KINGS DON'T MISS A BEAT WITH THEIR MAIN MAN GONE
Fireplug

What can I say to fully show my pleasure with the way our reserves have stepped up in the absence of Webber. Each guy looks to have made it their personal responsibility to keep us at the highest level.

Yesterday's paper had quips from the Denver players but the one thing that stood out the greatest was a comment made by Nickie Van -- "The Kings are Focused." What a wonderful thing to hear from the

opposing team. The Kings know how to have fun, and now it is finally evident that they realize that they must be focused and businesslike the WHOLE season in order to get to the only place they will accept-- the Finals.

And the depth of the team will get it there.

GO KINGS!
Q

I am very pleased with Mike Bibby's game tonight. He is adapting much faster than I thought. Good! He did very well, and I hope he keeps doing so. Yes!

Vlade Divac is THE MAN! He is the leader of this team, and it is winning and winning big so far. Tonight neither David Robinson or the great Tim Duncan could stop him or get through he and Scot Pollard. Vlade, Vlade, Vlade! The guy is a SMART PLAYER and a FORCE.

Speaking of Scot Pollard, he played especially great too. In fact I have NEVER seen the Kings this active under the basket before; blocked shots, altered shots, rebounds, and more. Scot was dominant there tonight (and against the Spurs that is praise indeed!); and even blocked the great Tim Duncan's shot attempts. Impressive.

What can you say about Bobby Jackson? He makes the Energizer Bunny look lethargic. He did very well again tonight too. Like Scot, he makes good things happen.

Doug Christie and Hedo Turkoglu both shut down Steve Smith. If they had not, the outcome of the game might have been quite different. When Mike guarded Steve, he scored effortlessly. But Doug and Hedo put the clamps on him while they were on him.

Even on his off nights, Hedo is just looking more and more formiddable at both ends of the floor.

Lawrence Funderburke played quite good too. Even Jabari Smith was aggressive under the basket tonight.

Peja Stojakovic? Well, Bowen pretty much shut him down and outplayed him both ways. My money is on Peja figuring out Bowen and becoming an even better player thanks to Bowen each time they play; to the point that Peja will dominate Bowen late in the season. But tonight Bowen was the better man.

Hey, if the team had not missed so many easy layups, and the scrubs had not given up so many easy points in the final minutes, the game would have been a 30 or 40 point blow out instead of 20. This is very good news for the Kings!

3-0!

Now they hit the road for 4 games...

I have a feeling that Peja might take his frustrations against Bowen out on Cleveland. And I would be less than candid if I said I was not looking forward to it.

Go Kings!

GAME NOTES...

Reno Lady

Whoo-Hoo! Great win for the Kings; the Spurs looked stunned, or drugged, or tired, or something....while the Kings looked terrific. Not a bad performance out of any of the starters, and the primary bench guys were

terrific. They're all playing with a lot of confidence right now, and rightly so....let's hope they keep it up on the road, especially against Orlando and Miami. 3 down, 79 to go!

The thing I like about Bibby is that he doesn't make a lot of mental mistakes when he plays; he keeps his cool. Also, it looks like his defense is improving as he becomes more comfortable with the team. A couple of times tonight everyone else started standing around and it was Bibby who kept moving and broke the logjam - that's exactly the kind of player the Kings need.

Did anyone else notice that the Spurs don't seem to have much life in them? No spirit or fire? Is that because they don't really have a leader or is that just their personality? They're so.....boring is the best word I can come up with.

Fireplug

Strangest thing I saw tonight was when San Antonio decided to go with only one guard while we were playing Bibby and Jackson together, so Mike Bibby was guarding Danny Ferry!? The strange part was that the Spurs posted Ferry up exactly ZERO times. I mean, what is the point if you are gonna have your size just hanging out around the three point line??? On the other hand, you could actually see a puddle forming as Bibby salivated at the though of being guarded by Ferry.

Sioux32

Great game! Anyone think the Spurs miss Avery?

Duncan looks better with hair, but he doesn't play better. I was surprised that Scot and vlade could control that front line the way they did.

CWebb....bald is "out".....even if MJ is back.

I wish we hadn't had that discussion about the announcers. Now they really drive me nuts.

Grant calls Vlade "Devox". I'm not sure how it's pronounced...is it Divach? Like Toni Kukoc...Kucoch.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's not Devox or Devocs.

He also calls "out of bounds" ..."out of bounce".

Like nails on a blackboard.

Malone did indeed foul out in LA.....and Stockton airballed a 3 at the end to tie. I didn't think the Lakers played really well.

I also watched the Blazers get stomped by the Warriors. They still don't have it together.....but seeing Scottie, I realized how out of shape MJ really is. He used to be as conditioned as Scottie.

Not anymore.

Wiz/Pistons? I wish the Kings had the Piston big men. I like Wallace and Rebraca....for different reasons. Wallace has a full afro and he looks like an "animal". Very intimidating. Makes you wonder what CWebb would look like with a big fro.

They are now calling Rebraca "Zsa Zsa"....I guess it's because of the hair.

I don't think it will stick.

GAME 2 NOTES...

Cat Man

Mike Bibby certainly gave Q some fuel for the fire. Unless he had some egregious error in the fist quarter that I missed, he was kept under wraps. Not that Bobby Jackson did much either. There wasn't much flow or continuity to the offense from anyone. Of course, the Nuggets offered no resistance. Just didn't see enough of Bibby to matter. Not that it would have made a difference.

Scot Pollard and, except for a stretch of the third quarter, Doug Christie had

little to offer. It was Vlade Divac, Peja Stojakovic or nothing most of the night. Yawn City. Denver is a terrible team.

The Kings seem to be biding their time until Chris Webber is back. Nice to see Lawrence Funderburke get some meaningful minutes. Jabari Smith? See me when you pack on another 75 pounds or so; kid doesn't stand a chance against an actual NBA center.

TheBigO

The point is being run through the center. Vlade is initiating the offense from the post. Especially against Seattle, Divac was catching the ball and either trying to score in the low post or waiting for the double team to find an open man. The one thing that Bibby did very well in that first game was that he kept moving, looking for the pass out to reset the offense or to take an open jumper, most of which he nailed.

Also, as the Kings continue to run their version of the triangle offense, the assists will be spread around.

Bonsy

Mike Bibby looked like he got a bit flustered early at a couple of bad calls from the refs. Adelman took him out and then because Bobby, Christie, and Hedo all did very well, there wasn't much time to put him back in. We all know that Adelman tends to stay with who's hot on the floor.

When Mike came back in late in the game he played better. It's definitely the mark of this team that we have so much depth and that's going to make the difference in several games this season.

I also got the impression that we took an entirely different approach this year. The last losses we had in Denver we came out hot and got a big lead then ran out of gas just when Denver was turning it on. The Nuggets are use to the altitude. But last night, the Kings conserved their energy early, saving Vlade for more minutes in the second half.