Now that we have three days of perspective, I think it's fair to say Sunday night's Denver game was the biggest blow to our collective spirit since the pre-Thanksgiving stomach punch at the hands of Utah last season.

No time to wallow in John Salmon's tears.

Last we saw the Celtics, the Kings surprisingly stuck in there for three full quarters. It was a terrifically low-tempo game — each team ended up with less than 85 possessions, which is much slow than the Kings want to play. With only three losses, it is difficult to tell whether Boston would struggle against fast-paced teams more than slow ones. (Detroit and Cleveland are slow; Orlando is fast.) But there are a few reasons you'd like to see Sacramento push the pace:

I'm not sure we'll see the Kings kick it up more than is typical; this is the #11 highest tempo team in the league, one which tends to play to the opponents' pace more than establish its own. But this is a game where I think a conscious decision to run makes sense. Do Reggie Theus and his staff think so too? We'll see.Game's at 7 p.m. Go Kings.