Sports Radio Service


		Schedule could favor Kings By Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin August 10, 2005

	SACRAMENTO - The NBA, released new schedules for the 2005-06 season on Sunday night and might have given the Sacramento Kings an advantage, as opposed to two years ago, when the Kings had to start their season playing an exhibition game in Beijing against the Houston Rockets and come back and open their regular season on the road. It was a first three weeks of the season the Kings would not like to relive. They won't this year after trying to recover from the jet lag and the time difference of that season. The Kings have a schedule where they have to play everybody and to have an advantage, it depends on how you're playing at the time. Second of all, it depends on what your opponents are doing at the time. A good example in baseball is the San Diego Padres, who recently played the Washington Nationals and swept them. You have to wonder if the Padres played the Nationals a couple of weeks earlier if the roles might have been reversed. The Kings actually have an interesting opening schedule. They'll be playing the Houston Rockets to open the season. The Rockets are a good club, but do they get them at a good time? From there, they take on New Orleans and the Hornets are not really much of a team. The Kings once again open up their regular season against the Rockets on November 2, after finishing training camp that starts in September. Then they play the Hornets and Philadelphia the following Sunday before opening up at ARCO Arena on Nov. 8 against the two-time defending Eastern Conference champs, the Detroit Pistons. So the schedule is set. It's really scary in the way that the NBA is like every other sport - they just want to stretch it out and make it a year-round sport. Forget the fact that many years ago, the playoffs ended in April. Now the playoffs end in almost July. The Kings last game is on April 18, even before the playoffs start, against the Seattle SuperSonics. TV plays a major role in the schedule-making in the NBA, and for the Kings this season, they wouldn't be paying the huge salaries if they didn't have television. JC and Kenny G's footnotes: Former King Cuttino Mobley was the prominent departure from the team this off-season, having signed a 7-year, $42 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. Evidently the Clippers feel he'll fit in with that system - a great shooter and he can certainly score. Defense is his big question mark, and with the passing offense the Kings have, they doubted he'd really fit that picture. The Kings are going to be respectable, however, they are not in the class of San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, or Miami Heat, some of the elite teams that really should win the NBA title. Catch Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin with their coverage of the Sacramento Kings during the regular season. They both co-host Sportstalk on 1430 KVVN San Jose and 1110 KLIB Sacramento.