The Rudy Gay trade should help Sacramento's defense in the long run, especially after the new guys get more experience with Coach Malone's schemes. Gay is a superb athlete and an above average defender. He's not a lockdown guy, but he'll stay in front of his man and not give up easy shots. He showed that tonight on a few occasions, although he did look lost a few times.

As a fan, I couldn't have asked for a better debut for Gay. He rarely forced a shot, and he made several good decisions to attack the basket rather than settle for jumpers. He hadn't shot 50% in any game as a Raptor this season, and came out and hit 8-12 for Sacramento along with 8-9 from the line. That's a supremely efficient line, and while I don't expect that to be replicated every night, I don't expect his shooting to be as bad as it was in Toronto. Having DeMarcus Cousins in the post and Isaiah Thomas penetrating will open a lot of things up for Gay, and he in turn will open things up for others.

Derrick Williams continues to look like a steal for the Kings. Thriller contributed 14 points off the bench, and while he shot just 4-10, a few of those were good looks. He also hit 2-3 from downtown. He and Gray were the only real contributors off Sacramento's bench tonight.

Sacramento was able to keep the game in play most of the night because they were able to score almost as much as Phoenix, at least until a stretch in the 3rd quarter where the Suns went into a zone and completely stymied Sacramento. For the first 6 minutes of the 3rd quarter, the Suns went on a 19-4 run to take a 12 point lead after being down 3 at the half. Considering the Kings lost by 9, that stretch was a defining moment of the game. Sacramento's ball movement came to a standstill as they couldn't figure out how to break the zone (penetrate). Every time Sacramento dumped the ball into Cousins, Phoenix was ready with a double, and the lack of off-ball movement resulted in forced, low percentage shots, usually late in the shot clock.

Sacramento will have to go through an adjustment period with Gay on the team, but the biggest adjustment will have to be the entire team committing anew to defense. That hasn't happened yet, and perhaps the Kings don't have the personnel for it yet. Offensively, the Kings have a lot of weapons, but it won't make a bit of difference if they can't stop other teams from scoring at will.

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