The game that was to be important: Bonzi Wells' prospective return to ARCO Arena. Many fans railed the Kings front office for letting Bonzilla go this offseason as Geoff Petrie balked at adding to the offered $36 million, 5-year Sacramento proposal. Bonzi ended up taking chicken scratch to play for the Rockets in hopes of brokering a big deal this summer, except that Bonzi came to camp late and out-of-shape, and he's been injured for all but 11 games this season. Kevin Martin has excelled in the starting shooting guard role, though one has to wonder if Bonzi would've been a better sixth man than John Salmons thus far, especially considering Ron Artest's frequent departures to insanity.

Sadly, however, Bonzi won't be in uniform tonight, holding off a court return to next week. The matchup – either Martin/Bonzi or Ron-Ron/Bonzi – would've been incredible to watch, even if the Bonz was coming off the bench. Bonzi is, essentially, Ron-Ron Lite with a superior nose for the ball off the glass. The two of them jostling in the lane would've at the very least been entertaining.

Part of the reason myself and others applauded the decision to let Bonzi fly away was Ron-Ron. Their similarities – great in the post, poor from the perimeter unless they're slashing, leather-tough and burly on defense – made them seemingly redundant. After the second-half sprint to respectability, the Kings weren't going to ship out Ron. So Bonzi was the lost one, the guy you could do without.

What if things were different, and the Kings got something (Jackie Butler, a high draft pick, Kwame Brown?) for Ron in the offseason and resigned Bonzi to play alongside Kevin. The two would've been formidable, especially if Shareef Abdur-Rahim shared the court as the starting power forward. Who do you double off of? Martin and Bonzi's games were so complementary, it seems, that pairing them would make a whole lot of sense. It wasn't suggested last summer, though, when Ron's value was high, Bonzi's was lower than believed, and Kevin was still a relative unknown.

Since Ron and Bonzi are similar, then shouldn't the Martin/Artest pairing be working, according to our Martin/Bonzi theory? Well, no. Ron doesn't play like Bonzi did – Ron thinks he's a Martin-type player: shoot, shoot, shoot. Ron should be playing like Bonzi did against San Antonio: bang, bang, bang. It's unfortunate, and it's something we probably should've seen coming.

Anyways, this is all to say it's a bummer Bonzi won't play tonight, and it's a bummer Ron hasn't worked out as we thought he would. It's all a bunch of damn bummers. Bummer bummer bummer.

Let's get to it.

The Kings are 2-point favorites. The bank is open on Saturdays! Houston should win by 10.

Let's hope the combined forces of TZ + louismg in attendance will shift the tide. (I am 1-0 on the year, after all.) Have a fun time watching, and God bless Kenny Thomas.