This Saturday evening game is more than likely going to be butt. We can face those facts with honor right? The Suns have lost eight in row, including dropping a game just last night against the Warriors by 20 points. Now, someone might like to step into the comments and retort that the Warriors have won five straight and yadayada blah blah blah and to that, I recommend they waste their petty disagreement on someone who is willing to retort with something other than fart noises. Phoenix has fallen from the feel good story to start the season to regular ol’ Phoenix Suns basketball. This isn’t to say the Kings are any better. Their brand of rim-clanking, foot-in-mouth, ass-gazing is reaching new depths this season as they continue to publicly stare directly into the light that the tiniest of successes brings and wondering aloud why they can’t see the rewards coming. Figures both on and off the court stink of entitlement, the flavor that comes from breathing the smoke blown up their asses for too long. Saying the Kings are only a few games out of the playoff race is akin to saying Luxemborg was only a few rockets away from the space race. The Kings have lost five in row, their two “best players” are out for another indefinite period of time and the team is Bogi’s iron hammy and Richaun Holmes away from putting out a product of such trash it would make Oscar the Grouch cringe. The high tempo superteam just young underdog of last season have been put down, dead and buried, and replaced by a slow, weak-sphinctered basset hound. They plod along until inevitably they can’t keep shit together and every game is a slow, agonizing race to see whether they can get out before ruining something new.

Let’s talk Kings basketball.

When: December 28th, 6:00 PST

Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA

TV: NBCSCA

Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM

For Your Consideration

Silence of the Fans: Anyone who tells you that you can’t criticize this team for this season is a goddamn fool and shouldn’t be trusted with the very oxygen that floats around them. We’ve all been around long enough to understand that each of us can certainly say dumb things and as such from time to time we need to be corrected. But saying unequivocally that a franchise of this caliber is above reproach for anything is just yawping for access or clout. There’s a lot of bullshit to point out with this franchise and all of it is valid. If the billionaires and millionaires responsible for this product can’t handle the heat from their fandom, that’s their issue. They really don’t need internet hiveminds, literal used car salesmen or part-time radio hosts eating punches for them. The Kings are bad and bad for reasons easily foreseeable and far past two early 20-somethings being injured. Chastise accordingly.

The Kings have a second chance tonight to be the nice guys of the NBA, boosting the confidence of lowly Western Conference by letting them win in Sacramento and in pathetic fashion to boot. Sure, losing Fox and Bagley hurt to a degree. Good teams get around that. The Kings HAVE gotten around that, for 17+ games. A loss to Minny, without KAT and with Andrew Wiggins creating a levee of mudbricks around G1C is inexcusable. Buddy Hield’s play, outside of going through an unseen injury or unknown family issue? Garbage. Dwayne Dedmon demanding a trade? Laughable. But underneath all of the silly crap, behind the curtains of player drama shows the truth of the Kings “culture first” push. Organizations with “culture” have issues as well, sure. But not as consistently or predictably as the Kings. Dedmon isn’t a bad player, nor a malcontent. He played on a terrible team in Atlanta last year and thrived. This is far more on the guys in ties than the guys in jerseys. It’s been on them for 14 years. This franchise is a serial killer of talent – a Buffalo Bill dancing around in the cellar of the Western Conference popping their lips with a brand new jersey around their shoulders and asking “would you play for me? I’d play for me SO hard”. Sure, you might say there’s some blame to be assessed for the player stuck in the well screaming to get out. Maybe in some minds they should have heeded warnings on the news and been more careful which broken franchise they had to get into the van with to help… but let’s not forget they help others and never had this happen.

Prediction

Oh boy, they all play so great and we’re all friends again and it was all a bad dream!

Kings: 106, Suns: 102