The Clippers finished the second quarter on a 13-5 run of their own to tie the game heading into halftime. Coming out of halftime, it was clear that this was going to be a much more physical game than we had seen in the prior 24 minutes. Los Angeles scored a quick 8 points and that kind of served as the barrier the Kings couldn't get past for the rest of the game. A big reason, but not the sole reason, was the officiating in the third quarter. It wasn't so much bad calls (although there were a few, such as a clear goaltending violation on Kenyon Martin that would have cut the lead to 4 being ruled a block) as the non-calls. Sacramento would attack the basket and despite getting hacked and beat up, were not getting many calls. There was a streak of maybe 4 or 5 possessions in a row where the Kings had calls go against them, a couple rightly so, but a few that were bad or questionable, and it clearly took the players out of their game.

Bad officiating is something the players will have to learn to play through. It was a bad stretch, but it wasn't what cost them the game. The referees didn't cause the Kings to turn the ball over 18 times. The referees weren't the ones who continually left Clippers' shooters wide open. It also didn't really put the game out of reach for the Kings, as they were just down by 6 points heading into the final period.

The Clippers shooters did a number on the Kings in the fourth quarter. The first four Clippers' baskets in the fourth were three pointers, three by Mo Williams and one by Bobby Simmons, while Sacramento scored just 4 points in that stretch. Jimmer Fredette came back in after a solid first half and faced renewed pressure by L.A. which made him turn it over twice on consecutive possessions. The bench, which had played so well in the first half, was quickly yanked after L.A. extended the lead to 14 with 8 minutes remaining.

In the end the better, more experienced team won. The Kings hung in there for most of the game, but really killed themselves with some of the mistakes. The 18 turnovers led to 27 points for the Clippers, while the Kings had just 11 points off of 9 L.A. turnovers. The hot shooting of the first half petered out in the second, as they shot just 36% from the field in the final two quarters, and as a team the Kings had just 14 assists, their lowest total since January 11th in Toronto when they had just 13 assists.

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