Daily NBA Fix: Sacramento Kings Without A Crown

DeMarcus Cousins blamed himself for the Sacramento Kings’ current three-game losing skid, but how much of the blame can be spread around to other places?

To Demarcus Cousins’ credit, he took full blame for the Sacramento Kings’ most recent losing streak that was extended to three games with a 98-95 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It’s understandable to feel that way after a 5-of-20 shooting night for 13 points. When you combine that with a 4-of-16 performance against the Houston Rockets and a 4-of-17 night against Boston, Cousins has earned plenty blame with a 24.5 percent shooting percentage over that time by only making 13-of-53 attempts.

He didn’t sugarcoat it either, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.

"“I’ve been playing like s—, man,” Cousins said. “That is our problem. It is me. I’ve been playing like absolute s—.”"

It is entirely true he’s been playing poorly over that stretch, it isn’t like anyone else on the team is tearing it up either. The failure is team-wide, and you can pick and choose where those problems start with, all the way up to owner Vivek Ranadive. It seems like the organization just runs on hope but on very little logic and seems to be leaky as all hell as well.

The fact we know that Vlade Divac denied coach George Karl‘s request to suspend Cousins, and knew so quickly, isn’t exactly a good sign for the Kings and how they are run. That they’ve gone through three coaches in the past year doesn’t say much either.

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Cousins is certainly to blame for some of these problems, but over the past few seasons all the wrong messages have been sent from management.

That’s not to say this isn’t salvageable. Cousins has said he doesn’t want Karl fired so he can have his fourth coach in two years, and Vlade can put his foot down in support of Karl next time an issue comes up. Suspending Cousins wouldn’t have fixed anything, but you never want it to be so obvious that you kowtow to your star players. That really should be a subtle thing.

By refusing the coach’s understandable request, you throw off the balance of power. You think Rajon Rondo won’t end up pushing Karl’s buttons if things go south? He knows it is unlikely he’ll get suspended.

Instead of trying to reinvent the game, from Vivek on down, the team needs to start acting like a normal basketball organization if they want to fix some of these chemistry issues.

Cousins will sort out his poor offense and return to being the Boogie we know and love soon enough, with the team following behind. How long it takes the Kings to find some stability as an organization is yet to be seen.

Westbrook Gets His Third Triple-Double

If this season was supposed to be about the return of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook didn’t get the memo. He’s been the best player on the Oklahoma City Thunder so far and filled up the stat sheet again last night with a triple-double. Durant had a fine enough night himself with 20 points.

Westbrook is always the easy target for people looking to spread blame in Oklahoma City, but so far this season it has been Westbrook, not Durant, that deserves some MVP consideration.

Wes Matthews Knocks Down 10 Three-Pointers

The Dallas Mavericks has been one of the pleasant surprises of this young season as they’ve built up a 12-9 record and are fifth in the Western Conference. Despite coming off an Achilles injury he’s been getting back into his old form and showing flashes of something even better. Last night he knocked down 10 three-pointers in the Mavericks’ 116-104 victory over the Washington Wizards.

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The game also saw John Wall leave with a knee injury, but reports so far say there is no structural damage. There is no update on exactly when he’ll be back and his status for Washington’s game against the Miami Heat is still unknown.