Kings Flashback - Kings at Detroit

The flashback b-ball action continues from the start of the 2000-2001 season, with commentary I wrote and then never did anything with. This one's a reminder of the good times Aaron and I had with Tim living in L.A. at the time, as Tim would make the drive down to San Diego to watch games with us on some weekends. This one was the Kings still on our long season-opening road trip, back in Webber's hometown of Detroit. Could the Pistons stand against the might of the re-energized and goal-focused Kings? We shall see!

Kings at Detroit
11/03/00

Okay, got to make this a quick one. It’s late, and I do have to get up in the morning.

Getting up, actually, because Tim’s in town. Tim came down to catch these two road games with us (Tim not having the NBA package available to him at his current residence). We taped the 5:00 pm game with plans to watch it after Tim, Aaron and I went out for an evening at McGregor’s, where a little send-off was going on for a co-worker of mine. So here we are, in a sports bar, trying not to find out the score—with SportsCenter playing on a screen in the background. Aaron looked up and caught the score accidentally. I accidentally looked up once myself, and saw no score, but saw the Kings and Piston names, and the Kings name was in white…meaning they won. Didn’t tell the other guys this. Let’s just say it would have been a lot more depressing if I’d looked up and seen it in yellow and had to sit through the game.

Great, monster game. All about the Webber. Webber’s back in his hometown, putting on a show—and in a side note, we found out that Mrs. Webber (Chris’ mom) cooked dinner for all the Kings before the game (I’m sure Jason probably had seconds, dealing with the munchies and all). Chris was all over, making one monster show-stopper slam after the next, and grabbing every board in sight. He ended things with 31 points and 12 rebounds.

But the big news—two games in a row—was Pollard. Vlade picked up two fouls in…what was it, a minute? And had to sit most of the game. So Rick put Big Kansas in again, and he rocked the house!!! In his 31 minutes, Scot put up 15 points and hit a career high 14 rebounds. He was everywhere! This could be his year to really up his resale value. Love that guy!

And Jon Barry’s back, folks. Lots of great moves on both ends, and sunk 3 of 3 3-pointers. Ah, it was beautiful to see. Peja was in there, but not doing his normal job. 11 points for him, though, and a couple of nice defensive moves. Bobby Jackson was back in effect, being a King to the hilt—doing ridiculous moves that cost us the ball, and then turning around and striking gold in big Sac style. More great footwork on the D, 3 big steals, 7 rebounds. Doug was off again, but managed to land a 3. Darrick Martin stepped up, and in addition to getting us some great fouls, sunk 2 3-pointers. Ah, the Darrick of old. Good to see him back again…though we probably won’t see much of him after Jason’s back in a couple of games. We just realized that Jason’s going to miss the home opener, darnnit. But that’s a sentimental “damnit”—I believe Bobby, with Darrick backing him up, can easily T.C.B.

Vlade was just off, once again, but his 4 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals made a big difference in the outcome. Not much of a night from Nick and Funderburke. Nick’s 9 minutes didn’t add up to any points (I wanted a Nick 3!), but his 3 steals were proof he’s in there working hard. Lawrence just couldn’t get anything going in his few minutes, just adding 1 point on a free throw. But hey…some nights it’s just not your night to shine. He’ll get another shot tomorrow when we take it to Garnett and friends.

Detroit was really looking good, I felt, mainly because of Chuck Atkins. Man, he’s good, and was doing it all for the Pistons. He picked up 18. And then there’s Stackhouse, posting 22 and making it look easy. But tonight, I became a huge fan of Ben Wallace (and his big afro). Holy cow! His defense was really frightening in and of itself, but he also used us for 14 points and 10 boards. This guy’s really great, and has joined my list of favorite players in the NBA right now. I was also happy to watch Cedric Ceballos playing again, as he was part of the amazing Suns team I loved and called my own when I moved to Phoenix in ’93. He landed a couple of big 3’s that took me back to the old days.

But for all their hard work and precision, Detroit just couldn’t hold onto the ball on their opening night, with 25 turnovers that the Kings made painful use of. The only way to beat the Kings is to outscore them, as you’re not going to stop them from making the points. Just handing them more chances is a surefire way to make what happened happen. 100 to 93 at the end. Got to give the Piston’s credit, though. They got down, but fought back brilliantly and had a couple of great runs, one of them turning a deficit into a lead and igniting the crowd. A very good effort, and I gained a lot of respect for the post-Grant Pistons.

So we’re now 2 and 3 on this 4-game road trip, and that’s saying a lot for the Kings, as everyone in the league knows we just don’t have it happening away from home. If we can pull this off tomorrow in Joe Smith’s house…oh, wait, that’s not called that anymore, is it? If we can manage to outshoot the Timberwolves in their home opener, we fly back to Sac with a lot of confidence and respect, ready to host Portland and start a great home series, where we should be able to really shine.

Stay tuned, Kings fans. We ain’t out of the Midwest yet.

Disturbing moment of the night—the Detroit fan holding up the sign begging Chris Webber to sign with the Pistons next year. We’re really going to feel that ax hanging over us all year, aren’t we?