Watching Beno Udrih carve up ARCO Arena like a bar of cedar put things in a good bit of perspective: of course bad offenses routinely destroy the Kings defense. When your point guard can't stop a leaky faucet, you have no chance to prevent the flood. Beno can't stop the leak, but Steve Nash might actually be a worse first line of defense.

It almost looked as if someone told Beno at halftime, "Hey, that guy is as slow and soft as you. Beat him." Because Beno beat him. Into dust. Repeatedly. Sure, Nash did the same at the other end. But Sacramento already had the advantage, Kenny Natt went with some sort of instinct and actually stayed big late in the fourth quarter (with Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson sharing the court) and the Kings held on.

The national interest in this story will be from the angle that the Suns choked an easy win up at the worst possible moment. (Heck, that might even be the local angle. Or we'll be asked where this effort has been all year. Fair question, sure.) But the Kings did go out and win this one. They took it from Phoenix. Shaq rolled, and Spencer never for a split second backed down. Nash rolled, and Beno never for a split second backed down. Francisco Garcia pushed hard, Kevin Martin pushed … every King who played went after it. The gym, while boisterous, was far FAR far from full. But doesn't it seem like every time the gym's excited (save Boston), the Kings turn out better effort? Is the bad attendance feeding into a self-fulfilling doom?

But whatever, that doesn't matter right now. For the second time in 10 days, the Kings went out and beat the opponent. That's worth a night of smiles.