The Kings' first half was very sloppy in general, and it was clear that the team still was not used to playing with each other.  The offense became stagnant at times, and careless mistakes prevented scoring opportunities.  It also didn't help that the Kings found themselves in early foul trouble in both the 1st and 2nd, reaching the penalty by the 6-minute mark in both quarters.The free throw disparity shows in the box score (30 FTA for Phoenix and 18 for Sacramento) even though the Kings did a much better job at not fouling in the second half.  

The Kings offense is definitely looking to run as much as possible and the pace was very up-tempo.  As soon as a player rebounded the ball, they were running the other way.  It makes for exciting high-scoring basketball, but it also led to some out-of-control mistakes as well.  On defense, the Kings were getting killed by Phoenix's ball movement and guard penetration for most of the first half of the game.  They still managed to force a lot of Phoenix turnovers, but all that swiping for the ball also led to a lot of ticky tack fouls called by the referees.

Rebounding was a big advantage for Sacramento, and the disparity should have been even more drastic if there weren't so many long rebounds from missed Phoenix 3-pointers (they missed 14).  Rebounding is definitely a statistic that I can see the Kings dominating night in and night out.

Overall I thought the Kings played a decent if not great game, but still need some time to figure out how to play with each other, as there were plenty of mixed signals between teammates.  If this were a regular season game, I doubt the Kings would have won with the kind of start they had.

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Beno Udrih: Beno looked a little rusty to start the game, at least offensively.  His jumper wasn't falling early, but he had a lot of success later in the game taking it to the basket.  He does a great job of protecting the ball on the way to the hoop and switching his hands when he's near the rim, a trick I want Tyreke to learn, because Hollinger is right, Tyreke only uses his right hand to finish, and it does cost him sometimes.  Beno looked comfortable handling the ball, and I would venture to say he handled the ball more than Tyreke did tonight.  Most impressive to me was how active Beno was on defense, poking at the ball and trying to stay in front of his man.  The effort was definitely there, and even though he was only credited with two steals, he caused a couple more Phoenix turnovers in other ways.

Donté Greene: It seems clear to me that Donté right now is behind in the race for the starting Small Forward spot, playing only 10 minutes, but I think he did alright in those minutes.  He was active on defense, and I know he had a block on Jason Richardson that isn't showing up in the box score.  On offense his outside shot isn't falling, but he had a couple nice trips taking it inside.  He also looked like he wanted to set up his teammates more, but he had much less success than Omri at it, mainly because of miscommunication with his new teammates.

Final observation: If I had to guess the Kings starting lineup just based off of this performance, it would be DeMarcus Cousins, Jason Thompson, Omri Casspi, Tyreke Evans, Beno Udrih.  There is still a lot of preseason to go however, and we have yet to see Dalembert or Whiteside in a game at all.

Bold Prediction: DeMarcus Cousins will be the starting center sometime early in the season, possibly at the start.

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