The Kings finally managed to get their offense going somewhat in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, mainly thanks to DeMarcus Cousins.  Cousins dominated Charlotte's big men, scoring 30 points on just 13 shots to go with 17 rebounds and 6 assists.  He was the only option that Sacramento was able to go to consistently for points, which is why it was so baffling when in the 4th quarter, the Kings barely gave him the ball.

Charlotte realized it couldn't stop Cousins, but it also figured out a good way to prevent him from doing much.  The Kings were routinely setting up DeMarcus on the left block and then spreading the court.  Charlotte would immediately send another man to double Cousins.  Now, that means someone is open, but the way the Kings were situated on offense meant the lone man in the paint could effectively guard two men if nobody moved to help Cousins out.  Instead, Cousins would try to throw a cross court pass to the open man, the Bobcats player who was in the paint was able to anticipate it, and Charlotte would get a steal.  This happened about three times late in the 3rd quarter and instead of trying to figure it out, the Kings just stopped going to Cousins.  In other words, they played right into Charlotte's hands.

I'm not giving up on Ben yet though and don't think there's a reason to.  He's got a very bright future ahead of him and I think he'll eventually figure it out.  As Tom pointed out on Twitter yesterday, take a look at Bradley Beal's shooting splits for his first couple months in the league.  They're remarkably similar to Ben's.

Sacramento is a more talented team than Charlotte, especially offensively.  If the Kings can ever figure out how to play even average defense over a large stretch of games, they'll be dangerous.  Until then though, the losses will continue to outnumber the wins.

Random Observations: