So they ran the exact same play again, this time with Cousins throwing the lob.  Williams threw it down hard, and if Guinness had been at the game, they might have recorded us Sacramentans breaking the world record for crowd noise yet again.

Derrick Williams' debut went about as good as it possibly could have gone.  Coach Michael Malone decided to throw him right into the mix by starting him at Small Forward with just a practice or two under his belt.  He had yet to play much this season, even in Minnesota, so I was a little surprised by Malone's decision.  I was eager to see how Williams would do at Small Forward.

Another young guy that put on a show for Sacramento was Ben McLemore.  McLemore continues to show a lot of promise, with plenty of inexperience showing through at the same time.  In transition, when McLemore doesn't really have to think about anything other than "get to the basket", he's phenomenal.  He's got good fundamentals in the half-court sets, particularly in moving without the ball, but he's also got rookie jitters where he often doesn't want to shoot the ball when he catches it, and by the time he does decide to shoot the ball, it's a much tougher shot.  There was a key late sequence when McLemore found himself completely wide open early in the shot clock with Sacramento down just four points, but seemingly not wanting to make a mistake, he hesitated and the Clippers were able to catch up.  McLemore's eventual three point attempt came from much farther out, contested, and didn't really have a chance.  Once Ben starts to figure out when he should shoot, and when he shouldn't, I think his promise will start to turn into big time production.

The Kings managed to do a lot of things right last night.  They won most major categories, including field goals made, field goal percentage, rebounds, assists and points in the paint.  But the biggest discrepancy was in free throw attempts, where Los Angeles shot 37 compared to just 10 for the Kings.  Sacramento hurt themselves by getting to the penalty early in most quarters, and also by committing a ton of shooting fouls before they were in the penalty.  Isaiah Thomas and DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento's two premiere free throw drawers, went to the line just three times.  That's not going to win many games.

Random Observations: