Despite leading and outplaying the Portland Trail Blazers (23-20) for much of the game, the Sacramento Kings (9-31) lost 94-90 in overtime on Wednesday night at Arco Arena. The Kings were on fire out of the gates, limiting Portland to only one field goal on six attempts in the first four minutes of play, but the silver lining may reside in what appeared to be a fully recovered Tyreke Evans. Evans seemed to have little trouble slashing to the basket, a sign that a series of recent foot injuries may finally be behind him. Kings Head Coach Paul Westphal used Evans for just over 45 minutes, and the sleek shooting guard contributed 16 points, eight assists and three steals. Evans is current

The Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series is in town this weekend for its second stop of the 2011 season. In conjunction with the appearance, the PBR held a media hour on Thursday afternoon where I had the opportunity to meet and interview Bull Rider McKennon Wimberly. Also in attendance was Zorro, a 25-year-old, 1,700-pound bull. More on him later. I met Wimberly in the Kings store. The 5-foot-9-inch, 150-pound Cool, Texas, native was wearing a black banded cowboy hat that matched his boots, blue jeans, a light brown vest (that matched the band on his hat) and a collared shirt which read Neckover, a brand of horse trailer, down the sleeve. He looks every bit the professional

Thursday nights, the NBA belongs to TNT. Whereas Wednesdays and Fridays might have a dozen games on the schedule (This week featured 11 games on each day), Thursday nights generally feature at most three games, and often only two (this week, just two). Those two games are featured, consecutively, nationally, on TNT. Usually, of course, these games will feature some combination of the Celtics, Heat, Lakers, Spurs, Bulls, Magic, Mavericks, Nuggets and Thunder – teams with a national fan base or a superstar player. Once or twice a year, however, in the interest of fairness, the Thursday night spotlight will shine on one of the smaller, oft-forgotten NBA cities. (Almost without exception, it

"If we didn't need that game so badly I could talk about what a great game it was, but I'm not going to do that," Kings Head Coach Paul Westphal, addressing the media following Tuesday night's game. This is why we love sports. Because at any given time, on any given night, you may witness something incredible. A few years ago, the NBA had a slogan: "Where Amazing Happens." Tuesday night, amazing happened, all over the Kings’ collective faces. On Tuesday night, a bad (9-18 record coming in, having lost 14 of their last 16 games) and beat-up (missing their starters at point guard and center, Stephan Curry and Andres Biedrins) Golden State Warriors squad came to Arco for a tilt against y

       In the NBA, more than any other sport, games are affected by the whims of the schedule makers. In professional basketball, the home team wins more than 60 percent of the time, compared with about 58 percent of the time in the NFL, 55 percent in the NHL and 53 percent in MLB. (Oliver Entine, Deptartment of Statistics, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania).  So there's that, but then there are also the quirky irregularities of the schedule. Sometimes teams are made to play two nights in a row, while other times they'll get three nights off. So sometimes, you'll have a team that is playing its second road game in 27 hours pitted against a team that has been chilling at h

Apparently the once-heated rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers (5-0) and the Sacramento Kings (3-2) still has more than a flicker. The two teams squared off on Wednesday night at Arco Arena in Sacramento in the first of their four contests during the 2010-2011 season. The defending champion Lakers entered the contest undefeated through their first four games while the Kings boasted a 3-1 record that has included two second-half comeback wins. The Kings were unable to muster a third come-from-behind win this time around, losing 112- 100 to a Los Angeles team led by Kobe Bryant’s 30 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds for his 17th career triple-double. Bryant, a Kings enemy of old from

  "How do you feel about the Sacramento Kings?"       When I was first asked this question a few weeks ago, my initial response was "luke warm".  I am from the Bay Area, and, besides a youthful dalliance with the Detroit Pistons (spurred on by an Adrian Dantley signed basketball I received for Christmas, 1987), a lifelong Warriors fan.  Now, you might think I would hate the Kings, seeing as they and the Warriors are geographic rivals and all, but you'd be mistaken.  I don't hate the Kings.       I hate the Lakers. I hate them intensely.  And, as the proverb goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".   For the last 20 years, the Warriors have been mostly impotent, unable to present any

Mayor Kevin Johnson brought up the possibility of a new sports arena in Sacramento at a press conference Tuesday. Johnson announced his top-three priorities are public safety, education and economic development, the latter of which a new sports arena could positively impact. Johnson reiterated that a new arena would be crucial not only in keeping the Kings in Sacramento, but also in terms of creating a "world-class" downtown. Currently, Arco Arena holds more than 200 spectator events each year. "We got a wake up call with the NCAA when they said we are no longer going to hold big-time college basketball in Sacramento because [we] have an outdated arena," Johnson said. Last week, after