December 7th, 2008 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
The Sacramento Kings have been out-of-sync for what seems like the entire season as they’re trying to establish an identity; granted, they had lost Kevin Martin for a spell with an ankle injury, but still, they have yet to gel into a cohesive unit for any consistent stretch of games this season. Saturday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets at Arco Arena probably illustrated that point as the Nuggets led from the opening tip to the final buzzer as they embarrassed the host Kings 118-85.
Denver outscored Sacramento almost twofold in the opening quarter 37-18 and would hold a huge 21-point lead going into halftime; Chauncey Billups kept the Nuggets in control during the third quarter as he connected on both of his shots and made 7 consecutive free throws. His 13 points in the period helped Denver increase their advantage to 89-62 going into the fourth quarter; Sacramento would never recover.
Denver’s high scorer was the aforementioned Billups with 24 points (including 3 treys), a rebound, 4 assists and a steal while Renaldo Balkman added 17 with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a blocked shot; Carmelo Anthony, Nene and J.R. Smith pitched in, scoring 16 each – with Anthony grabbing 7 rebounds and an assist while Nene grabbed 7 rebounds, dished out 2 assists along with 5 steals and 3 blocked shots. Smith grabbed 4 rebounds, dished out an assist along with a steal.
Sacramento was led by John Salmons with 22 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal while Beno Udrih added 14 with 4 rebounds and 4 assists; Jason Thompson, while scoring only 8 points, grabbed 15 rebounds. Denver (14-7) plays again on Wednesday when they host the Minnesota Timberwolves while Sacramento (5-16) hosts the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.
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