We all know how the movie ends.  The ragtag misfits, buoyed by their passionate home crowd, upset the purple-and-gold Goliath in the last game of the season. Their wealthy owners, encouraged by the mayor who still fondly recalls his glory days, have a change of heart and keep the team where it belongs.

Trust the Los Angeles Lakers to stray from the script. Their 116-108 victory over the host Sacramento (For Tonight) Kings would be unpalatable at the box office. It had some great action sequences, but was ultimately an anticlimax.

The home team’s start offered signs of encouragement, with Marcus Thornton accounting for 15 points in the first quarter and the Sacramento Kings’ big men protecting the rim admirably. The Lakers punched back, stretching their lead to eight at halftime and 18 at the end of the third quarter. It seemed that the Hollywood ending would elude the hosts.

Then the game turned cinematic all over again. Tyreke Evans, Thornton, and Jason Thompson led an improbable surge as the Kings outscored the defending champions 29-11 in the period. Thompson’s dunk gave Sacramento its first lead, at 97-95 with under two minutes left. The teams traded misses until Thompson hauled down Kobe Bryant’s errant jumper with 12 seconds remaining, leading to two Beno Udrih free throws and a 99-96 lead.

The Lakers stuck to the script, as Bryant’s three from the right wing tied the game with 4.8 seconds left. Thornton couldn’t get off a shot as time expired.

In overtime, Derek Fisher’s deja vu three-pointer drew first blood. the teams then traded baskets until Lamar Odom’s dunk and Bryant’s long jumper put the Lakers up by five just under the two-minute mark. That was enough to put the pesky Kings away and secure the second seed in the upcoming playoffs.

The Kings’ likely impending exit from Sacramento produced a palpably bizarre energy in the building that manifested itself in small vignettes throughout the evening.

The officials, perhaps feeding off the nervous atmosphere, called an inexplicable double-technical on DeMarcus Cousins and Pau Gasol less than four minutes into the game, apparently for the unpardonable crime of gently battling for low-post position. Joe Smith, in a rare game appearance, hit an improbable fadeaway jumper, only to have it wiped out minutes later when replays showed it did not beat the shot clock. In overtime, a mechanical malfunction froze the shot and game clocks during a Laker possession.

Evans was tentative and ineffective for the first three quarters, clanging wild drives off the rim and getting abused down low by Ron Artest. He turned up his energy in the fourth, hitting several critical jump shots and finding open teammates during Sacramento’s furious comeback. In doing so, he served notice that his disappointing second season may have been part injury, part aberration. The Evans who led the fourth-quarter charge is a player who could serve a winning team well.

HIs hoped-for sidekick, Cousins, had a rough night, displaying his two greatest failings: an inability to avoid fouls, which limited him to 14 minutes; and an uncontrolled temper, which flared enough to warrant a fourth-quarter ejection.

Cousins’ early exit didn’t stop his team and the fans from sticking around as long as they could. The fans stayed in the building long after the final buzzer, grateful for the gift of a thrilling game tonight and 26 years of professional basketball in the state’s capital.

In a pre-game interview, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson revealed that he was only watching the first quarter of the game, before catching a red-eye flight to New York City for an NBA Board of Governors meeting. Johnson said that fans in Sacramento deserved an NBA team.

For tonight, they had one, maybe for the last time. Their last memory won’t be of victory but of a team that didn’t quit under trying circumstances, only to find that their effort wasn’t quite enough.

That may not be consolation for the fans’ impending loss, but it will have to do for now. This movie had an ending, but no resolution.

DeMarcus Cousins clanged a meaningless three off the back of the rim, then wrapped Marcus Thornton in a bear hug and offered words of encouragement for his dejected teammate.

While the Sacramento Kings’ season didn’t officially end Monday night, Cousins’ closing sequence summed it up as well as any image could: mildly encouraging, strongly emotional, ultimately unsatisfying.

Both Cousins (a career-high 30 points) and Thornton (21 points, 9 rebounds, 6 steals) accumulated impressive stats, but neither could make the plays to hold off the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Co. were efficient and cohesive in their tune-up for this weekend’s playoffs.

The Thunder’s team defense was at its most ferocious whenever the Kings got the ball inside.  Westbrook, Eric Maynor, and Thabo Sefalosha broke up numerous fast breaks, while Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins got their hands on seemingly every low-post attempt. Their stalwart work accounted in large part for the Thunder’s 50-32 edge in points in the paint.

Cousins did his best to combat the long-armed wall of interior defense, fighting his way to 21 free throw attempts.  He converted 18 of them, serving notice that he can become an offensive focal point if he continues to anchor his game near the hoop.

Jason Thompson had another in his recent series of strong games, scoring 16 points despite his grating tendency to needlessly up-fake when close to the hoop. Beno Udrih nearly played Westbrook to a standstill, scoring 21 points and hustling after the ball at midcourt to the extent that he almost canceled out his counterpart’s surreal athleticism.

Mental mistakes undid the Kings in the end, though. With a chance to cut Oklahoma City’s lead to three with under two minutes left, Francisco Garcia and Thornton failed to convert a 2-on-1 fast break. Moments later, Thornton threw the ball away after stealing it at midcourt, failing to find one of the three teammates who was open downcourt.

Kevin Durant had the quietest, most efficient 32 points possible, taking only 16 field goals and hitting 15 of 17 free throws.  He and Westbrook did combine for 12 turnovers, but as noted above, his teammates did an outstanding job of keeping those giveaways from turning into Kings points.

Sacramento’s crowd was an understandable mix of supportive and edgy, enjoying what was most likely the penultimate NBA game in Sacramento. Many of them field for the exits with seconds left in the game, as if the pain of watching another close game slip away, coupled with their team’s impending exodus, was too much to bear.

They’ll have one more chance to be part of what was once the league’s most raucous group of fans, this Wednesday against the Lakers. Other events may render that outcome meaningless for L.A., but one hopes that Kings fans get a memorable farewell performance.

The Kings didn’t let the Warriors run away this time.

In possibly the final installment of the Bay Area hoops rivalry, Sacramento matched its hosts in fastbreak points and got several heroic plays from Marcus Thornton in a 104-103 victory.

Thornton hit only seven of his 17 field goal attempts and missed all four of his long-distance launches, but he put up 21 points, including four in the final minute to preserve the victory.  This came less than 48 hours after his seven points in the final 2:30 almost willed the Kings to a win in Memphis on Friday.

This performance, coupled with another lackluster outing by Tyreke Evans, served as more ammunition for those who believe Thornton, not Evans, might be better suited as the team’s offensive focal point going forward.

It’s clear to even casual observers that Evans, while prodigiously talented, is essentially a soloist.  He had five assists Sunday, but each was a pass to a stationary teammate for a standstill jumper.

He went only 3-13 from the field, and while two of his baskets were assisted, neither came as the result of movement on offense.  The ball stops when he touches it.

His counterpart, Stephen Curry offered ample evidence that while Evans may have won last year’s Rookie of the Year battle, the advantage in the war thus far goes to the player with the slight build and the Golden Gate Bridge on his jersey.

Curry’s sweet stroke accounted for 27 points on 11-17 shooting, including 3-6 from three point range.  His smooth-arcing jumper served as a visual antidote to the flat, clanging attempts that Evans repeatedly unleashed after dribbling in place.  Even his meaningless 30-footer that narrowed the final margin to 104-103 as time expired was a thing of beauty.

Dorell Wright’s long arms were the game’s other enduring image, as the emergent defensive threat came away with a career-high six steals.  The Warriors had 13 thefts in forcing 23 Sacramento turnovers.

Seven of those giveaways were the work of rookie DeMarcus Cousins, who had another of his feast-or-famine efforts.  He repeatedly attacked the basket and, in what has become a recurrent theme, repeatedly failed to get the call.  His 15 points and 13 rebounds looked good on the stat sheet, but the turnovers – several of which led to runout layups or dunks – and six personal fouls almost undid all of his production.

Still, Cousins has shown as much talent and skill as any rookie this season, including Blake Griffin, and will hopefully mature to the point that games like this become a memory.

The Kings’ future hopes got another slight boost in the form of Jason Thompson, who despite his questionable basketball instincts has shown recent promise as an energy player.  He’s averaged 11 points and 8 rebounds in the past five games while shooting 62% from the field.  Many teams would welcome that production from a player who never has plays run for him, and if Thompson can keep focusing on what he does well, he’ll emerge as a fine complement to Cousins and Samuel Dalembert in an intriguing frontcourt rotation.

The Memphis Grizzlies clinched the West’s last playoff spot tonight.  But what about the other team?

The Sacramento Kings could look across the court and see a team not totally dissimilar.  Like the Kings, the Grizzlies have endured a multi-year playoff drought while fighting for scraps at the bottom of the brutal Western Conference.  Each team’s period of suffering has yielded high lottery picks, at least some of whom have panned out.

There are even peculiarly trivial connections. Each team’s coach was an All-Star guard in the 1970s. Optimistic observers look at Kings rookie DeMarcus Cousins and see an early incarnation of Grizzlies star Zach Randolph.

Most painful to Sacramento fans, each team now plays thousands of miles from its city of origin.  The Kings, of course, are likely a few weeks away from their fifth franchise move, while the Grizzlies must be observing said drama, worrying about Memphis’ viability as an NBA city, and quietly making contingency plans in the back of their collective mind.

For tonight, though, the teams’ divergent fortunes were apparent to all.  Memphis led the entire night and withstood a furious Kings rally over the final 2:30. With 16 seconds left, Tony Allen blocked Tyreke Evan’s game-tying shot attempt, and the Grizzlies hit three of four free throws in the last 10 seconds to preserve the win.

Randolph was the evening’s unquestioned star, abusing the Kings’ defenders down low with eight baskets in the paint and 10 free throw attempts.  He pulled down 15 rebounds to go with his 27 points and even tied a season high with four steals.

His counterpart, Cousins, had one of the frustrating nights that have littered his rookie campaign, collecting four points, three rebounds, and five fouls in 16 minutes.

The Kings’ backcourt was little more help, with starters Marcus Thornton and Evans (cheered by the crowd in his return to Memphis, where he starred in college) combining to shoot 15-42 from the field.  Thornton almost made up for it with seven points in the last three minutes to lead Sacramento’s comeback bid, but he missed the game-tying three-point attempt with under 10 seconds to go.

Sacramento’s brightest spots were the frontcourt duo of Samuel Dalembert (17 points, 16 rebounds) and Jason Thompson (15 and 12, his best output of the month).

The Kings also reminded observers of their painful lack of shooting by going 3-18 on three-pointers.  Amazingly, this was not a season low; they were 2-21 against Denver just last week.

If this is to work – “this” being “Tyreke Evans coexisting with Marcus Thornton/DeMarcus Cousins/et al while playing point guard” – then the remaining Sacramento Kings supporters need to see some evidence.  A 10-assist night for Evans, even against a slumping Utah team (whom they easily defeated, 106-97), would seem to be the needed proof.

His assists tonight led uniformly to high-efficiency shots: four of them led to open jump shots and the rest to layups or dunks.  He deserves credit for drawing defensive attention and capitalizing on it to find his teammates for open shots.  That is one of the point guard’s primary responsibilities.

His approach, though, was rather clunky and basic, at least tonight: he held the ball at the top of the key, then either drove or passed to the wing.  If he didn’t have an opening, he dumped the ball off and then sat at the top of the key for the remainder of the play.  This is not the dynamic creation utilized by floor generals like Chris Paul, Steve Nash, or Rajon Rondo.

Further, Evans’ lack of movement without the ball is troubling in light of the team’s development during his recent absence. With Evans out for 19 games with plantar fasciitis, the Kings discovered a mildly effective attack that featured Cousins at the mid-to-high post finding cutters.  In March, 2.6 of the rookie big man’s per-game assists led to layups or dunks, according to hoopdata.com.

With Evans’ return, Cousins has still gotten a fair share of touches in that mid-post area, but Evans does not seem to make a concerted effort to feed the big man. Worse, Evans has shown little inclination to make the kind of cuts or attempt the pick-and-roll action that could make their two-man attack devastating.

Of course, Cousins could also help his cause by continuing to develop his inside attack.  Frustratingly, his attempts at the rim have fluctuated wildly throughout the season (3.1 per game in February, 5.1 in March), while his ill-advised outside jump shots have actually increased in the past two months.

Per 82games.com, two of Sacramento’s most effective five-man units this year have included both Evans and Cousins, so there is some support for their candidacy as the franchise’s foundation going forward.

Anyone who has watched the team closely, though, has hopefully concluded that Evans should not be the point guard.  He is best suited as a Clyde Drexler/Ray Allen-type shooting guard who handles the ball and has the occasional big assist night .  He has not shown the distributor’s mentality that would qualify him to run the team; he passes more as a last resort when he doesn’t have a clear look.

If the Kings can find another ballhandler to relieve Evans of the point guard burden (and Beno Udrih, unfortunately, may not qualify) and convince Evans to let Ballhandler X assume said role, he and Cousins could truly be the foundation of a dangerous team.

If Evans or the team – or both – insist that he dominate the ball, though, nights like this one are likely to be far more the exception than the rule.

Most teams that play the Denver Nuggets expect to walk away with a few bumps and bruises.  The Sacramento Kings suffered more than many Friday night, and walked away with a frustrating loss to boot.

The Kings were less than 48 hours removed from Wednesday’s 104-90 loss in Denver.  Their home arena did nothing to cure those ills, as they were undone by a combination of untimely turnovers and ghastly shooting.

They went a barely-believable 2-21 from three-point range, highlighted by a combined 0-11 from Marcus Thornton and Beno Udrih.  They were little better from 15 feet, hitting only 22 of their 34 free throw attempts.

Denver’s physical 10-man rotation spent much of the game bodying up to the Kings and daring the officials to make calls.  DeMarcus Cousins in particular could have benefited from tighter officiating; he attempted six free throws but could have shot twice as many if the referees hadn’t swallowed their whistles on several of his inside moves.

Sacramento’s other building block, Tyreke Evans, failed to build on a promising Wednesday performance.  After going 10-16 with 22 points in his previous outing, he hit only 4-11 shots from the field and missed three of his eight free throws.  On several drives, he had trouble lifting off and had a few shots blocked at the rim.  The plantar fasciitis that sidelined him for five weeks may still be bothering him, as even his free throws looked flat by the game’s end.

Evans and Cousins also each submitted nominees for Season’s Worst Shot Attempt.  Cousins’ 20-foot off-balance heave with no follow-through or wrist snap was the ugliest moment of the first quarter, but Evans somehow managed to clang a short-armed three-point fling off the back rim while fading to his right in the third.

Evans caused Kings fans further concern with two of the worst floor-game decisions of this or any season.  Picking up his dribble at the sight of a trap just before halfcourt and passing to a confused Darnell Jackson just across the timeline led to a J.R. Smith steal and highlight-film dunk in the second quarter.

Later that same quarter, Evans picked up his dribble after another trap, allowed himself to be stripped, then was late hustling back on defense for an eventual Ty Lawson layup.

Sacramento’s other starting guard, Marcus Thornton, capped off his own nightmarish night by airballing a jumper that could have cut the Nuggets’ lead to seven with under two minutes remaining.  Thornton hit 4-14 shots from the field after averaging 25.0 points in his previous five games.

Denver almost blew the game open with a 31-16 margin in the third quarter, which included seven layups or dunks.  The Kings clawed back in the fourth to finish with a more respectable 99-90 loss.

The fourth quarter also saw the banging and bumping of the previous three come to a head with a potentially ugly skirmish between Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Cousins, Samuel Dalembert, and assorted others.  Gallinari’s needlessly hard foul on Cousins precipitated much shouting and shoving, with even Coach Paul Westphal wading in from the sidelines to play peacemaker.

Eventually, he wandered off unsatisfied but pacified.  Any Kings fan watching felt the same way.

For one game, the Sacramento Kings could pretend that there is no alpha dog battle brewing.

For one game, their roster had a clear pecking order, with one star surrounded by a capable crew of supporters.

For one game, that star was not named Tyreke Evans.  He went by the much more unassuming handle of Marcus Thornton.

The league’s reigning Rookie of the Year yielded the spotlight to midseason acquisition Thornton, who exploded for 32 points, including seven in the last 1:20 of regulation to bring the visiting Kings back from a late five-point deficit.

Louis Williams’ 32-foot heave at the buzzer forced overtime, but the other Kings stepped up in the extra period.  DeMarcus Cousins scored five points and assisted on two three-pointers as the Kings outscored their hosts 14-11 in OT to pull away.

Evans made a few important plays in the fourth quarter, but watched the overtime from the bench.  He appeared in his second game in a row after missing the previous 19 with plantar fasciitis.  His stat line was nothing special (2-8 field goals, 5-6 free throws, 10 points), but he played six more minutes than on Friday against Indiana, and appears to be working his way back into game shape.

Today, Evans’ presence did not affect Thornton, but it’s easy to wonder how the two can coexist when both are healthy.  Both scorers need the ball in their hands to be effective, and neither has yet proved he can be the focal point of a winning team’s attack.

Some observers have suggested that Thornton’s best long-term fit is as an instant-offense sixth man who closes games when hot.  Ideally, he would do so alongside Evans in the fourth quarter, which begs the question of how the two gunners can share the court.

They were paired together in the backcourt for about 19 minutes throughout today’s game, and seemed to find an acceptable balance on offense.  Evans mostly played point guard with Thornton sliding to the wing.  Most Kings experts doubt that Evans is a full-time floor leader, but when Thornton is this accurate (11-21 field goals, 4-6 three-pointers), it’s easier to give up the ball.

Evans was also an effective distributor in Friday’s win over Indiana, when he piled up eight assists while all five Kings starters scored in double figures.

It’ll be worth watching closely over the last few weeks of the season to see how well this uneasy marriage of players can gel, the better to give Kings fans hope for the team they’ll likely be watching from about 350 miles away in 2011-12.

Numerous writers described the mid-1990s Chicago Bulls as resembling an octopus on defense.  Long-limbed athletes like Jordan, Pippen, Grant, and later Harper and Rodman cut the available space in half and made every pass an adventure.

On Monday night, the octopus was back in the United Center.  The unfortunate Sacramento Kings were more like a jellyfish, minus the sting.

Not every Kings pass or dribble turned into a steal and breakaway layup for the Bulls – it just felt that way. The Bulls finished with a season-high 16 steals and 36 fastbreak points.

It didn’t matter who was on the court for Chicago, which did much of its damage in the second quarter with C.J. Miles playing in place of Derrick Rose (who only took 11 shots and scored 18 points in 28 easy minutes) and Omer Asik in for Carlos Boozer for a six-minute stretch.

The Kings actually shot well and never really gave up, but they made too many mental mistakes to stay in the game.

It’s easy to forgive Sacramento’s players for being blown out by a vastly superior team playing at home.  The gap between the two teams, though, is a little puzzling when considering all they have in common:

1) Both teams spent years picking in the lottery

2) Both teams are attempting to build around talented young players, specifically dynamic young guards paired with uniquely gifted big men who excel at getting on everyone’s nerves

3) Both have historically enjoyed a considerable homecourt advantage stemming from a wild, passionate crowd

4) Both have found success, in the past and present, employing a large percentage of late-first-round picks and international players

So, the surface similarities are there.  But there are a number of specifics in which the teams unfortunately diverge.  Returning to the previous list:

1) Chicago hit paydirt with its most recent lottery pick, Derrick Rose, one of the best top overall picks in recent years who has helped his team make the playoffs in each of his pro seasons.  The Kings have found at best mixed results with high draftees Jason Thompson (who has declined statistically in every major category this season0, Tyreke Evans, and now DeMarcus Cousins (11 points, 8 rebounds, 8 turnovers Monday).

2) Rose vs. Evans was an unfair fight even before Evans spent most of this season injured while his Bulls counterpart blossomed into the leading MVP candidate.  Cousins, meanwhile, is arguably more talented than Bulls opponent Joakim Noah, but hasn’t had anything resembling Noah’s coaching nor has he demonstrated a comparable work ethic.

3) Bulls fans are thrilled to have a good team on their hands again, and are vocal about showing their appreciation.  Kings fans are perpetually on edge in light of the rumors about their team absconding for Anaheim.

4) Luol Deng (United Kingdom) and Asik (Turkey) fit ideally into Chicago’s offensive and defensive schemes; Beno Udrih (Slovenia) and Omri Casspi (Israel) play major roles for the Kings because there aren’t any better options.

The NCAA tournament has pulled most of the basketball world’s focus for the past week.  In this spirit, let’s examine the various aspects of Sunday’s Kings-Timberwolves game, a seemingly meaningless game between the West’s two worst teams, as we would a major March showdown.

Experience – Minnesota’s starters had a combined six years of college experience, but 18 seasons in the pros.

The Kings countered with 20 professional campaigns among their first five.

Minnesota had but one of the classic “senior leader” types who so impress college commentators, point guard Luke Ridnour.  Sacramento balanced out raw rookie DeMarcus Cousins by flanking him in the starting lineup with steadying presences Beno Udrih, Francisco Garcia, Marcus Thornton, and Samuel Dalembert.

(Since Cousins was ejected for shoving Nikola Pekovic and Martell Webster in the third quarter, it’s questionable how much guidance those veterans were able to provide.)

Quality Wins – Sacramento has won at Portland (96-81, 1/24), at the Lakers (100-95, 1/28), and at Orlando (111-105, 2/23).

Minnesota’s best wins came earlier this month, at home against Indiana (101-75, 3/9) and Utah (122-101, 3/11).

Three-Point Shooting – The Kings hit 11-22 (50%), began the game with two NCAA-esque penetrate-and-dishes for open 3s, and even got a momentum-shifting banked-in 40-footer from Marcus Thornton that ended the first half.

The Timberwolves hit a solid 7-17 (41%), but on this night were outgunned.

Inside Game – In the game’s most lopsided stat, the Kings had 47 rebounds to Minnesota’s 27.  They attempted 12 more field goals and dominated the paint.

Key Run – Sacramento led 85-75 at the start of the fourth quarter.  The Kings then scored the first 17 points of the fourth quarter, including three threes, to put the game out of reach.

In that stretch, Minnesota called two timeouts, missed seven shots – none from closer than 15 feet – and committed four turnovers, three by point guard Jonny Flynn.

Star Players – Samuel Dalembert (26 points, 17 rebounds, 2 blocks) and Thornton (23 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists) rebounded from their worst games of the year with impressive bounce-back efforts.

Luke Ridnour (22 points, 4 assists, 3-3 3PT) and Darko Milicic (13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks) made honest efforts, but were overmatched by one of Sacramento’s best 1-2 punches of the season.

Friday’s contest between Philadelphia and Sacramento contrasted teams at two different points: one hopeless, lottery-bound, and likely on the move to a new city, the other battling for a playoff spot.

We’ll focus on the hopeless lottery-bound nomads for now.  Here are five takeaways from a night of frustratingly poor hoops.

Marcus Thornton: This is a case when statistics really do tell the whole story.  Anyone with rudimentary basketball knowledge could check the box score, see Thornton’s line (3-12 field goals, 0-6 threes, 7 points, 6 turnovers) and know that he had a terrible game.

Checking his recent stat lines would paint a fuller picture: he’d scored 25, 42, and 23 in his previous three contests, shooting almost 50% from the field in that stretch, so it’s easy to see that this was an aberration.

Kings fans should be concerned, though, because he’s shown little diversity to his game beyond an ability to get off shots and steal the ball (4 tonight). His ideal role is as an instant-offense sixth man on a good team.  He may get a chance to try that out – the “sixth man” role, minus the “good team” – when Tyreke Evans returns from injury.

DeMarcus Cousins: We’ll get into the numbers, but Cousins is becoming one of the players who fans need to see to appreciate.  His most noticeable improvement in the past two weeks has been his increased movement and effort on defense.  Tonight, even in a lost-cause game, he continually moved his feet to help teammates and then recover to his man, and his poor habit of loafing down the court in transition had disappeared.

He had the night’s under-the-radar defensive highlight, perfectly reading an alley-oop play to Thaddeus Young and tipping the ball away.  It wasn’t as spectacular as Samuel Dalembert’s occasional blocked shots, but it was just as effective in bottling up an opponent’s opportunity.

Of his three assists, two of them were his customary backdoor dishes for layups, and the third was a beautiful read of a double-team which he beat by finding Beno Udrih for a wide-open three.

Just as impressive is his newfound willingness to fight for rebounds (12 tonight, 11.8 in his last five games) and mix it up inside on offense, where he scored 19 points and attempted 11 free throws.  He executed some terrific pick-and-rolls and dribble-drives and has almost shed the jump-shooting addiction that has plagued him for much of the season.

Samuel Dalembert: It’s a shame Cousins’ inside focus hasn’t rubbed off on his frontcourt mate.  Dalembert needs to be cured of his delusion that he’s Kobe Bryant.

Among his attempts tonight – and he was 3-10 from the field, so it’s not like he was feeling it – were two 16-footers off dribble movement to his left, a driving fadeaway 14-footer, and an 18-footer while fading back from the top of the key.

Coach Paul Westphal’s options are limited, but he would be justified in yanking Dalembert for Jason Thompson every time the big man launches from outside the key.

Turnovers: The Kings coughed it up 22 times, leading to 27 Sixers points, in a game they lost by 22.  Sometimes math is that simple.

Most of the giveaways were bad passes or dribbling miscues, which allowed Philadelphia’s athletes to get out and run for uncontested layups.

One such mishap prompted the classic Jerry Reynolds observation, “Coach Westphal would like to see a little more security with the leather.”

This Sixer roster is a bad matchup in general for the Kings: long-armed athletes who took away open space on offense, forcing Sacramento’s subpar ballhandlers and passers to create shots that weren’t always comfortable.

Momentum shifts: This game didn’t start out badly, as Sacramento stayed within striking distance throughout most of the first period.

Then back-to-back Philadelphia three-pointers stretched the lead from 26-21 to 32-21 just before the quarter ended.

This pattern continued, as every time the Kings mounted a run, someone – frequently Thornton – submarined it with a bad miss or turnover.