Except with the Sacramento Kings coming into Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, the Knicks, minus the services of Carmelo Anthony, who was out due to suffering from migraines, made sure that they couldn’t get back on the winning track.
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DeMarcus Cousins had 24 points and 20 rebounds and the Sacramento Kings had their best defensive performance of the season Sunday night in an 88-80 victory over the New York Knicks.
The Kings are now dead last in the league in average points allowed per game (109.6) and will not foresee much success going forward until they fix this colossal deficiency that they have.
With that being said, Sacramento definitely has a competitive chance to win this game, but it is going to depend on how well they play defense this afternoon.
Recent rumors have emerged that Sacramento Kings All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins could finally move to the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer following his recent comments about the Hollywood squad’s young players after the two team’s recent game.
Cousins played through his usual frustrations with the officiating and even a security guard, pushing him after he bumped into Cousins while Rajon Rondo was trying to separate his teammate from the officials at midcourt. “I think we lose that focus a lot during games, and that’s why we’ve had so many ups and downs throughout the year”.
With the New York Knicks now guaranteed a third straight losing season on Saturday night when they lost to the Washington Wizards, the 2015-2016 became nothing more than playing for sheer pride.
Interim coach Kurt Rambis held a walk-through before the game and said the players were “a little sluggish”. NY didn’t crack double digits until there was 1:37 left in the first quarter, and it shot 5-for-22 (23 percent) from the field in the opening period as Sacramento built a 16-point lead. We were exhausted of giving up 30-point (first) quarters… If you take away the 35 point second quarter for the Knicks, the Kings played a solid defensive game. The Knicks score the ball at just under 99 points a game; sixth worst in the league and operate at the seventh lowest pace in the National Basketball Association.
Rudy Gay scored 17 points for the Kings, who won for just the second time in nine games. Kings rookie C Willie Cauley-Stein missed his second straight game with flu-like symptoms…. After having no fast-break points in a game for the first time in almost 10 years Friday at Detroit, the Kings had 12 Sunday.
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Boston mistakenly thought that Rondo could lead their rebuilding after Rivers, Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce left. X-rays taken Sunday night were negative. However, a previous report on the Knicks forward noted that team president Phil Jackson won’t be moving their franchise player.
