CLEVELAND - The Kings will return home 2-1. They trailed in every game and easily could be limping back to Arco Arena 0-3. But they already have two road wins, so there is some progress being made.
A look back at last night's win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Kings (2-1) 107
Cavs (1-2) 104
Scoring leadersSAC: Tyreke Evans, 21
CLE: Ramon Sessions, 21
Rebounding leadersSAC: DeMarcus Cousins, 10
CLE: Anderson Varejao, 9
Assists leadersSAC: Beno Udrih,11
CLE: Daniel Gibson, 7
What went right?
There's a lot to choose from here. Samuel Dalembert stepped up defensively and led the comeback. The bench was productive again. Five Kings scored in double figures. But I'll focus on a certain second-year player.
Omri Casspi made a career-high six three pointers. He made plays on defense, too. Casspi played the passing lanes and dove for loose balls. He did the dirty work and also made an impact on offense. I can't see him relinquishing his spot in the starting lineup anytime soon.
What went wrong?
When the Kings begin playing more talented teams (the Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies are coming in the near future) this habit of falling behind big and rallying isn't going to work. Again, it was a bad second quarter that put the Kings in a hole. The Kings were outscored 33-19 in the second by the Cavs. Sacramento overcame that because of another strong third quarter.
In three games, the Kings have been outscored 100-77 in the third. But the Kings own the third quarter with an 89-55 advantage through three games.
This is Carl Landry's assessment of how the Kings have fallen behind in their first three games:
"We've got a good team. It's just sometimes we just don't stay aggressive and we have breakdowns on the defensive end and let teams get on runs. That's something we've got to learn. A lot of people say we're a young team but we're growing right now. We can say that about last year, that we're a young team. We've got veteran players now.
Perhaps playing at home will help the Kings overcome their second quarter problems.
What has to get better?
Tyreke Evans didn't look like himself at times. He missed a lot of layups in shooting 6 of 20.
It's just his second game and I don't expect Evans to shoot 30 percent all season. It's just not a good sign when you consider he struggled in preseason, too.
Evans was effective in the pivotal third quarter with 12 points and three assists.He drove to the basket and set up his teammates. Evans said coach Paul Westphal encouraged him to stay aggressive in the third and it paid off.
Like the slow starts, it would be hard for the Kings to overcome too many bad shooting nights from Evans against better teams.
--Jason Jones
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