incident. This is nothing short of outrageous and contemptable.