The Sports Informant

By Scott Levin
Sports Informant Contributing Writer

This game was not pretty. The Kings shot a frigid, season-low 32 percent from the floor, as a handful of players posted atrocious shooting lines. But one thing was evident. The Kings learned from their mistakes the previous night – Sacramento hit the boards hard. As a result, they had more rebounds in the first half against Houston than they did all game in Oklahoma City. The rebounding effort made up for the lousy shooting, helping the Kings to 23 more shots than Houston. Sacramento held on for a nail-biting 84-81 win against the Rockets.

Carl Landry, shown here dunking against Detroit, was the key factor in the Kings' win over Houston yesterday. (Photo courtesy Tom Paniagua)

1 – Carl Landry made his return to Houston a successful one. He continues to exhibit all the qualities necessary in a franchise cornerstone, both on and off the court. In interviews, Landry is a personable, upbeat speaker, focused solely on his team’s success. On the court, he was the Kings only reliable hand on Wednesday night. Landry showed no signs of being nervous, instead coming out determined to knock off his former team. He finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, and his two free throws with 4 seconds left helped seal the deal. The Kings couldn’t have asked for better results so far from their new power forward.

2 – Tyreke Evans was completely bottled up by Rockets defensive stopper Shane Battier. His penetrating moves were neutralized by the equal-in-stature Battier, forcing him to shoot jumpers all night. And none of those shots were falling. While Evans contributed eight rebounds and five assists, he struggled to a 4-for-22 shooting night and scored just nine points, his lowest total since Jan. 30.

3 – The game also marked Kevin Martin’s first opportunity to play against his former mates. Martin was far less effective than Landry. He never found any rhythm. He could only resort to searching for fouls and unfortunately for him, the referees weren’t biting. Francisco Garcia had a good handle on Martin’s game and kept him in check. The Kings former shooting guard scored 14 points on 3-for-13 shooting and chipped in with eight rebounds.

Quick hits – Ime Udoka is making just enough plays on defense to make up for his horrid offense. Udoka shot 3-for-12 against Houston (now 25.9% over the last six games), but his strip of Luis Scola with 6:33 left in the game was a key defensive play … The Kings finished the first half with spectacular play. Landry made a free throw with three seconds left. He then retreated to break up a deep pass from Houston, the ball was relayed to Garcia who stroked a 33-footer as time expired … Garrett Temple made his Kings debut on the aforementioned play. Those were the only three seconds he took the court … Joey Dorsey also made an impact in his return to Houston, grabbing four rebounds in 14 minutes while playing solid defense on Scola.