April 22, 2001
							S.O.S. kingme4 Please help me. I just can't seem to muster enough hatred/animosity for the Phoenix Suns. Not the sort usually engendered by say,the Lakers or Utah, and the kind that's necessary for fans to whip themselves into a partisan frenzy.The Suns seem benign to me. There's nothing or no one to really dilike - unless you consider ugly,off-court situations like Jason Kidd's domestic abuse charge. But that doesn't count because it's out of the realm of basketball. I read a little report of how they're trying to prepare themselves for the crowd noise at Arco. And Gugliotta was talking about how they might not
			Game Face - time to step up and take no prisoners.
	hear any of their calls, so they'll have to rely on eye contact,etc. I must admit that I felt a wee bit sorry for them. They've had a rough year as a team. At the season's start they were annointed "Backcourt 2000" by the press, and then Penny gets hurt. And then all of the personal, off-court stuff.But they still managed to play well when they easily could have folded. But I'm sure as soon as they beat us in a game, my fangs and claws will be out,oozing all of that nasty,but needed,venom in order to protect our home court. Go Kings!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Game 1 PistonJW Seems like I have very little time right now so just say this. Kings need to play simple basketball tomorrow. They are the comeback Kings in the regular season that's for sure, but they are also very good at making easy things so complicated. Defense. Rebound. Box-out. Offensive execution. Doing every little thing that's in help for the victory. You see the Pacers-Sixers today. Pacers tried Rose or Miller to post up Iverson in every cruical trip down the court. Got it Kings? It's simple as that: Webber and Vlade, each put your body back to the basket 15-20 times at least per game, and the KIngs will easily on their route to the 2nd round. Other ways? Considering their talent it's still possible the KIngs will eventually makes it, but, I believe nobody will be satisfied with a hard-fought series victory. Like what Kreidler said. This team has the making of champions. Let's got it right now. Simple basketball. Easy victory. Go Kings!!!
	Referees! Bawsor l just want to go back to an important issue which I believe will dictate the pace of the game and may ultimate decide the outcome of the series. And I am not talking about the ubiquitous referees. I am talking about the players' reaction to the officiating. By now, it should be obvious to the players that moanin', groanin', and bitchin' after a blown call is not only useless, but may cause them to lose the game. The entire team should sit down and watch our last Utah game at the Delta center and learn the nuance of the officiating. In the first quarter, both Chris and Vlade reacted violently to the officials and both were assessed technicals. Webber had 3 quick fouls and had to miss the second quarter. And the pathetic Kings were down 25 points early second quarter. During a timeout, the referees huddled together and said (through TNT open mike), "We got Webber with 1 (technical) and Vlade with 1"; meaning, the officials were all ready to throw Webb and Vlade out of the game. But, lo and behold, the team started to play the game and ignored the officials, cut the 25 points to 5 at halftime, and proceeded to win the game. The Kings are a relative young team with very fragile psyche. They must learn to control their emotions, focus on the game, ignore the officiating, and play smart. Reno Lady I think the refs in the Utah game were sort of "recapping" what had happened so far, not that they were ready to eject either Chris or Vlade. Matter of fact their comments could be taken as directly opposite to what you stated: maybe they were saying they've already got one so we don't want to call another one against them too fast since this is an important game for everyone. There's always more than 1, or even 2 ways to look at things and since no one knows for sure what they were thinking it's probably best to not make any assumptions about their comments. You're right however that HOW the Kings react to calls, or perhaps better put DON'T react, will certainly have a bearing on the game. I know a lot of people noticed that Chris in particular had a lot to say the last few games about some of the calls. Did that seem somewhat out of character? A little and there's a reason for that. Chris is captain of the team and he does have a right to question an official about a call-clarification sort of. At the end of the season, playing against teams you may meet in the playoffs, planting a seed in the refs heads about the opponent's illegal defense or holding or whatever is a smart thing to do. It makes the refs pay more attention the next time & can even cause them to be more lenient with you thinking they may have given you some bad calls previously. Adelman, Webber, and Vlade have been here before and they know the subtleties of the playoffs and this is one of them. However, now that the playoffs are here the Kings need to just play the best basketball they can play, at both ends of the court, forget about the refs and focus on winning the game. Brother Hido informant It's pretty common in Turkish culture to address others who are older with brother and first name as common courtesy such as in order of Chris agbi or Vlade agbi  agbi means older brother -. In Turkish, we have two different words to define older brother and younger brother. It's particularly most common occurrence when there is a closer friendship. So, I would speculate that Hidayet finds more comfortable to address his teammates as brother to indicate his respect for his teammates as well as it makes him feel cozy. Lessons from today's games .. Bawsor In real estate, the three magic words are: location, location, and location. In our game tomorrow, the magic words are: execution, execution, and execution. The game will be won or lost in the last two minutes. The Suns will purposely leave Chris open for the 18-footer. What should Chris do?? Please don't underestimate the Suns. The Sixers paid the price today. Experience counts. Stockton, Malone, Manning, and Terry Porter made the difference today. The Pacers may win the series! The Kings must execute and play smart! Good luck, Sacramento Kings!! NO MJ!! Bonsy A thing that annoyed me today... on the NBA on NBC show, they took up almost 20 minutes with Jordan. Sheesh, this guy had his time, and now he has to do all this and take attention away from the rest of the players. They kept showing the replay over and over of him shoving Bryon Russell out of the way to make his "last championship winning shot". Makes me sick. Then at half time in one of the games, MORE Jordan. TNT's pre-game show, MORE!!! DON'T COME BACK, MIKE! Sheesh, you had your time. Stay away... JB Bonsy, I'm with you on MJ. The NBA needs to develop the stars and teams it has now. Earlier, I made an analogy to the Star Trek movies dragging out Captain Kirk well beyond his expiration date and it does compare. MJ had the comeback and rings and glory. The only thing he has left to prove is that he isn't going to be the star of the league. Oh, he could be very good, but he wouldn't be the Jordan capable of carrying his team to the finals. If he's lucky, he will leave images of him walking off the court after being eliminated as an 8th seed team in the playoffs. More likely, his team would miss the playoffs and his god-like status would be tarnished. He should stay retired and continue making those ego boosting commercials. Playoff Schedule Bonsy Here's the total playoff schedule sorted by date/time if anyone is interested. Just cut/paste it into notepad and print it out if you want a reference. Game 1: Indiana at Philadelphia, Sat. 4/21, 9:30 a.m. Game 1: Dallas at Utah, Sat. 4/21, 12 p.m. Game 1: Minnesota at San Antonio, Sat. 4/21, 2:30 p.m. Game 1: Charlotte at Miami, Sat. 4/21, 5:30 p.m. Game 1: Toronto at N.Y., Sun. 4/22, 9:30 a.m. Game 1: Phoenix at Sacramento, Sun. 4/22, 12 p.m. Game 1: Portland at L.A. Lakers, Sun. 4/22, 2:30 p.m. Game 1: Orlando at Mil., Sun. 4/22, 5:30 p.m. Game 2: Charlotte at Miami, Mon. 4/23, 4 p.m. Game 2: Minnesota at San Antonio, Mon. 4/23, 6:30 p.m. Game 2: Indiana at Phil., Tue. 4/24, 5 p.m. Game 2: Dallas at Utah, Tue. 4/24, 7:30 p.m. Game 2: Orlando at Mil., Wed. 4/25, 5 p.m. Game 2: Phoenix at Sac., Wed. 4/25, 7:30 p.m. Game 2: Toronto at New York, Thu. 4/26, 5 p.m. Game 2: Portland at L.A.L., Thu. 4/26, 7:30 p.m. Game 3: Miami at Charlotte, Fri. 4/27, 5 p.m. Game 3: Philadelphia at Indiana, Sat. 4/28, 9:40 a.m. Game 3: Utah at Dallas, Sat. 4/28, 12 p.m. Game 3: San Antonio at Minnesota, Sat. 4/28, 2:30 p.m. Game 3: Milwaukee at Orlando, Sat. 4/28, 5:30 p.m. Game 3: New York at Tor., Sun. 4/29, 9:30 a.m. Game 3: Sacramento at Phoenix, Sun. 4/29, 12 p.m. Game 3: L.A. Lakers at Portland, Sun. 4/29, 2:30 p.m. Game 4*: Miami at Charlotte, Mon. 4/30, TBD Game 4*: San Antonio at Minnesota, Mon. 4/30, TBD Game 4*: Milwaukee at Orlando, Tue. 5/1, TBD Game 4*: L.A. Lakers at Portland, Tue. 5/1, TBD Game 4*: Utah at Dallas, Tue. 5/1, TBD Game 4*: Philadelphia at Indiana, Wed. 5/2, TBD Game 4*: New York at Toronto, Wed. 5/2, TBD Game 4*: Sacramento at Phoenix, Wed. 5/2, TBD Game 5*: Orlando at Milwaukee, Thu. 5/3, TBD Game 5*: Charlotte at Miami, Thu. 5/3, TBD Game 5*: Minnesota at San Antonio, Thu. 5/3, TBD Game 5*: Dallas at Utah, Thu. 5/3, TBD Game 5*: Toronto at New York, Fri, 5/4, TBD Game 5*: Indiana at Philadelphia, Fri. 5/4, TBD Game 5*: Phoenix at Sacramento, Fri. 5/4, TBD Game 5*: Portland at L.A. Lakers, Fri. 5/4, TBD