After losing control of the game against the Chicago Bulls just a couple nights ago in the fourth quarter, the Sacramento Kings believed that the fans didn't quite get the message. So in an emphatic showing, the team went for an encore tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves, falling behind in the fourth quarter on the strength of a Timberwolves 17-6 run. The Kings saw a two point deficit balloon all the way to 12, and that was all she wrote.

Rajon Rondo was the only King with a good game going on the offensive end. Rondo was ultra aggressive looking for his shot with DeMarcus Cousins in street clothes, and thankfully he was scoring well otherwise this would have been a blowout. Rondo scored an efficient 25 points on 16 points, even hitting a couple three pointers at a 50% clip. This came alongside his customary high-assist and high-turnover production. Marco Belinelli also scored 14 points at an acceptable efficiency.

But that's pretty much the end of the bright side on offense. The Kings' offense was terrible overall, notching a 99.9 offensive rating against a defense that ranks fourth worst in the NBA. Once again, the offense in the halfcourt was terribly drab and predictable. The Kings ran a pick-and-roll between Rondo and Kosta Koufos so many times I lost count, force feeding the ball into Koufos who simply lacks the offensive talent to be the main roll man. Koufos shot 7/16 overall, and nearly all of those makes came off of offensive rebound tipins and garbage baskets. But the Kings went back to that same play again and again and again. Rudy Gay also struggled, but as usual the Kings run anything to get him good position on the block or any easy baskets. It was straight isolation every single time, which played right into the hands of Andrew Wiggins and his world-class athleticism.

Meanwhile, on defense, it seems like when the Kings identify a player who struggles to shoot, their gameplan consists of leaving them wide open and letting them take a practice shot. In the first half it was Ricky Rubio (although much of Rubio's production could be attributed to lazy defense from Rondo, which got better in the second half), and in the second it was Zach LaVine. LaVine went bonkers in the second half with 23 points, hitting four three pointers. Half of the problem admittedly was trying to defend him with Belinelli, who probably has less than half the speed and leaping ability of LaVine, but repeatedly going under screens helped LaVine get clean looks too consistently.

With only ten games left in this truly bizarre season, things seem to be fizzling down at the end. There's no more drama left on or off the court, just a strange sense of lifelessness. Its actually not unlike a 9-5 desk job, counting down the days until the weekend. The Kings next game is Friday against Phoenix.

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