http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13807201p-14648382c.html Not totally bad, but Barry good Sacramento cannot match energy of former King By Sam Amick -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, November 3, 2005 Story appeared in Sports section, Page C1 HOUSTON - When Tracy McGrady stood like a statue, his arm above his head, the eyes of the 16,457 fans at the Toyota Center were on him. His work-of-art three-pointer had sliced through the net in the fourth quarter, giving the Houston Rockets a 12-point lead over the Kings that they would not give back. Meanwhile, Rockets guard Jon Barry was in the background, running upcourt after he had chased down the loose ball to set up McGrady's three. The Kings had fire Wednesday night, at least double or triple the juice that was missing in a season-opening 26-point loss to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets on Tuesday. Sacramento even led for a half, played solid defense in long stretches and - Mike Bibby and Peja Stojakovic aside - generally bounced back from humiliation. But as the Kings know, there's energy, and then there's Barry, who's clearly a Red Bull ahead. Off the bench, the former King scored a game-high 24 points, his most during his two seasons in Houston, in the Rockets' 98-89 victory. He hit 8 of 10 shots and made a game-high three steals. The Kings didn't have the energy to combat the Rockets' duo of Yao Ming and McGrady, either, as they combined for 45 points. Yao, who also had 10 rebounds, was the main man in a 11-2 run to open the third quarter that sent the Kings reeling. Bibby played a part in that run, during which his missing-shot streak increased to seven, and he struggled mightily for the second straight game. He finished 2 for 11 from the floor, scoring in single digits (five points) for the second consecutive game. "I don't think I'm asserting myself enough," Bibby said. "I don't know. I'm not hitting shots, I'm not doing anything. It's two games, and I know what I'm capable of doing. ... I do anything in these two games, we win." Likewise, Stojakovic hit only 3 of 13 shots and scored 10 points before fouling out. In the opener, he was 5 for 14 from the field. Collectively, the Kings failed to score at least 90 points in back-to-back games for the first time since Nov. 28-29, 2000. Brad Miller was the only one of the Kings' big three to tally his first good game, scoring 15 points in the first quarter as the Kings led 28-15. But he hit just three shots the rest of the way, finishing with 21 points. Bonzi Wells tried to do it on his own, to no avail. He had a career-high 18 rebounds and scored 22 points, though he committed seven turnovers. "I knew it was going to be tough for our big guys to face-guard guys like Yao and Dikembe (Mutombo), so I tried to take the pressure off them a little bit," Wells said. "You could say we (moved forward). But we lost, so we've still got some steps to take, a long way to go to where we need to be. "We scored more than 67 points, though. That's the only positive we can take from it. But we lost, so it still hurts." When Yao was slowed by foul trouble, Mutombo was no less a chore. He entered for the first time in the third quarter, then blocked Wells underneath and started a fast break that ended with a McGrady dunk for a 61-53 Houston lead. On the next possession, Mutombo scored on a layup to put the Rockets ahead 63-53 and force a mercy timeout from Kings coach Rick Adelman. "We looked better tonight than we did last night," Adelman said. "We just missed a ton of shots in the third quarter. We had really good looks, didn't get anything to go down. I thought we had a chance, had cut it down to six or seven in the last few minutes and couldn't get over the hump."
Bibby and Peja are so used to playing with a good passing big man as pivot. It's not coincidental that they missed so many shots. Most of their shots were rushed, not maded at the end of the normal flow they used to make. The mix of this kings team is not quite right. Bozi and SAR sure played well. But Kings are going nowhere if only these two play well.
I agree- there is NO chemistry there. And they may be talented, but they are a bunch of talented refugees at this point. They are so talented, in fact, that every starting position has the potential to be an all-star.
