.
The bus got so full we had to turn people away.
(more pictures)
.

THE FUN DAY...

Pondo

There were several buses and motorhomes parked in the same area that became Kings Arco West staging area.

It was interesting to look around the Arena and see Kings colors and signs plus a Turkey (country) flag hanging in one area. That was only in the area I could view from my seat in the upper reaches. Did see Kingsgurl carrying the Kings flag near the court area and looked like she was getting where no one else could go. Though it seemed some tried.

The group sang "Happy Birthday" to CWebb but not as ESPN News report as he shot free throws in the 4th quarter, it was earlier. Would be interested in what others heard on the radio. To me it seemed the Warrior fans were encouraged to cheer louder by the sounds being generated by the Kings fans.

Was great to see the Kings win. The matched each Warrior run and played defense, especially in the 4th quarter, to win the game. JB mentioned the Wallace errors in garbage time that helped lower the spread from 18 points at one point to 8.

Must remark about a Warrior fan with a loud voice sitting to my right across the aisle. He wanted the Warriors to win so bad. When some of our fans would cheer a Kings basket he would try and cheer louder when the Warriors did. He was not a happy camper. But when the Warrior player went down on the court with the twisted ankle and the Kings fans went quiet and clapped as he was carried off the court I could sense a different feeling from him. He seemed to appreciate the clapping and lowered the volume and feeling in his voice after that.

Outside of taking a "Side Trip on the Bay Bridge" the ride back was uneventful. The Better Half and I enjoyed outselves and want to Thank those who were very understanding of the lack of foot speed on our part. Morning for now (night has done gone by). (That "night done gone by" could be the start of a Blues song?)

kgrichwine

Wow!
That was one hell of a PARTY!
My throat is sore from yelling.
My hair is sore from the purple gel.
My head is sore from the hangover.
I must have been to a Kings game!

Kingsgurl, thank you, thank you, thank you!
I can speak for my family and friends to say that we had an excellent time!

Kingsgurl

Thanks to every one who attended the game with me. I apologize to the poor guy (who was that?) sitting behind me, I think I hit him with the flag pole several times. Thank you all for putting up with the little delays etc. Had a great time, and I hope you all did too. Did you guys see me down on the court with the flag before the game? Too funny. Oakland security really is not very good, we were wandering down there in places we really shouldn't have been, with no problem. The funny thing about it is, we were really just trying to get to our seats and were LOST :)

The only down-side was I really didn't get to meet everyone (at least not enough to put names to the faces of all.) The bus riders I do remember, but I didn't get a chance to meet many of the others at the actual game. RenoLady, it was a pleasure to meet you.

I'm thinking the next bus trip should be a bigger bus. Play-offs, anyone????? The bus driver gave me some really good tips, and I think the next trip should be a lot smoother. He said the larger buses have seats that face each other with a table in between and ice chests etc. What do you guys think?

lilbrother45

I got a chance to talk to some kings fans who rented motorhomes and partied all the way down to arco west in style. Man, that is the way to go watch a game.

Am I the only one who actually felt bad for warrior fans last night? I was really embarrassed by how they were being outscreamed and outcheered by the superior kings fans last night. I don't remember arco ever being that bad when the kings were bad. Of course opposing fans would show up to cheer for their team but never as loud as kings fans were last night.

el donut

After posting on this board since it inception, it was great to meet Fireplug and his wife, Pondo, D’animal, Sk, Kgrichwine, Kingsgurl, Reno Lady and others whose names I never got. For those of you who missed the road trip, it was a blast., wished you all could have been there.

Special thanks to Kingsgurl for putting it all together. The only addition that I can suggest would be to find some way to have an after game get together, if but for only 45 minutes, so everyone could have had some time to exchange a few words and get to know each other just a bit. Maybe, that’s a logistical problem, though.

The Game: Fun to watch, energy was high, Warriors, to their credit, played hard and at times gave the Kings a run for it. The Kings were dominant through out, and even though the bench let the score get closer during garbage time, with just a little better play from them, we could have easily blown the Warriors out. I guess without Funderburke, Wallace, and Brown getting more playing time then just at the end in garbage time, its hard to expect them to come out and do a whole lot more than garbage play—you know the saying garbage in garbage out.

Being at the game brings home the intensity of the contest a lot more than watching it on TV. What struck me is how much effort is expended by all the players of both teams. It is oh so easy to sit at this keyboard and carp about how a player didn’t do this or that; how the team didn’t defend, rebound, box out, etc. But on the floor you are dealing with the force of human will power, individually and as a team; and that force can be amazing at times, changing the direction of things many times in even a single quarter. The opponents force of will is doing everything possible to defeat and thwart the Kings from attaining a victory, and as much as we would like to see the Kings roll over all the opposition, the opposition is doing everything in their power to prevent that. This is what makes the game so exciting.

...THE MISERABLE DAY

Reno Lady

I refuse to watch any more. I'm thoroughly disgusted with the way the Kings have played today - no fire, no energy, no offense! How do they think they're going to win a championship playing like this against an East Coast team struggling to

make the playoffs? Maybe the Kings were over-confident, thinking without Reggie they had this game won. Whatever their dumb reason, I don't like it!

A bright spot - if it can be called that - is that Hedo played much better tonight than he has been and seemed to get his confidence back a little. Our missed FTs alone would have won the game! I can't understand what hold the Pacers have over the Kings. They didn't play all that well either, didn't have Reggie Miller, yet managed to upset the Kings at ARCO, something that shouldn't have happened. Were the Kings already focusing on the road game in Portland? Surely they know better.

Ceez01

Ugh! is right. Horrible game. Kings lost because once again they played Webberball. Webber stragled from the beginning. All game long the Kings were trying to get him going by running every posession to him. Webber kept on jacking it up even though it clearly was not his night. Why not give the ball to Peja. If he is having problems give it to someone else, Christie, Bibby etc. Why keep on going to Webber? Is it a coincidence that once Adelman got Webber out of the game in the third quarter, the Kings rallied and achieved their highest lead? The Kings began to run, pass the ball and Peja and Hedo were constantly driving to the basket with good results. Once Webber got back, things went downhill again. Not a good night for Webber.

JB

So, is there anybody left who thinks that the Kings can outscore everyone on their way to the title?
I'm going to say it again, there will be days like this when the offense isn't going well and you need solid defense to get you through. Allowing 31 points in the 4th quarter isn't going to get it done. The Kings defense right now will not carry them far at all come playoff time.

Cat Man

As well as the Kings have played this year, what may come back to haunt them is not putting a large enough cushion between them and the Lakers while Shaquille O'Neal was out with the ingrown toenail or bunion or whatever it was.

Kings had a chance to really put Los Angeles in a hole, not that three or four games was chump change. But the opportunity was there to make it more. And we knew this stretch, with a bunch of road games at the end, was coming.

Still, I'd rather be a game up than a game down.

OhSC

Jermaine O is a pretty good young player, an AllStar, but yeah, seems like some of the folks who light up the Kings shouldn't; IMO that's more of a last year thing, and I hope it stays that way.

The Kings are a good team, and I believe that some of the rest of the NBA is figuring out ways to beat them, and on top of that, the Kings are funking a bit lately - too many players are having a s***** (read "below average") game the same night, and not enough are having a good game. The other night, Chris and Peja bust out and... Kings win!

Seemed like there was an opportunity to push the Pacers off the foul-trouble cliff there! Pound it in to Vlade!!

Oh crap! I'll never make the BM front page iffin' I put "s*****" in my posts! I'm going to try harder... next time!

(Ha Ha! - Fireplug.)