I don't even know what to say about that bludgeoning.

You know I believe in the Evans-Martin backcourt. I think something's wrong with the pace of the team. Transition has become the exception rather than the norm — and we were lobbied that Paul Westphal would bring an up-tempo attack to Sacramento. This team (Evans and Martin are both culpable) constantly walks the ball up. That, plus the (lack of) speed with which the offensive set usually develops, leaves the team with a fair amount of 24-second violations due to blocked or badly missed shots. Using up so much clock might be a good strategy in the macro view — you limit possessions, making it more easy to edge a better team — but on the possession-by-possession basis, you screw yourself out of a few offensive rebound opportunities, and typically the team gets a less than ideal shot out of the bargain. If it meant kicking the pace of the team upward, I'd be pleased to see more Sergio-Evans-Martin or Sergio-Udrih-Evans or Sergio-Udrih-Martin minutes in coming games.

There's some evidence the Kings play better at higher tempos, too: 82games.com, which is only current through 35 games, so it's missing this road trip and the preceding get-away game against Orlando, shows that the Kings are 8-6 against teams in the top 10 in pace, 7-8 against the No. 11-20 teams in pace, and … 0-7 against the slowest teams in the league. After the last six losses, you can update those records to …

(And it should be noted two of those "fast" losses came in those heartbreakers against the [REDACTED].)

Maybe speeding the offense up — by strategy or by substitution — won't snap the team out of its putrid funk. But it's worth a shot. As soon as the confidence starts to come back across the roster, the winning ways can return. I really do believe that.