Ugh.

Overtime wasn't much better for Sacramento.  They could not for the life of them get a shot to fall, and the last play they ran when they were down 4 resulted in a turnover as Casspi opted to drive to the basket for some reason, when the only hope was to shoot a three.  Casspi had a rough shooting night, including a big three that just rimmed out that would've put the Kings up in OT.  Still, he played well in other areas, tallying 11 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals.

The Kings were led by Beno Udrih (20 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) on offense, who had another brilliant night offensively, shooting 8-12 and inexplicably not getting fed the ball late in the game despite being the most reliable scorer the Kings have.  Samuel Dalembert also had his best game as a King, playing some stellar defense as well as being reliable on the offensive end (15 points on 6-7 shooting).  He also led the game in rebounding with 12.

The Blazers executed several of their plays really well, running the offense either through LaMarcus Aldridge in the post or Andre Miller on the side.  It's obvious that Miller is a great floor general, but he's just so boring to watch.  Boring can be effective though, and Miller came up big in both the final minutes of regulation and OT.  

The Blazers defense is really fun to watch if you're into that sort of thing.  Their rotations are good, and they have the length and  quickness to close down quickly on outside shooters, as well as to make it hard for opposing teams to go inside.  

Nicolas Batum was probably the player of the game though, scoring 24 points and playing solid defense.  He is probably my favorite young prospect in the league, and I'd trade anyone on the team besides Tyreke or DeMarcus for him.

Speaking of DeMarcus, I'm taking the blame for his poor performance.  Not the Blazer's defense, not Joel Przybilla, and not his poor shot selection, but me.  I jinxed the poor guy into shooting how he did.  Earlier this morning I had an e-mail exchange with Ziller.  Here's the actual (seriously I'm not making this up) exchange with the jinx in bold italics:

DeMarcus's Final line for the night? 5 points on 2-11 shooting. I'm an ass.  Sorry Boogie.

Anyways, the Kings need to learn from these games.  Just like the road trip, they're failing to execute at critical times and its costing them games.  On to Golden State, revenge, and a better tomorrow.