Its hardly a secret that the Sacramento Kings struggle when DeMarcus Cousins sits. Coming into tonight, the Kings' record without Boogie is a sad 1-7. This is a trend that has persisted for several years now under several head coaches, whether it be George Karl, Michael Malone, or Keith Smart.

Fortunately, the opponent tonight was the Milwaukee Bucks, the only opponent the Kings have beaten this year sans Cousins. The Bucks have some promising talent, but haven't quite been able to put it together this year, currently sporting the third worst record in the Eastern Conference with their playoff hopes growing more distant by the day. Beating the Bucks isn't an earth-shattering accomplishment, but when it comes to a Boogie-less Kings squad, any kind of baby steps are encouraging.

The Kings were able to take advantage of the Bucks' porous defense (29th in the NBA in defensive rating) in several different ways. One was the individual brilliance of Rudy Gay. Gay went off for 36 against the Bucks in Milwaukee last time, and picked up right where he left off by dropping 32 from all over the court. Rudy did a great job exploiting the mismatches that were presented to him, going into the post and getting into the lane to unleash his patented smooth midrange game. Rajon Rondo had his best shooting game of the season, going 4/4 from three on his way to 19 points. The Bucks repeatedly dared him to shoot and did a terrific job cutting off his passing lanes, but Rondo took the shots he needed to torch that strategy.

The rest of the Kings roleplayers did just enough to churn out the necessary points. Marco Belinelli took a ton of shots to get his 18 points, but came up with some timely hoops after shooting blanks the entire night. Omri Casspi didn't shoot well from three, but aggressively attacked the rim and drew several fouls. His entire game has rounded out beautifully; he's able to attack closeouts off the dribble because his catch-and-shoot game is so good, he can laser passes into the center of the defense to a rolling big man when he's the third man in a pick-and-roll, and he even buried a three pointer coming off a curl as opposed to his customary set shot.

Overall, its just a relief to finally get a win after such a long slide. The Kings have fallen out of eight place in the West, but are still well within striking distance of a playoff slot. The same problems with the defensive scheme continue to persist, but there's nothing new there. On offense its a relief to see them actually running sets and calling plays again, something that they didn't bother to do against New Orleans. Onto the observations: