Portland dominated in the effort and hustle areas tonight, stopping quite a few of the Kings fastbreak opportunities with timely blocks or getting back quickly enough to contest and force a miss. They also absolutely killed Sacramento on the glass, outrebounding the Kings 53-36. The Blazers also got 19 offensive rebounds to the Kings 11, a huge number considering Portland shot better than the Kings from the field. That means they had less opportunities for offensive rebounds, yet they managed to grab almost twice as many anyway.

The Kings had a season-high in assists with 23, with solid passing all-around. Isaiah was phenomenal at finding open guys, particularly right at the basket, and Tyreke also did a solid job of dishing to his teammates (he had 5 assists).

In the end, the Kings can point to that stretch in the 2nd quarter as when things broke down. The Kings were sloppy on both ends of the court during that stretch, missing 7 of 8 field goal attempts (and all 3 of their FTs) and committing three turnovers. The Kings seem to have a bad stretch like this every game, while rarely having huge offensive spurts of their own. They're not good enough or consistent enough on either end to suffer these kind of runs and recover from them. They need to calm down, stop taking long jumpers early in the shot clock, and move the ball around.

The Kings are now 6-12, and 2-9 on the road. Their effort is getting better, but the results aren't. The team returns home Wednesday against Denver, and hopefully can continue to play well there before having to pack their bags and leave again.