Kings Flashback - Kings at T-Wolves

And time for more flashbacky sportswriting from 2000, following the opening of the Kings' season. The Kings were still on their big road trip to start the year, which meant they kept landing on other team's home openers (while still not having their own yet). But when they hit Minnesota, they walked into a really awkward moment, as you'll read below. Bad night to try to show up another team. But did they? Read on and find out!

Kings at Minnesota
11/04/00

You know, there are probably some games you SHOULDN’T win.

And if any game was one of them, this was it. Sacramento, ending their 4-game season opening road trip, ended up in Minnesota on the T-Wolves season home opener. Hey, we’ve hit three different cities on their home openers this week, and aren’t above showing up a team in front of its home crowd in their inaugural. But this also happened to be a team that lost one of its players—Malik Sealy—to a drunk driver last May. Tonight’s game opened to a moving tribute, with his family there for the ceremony, and his jersey was retired—hoisted up to the rafters with his family pulling the ropes. Very sad and somber, most of the players in tears, all the Timberwolves, of course, were going out to play for Malik.

So, really, the last thing that needed to happen was us beating them tonight.

Thankfully, we didn’t.

Not to say it wasn’t a good game. Well…it wasn’t, actually, for a while. The Kings just lost it, and suddenly were down as far as 23. But in the second half, the boys were back, and went on an amazing run that pulled us to within 7. But that’s as close as it got, mostly (mostly is unfair…let’s just say it was a contributing factor) due to an ice-cold Chris Webber, who put up 15 one night after a 31 point game. He just couldn’t get it going, not matter how hard he tried (shot 6 for 19). Nor could we as a team, actually. Costly turnovers, poor shooting—just not our night. But again, there was some very good play, too, during the big runs. The best news for us was that Vlade was back, and in full effect. Right from the start, he was out to eliminate the previous couple of games, and he was on fire, posting 20 points by game’s end and pulling down 12 boards. Watched the game, like the previous game, with Tim and Aaron, and we were all quite proud of him, and happy to see him back in form.

Peja was looking like his old self, really charging the hoop and getting physical, and ended up with 22. Bobby Jackson was looking fine, doing the crazy foot thing again and pulling off a couple of steals between making his 10 points. Christie was mostly just there again, not lighting it up too much, but dropped a couple of buckets and made some nice assists. No hot Scot tonight. Scot was 0 for 6 in his 9 minutes of play, but picked up 5 rebounds (I’m sure his stats would have been more impressive had Vlade not been so in the zone tonight and keeping him on the bench). Jon Barry was working hard, but not making too much noise, contributing 7 points. Darrick came in for just a few, trying a 3-pointer (as I always insist he does at least once a game) and missing, but getting another bucket and pair of rebounds. Nick came in for a whole minute and didn’t do much but miss a shot (how much can you do in a minute, really?). Lawrence made his presence known, with 6 points and 3 rebounds in his 10 minutes. If you notice a pattern, you’ll no one was really breaking out and doing anything spectacular. And this was just enough to keep us out of this game.

But let’s not put it all on the Kings, now. The T-Wolves were playing with a purpose here, and doing exactly what they needed to for the home crowd on a night like this one. Garnett hit 28 points, with at least three highlight reels in there—one of which will probably end up as the “Play of the Day” on CNN Headline Sports tomorrow morning (which will make the 3^rd time this week the Play of the Day has been someone scoring off the Kings). And I’m sure it’s going to be the monster windmill slam that had the crowd roaring for what seemed like forever. And they needed that. And Garnett did it right under Malik’s jersey and flashed two fingers (for Malik’s number) and pointed to the sky after. A beautiful move and a fitting tribute to a teammate. It was just plain gorgeous. Garnett was amply assisted by Terrell Brandon and Wally Szczerbiak, both of whom contributed 16 points to the effort, and we were definitely feeling Peeler’s 13. When it got down to the last 3 minutes or so, it was obvious that we weren’t going to pull this one out, and the T-Wolves took it 99-91.

As they should have. There are some things just more important than another win. You had a stadium filled with mourning fans, players and family, who waited on the tribute until the opener, and they deserved a win. They deserved to walk out of there feeling refreshed, excited, and filled with hope. And they did. All went as it should. I’ve got no problems with this loss. It’s certainly nothing compared to the loss of Malik Sealy, who will be missed by more than just the city of Minnesota. The NBA lost one of its greats, and he will be remembered.

In a nice side note, Bobby Jackson returned to take on his old team for the very first time, and I was happy to see that he received a warm reception from the fans. Bobby was great against Terrell, where few men are, and he did the Kings credit tonight, too.

Okay. One road trip down. Let’s get back home and take care of business, and get our record up where it should be! Bring it on, Portland!