When Keith Smart earned the head coaching position for the Sacramento Kings, he said that his team would be a “running” team that would play at a quick pace. Smart’s philosophy has always been to have a quick pace offense that gets on the opponent’s defense quickly and doesn’t allow them to plant their feet. Smart believes that it is important for a team to get out quickly and keep an opponent running early in a game, especially when at home. In order to promote a quick offense from his team, Smart has shortened the shot clock at times during practice and the players are seeing results. “The emphasis in practice the last couple of days has been running: getting the ball up in 14 second

Kings' center DeMarcus Cousins isn’t helping his reputation. The 22-year-old center was ejected from Sunday night’s game as the Kings fell 115-113 to the Milwaukee Bucks. The ejection marks a league-high fourth time the King’s big man has been sent to shower early. Cousins got into an altercation with Milwaukee Bucks forward Mike Dunleavy, resulting in him being disqualified in the third quarter for the remainder of the game. The young big man has built a reputation of being troubled and continues to hurt the Kings with technicals (12 this year) and early showers. But the fact is the Kings need the talented center, and need him to be on the court. With so many holes on the roster, the

The Sacramento Kings returned home after a five-game road trip and defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 119-83 in Sunday, March 3's matinee rout. “I thought we did a good job and did what we were supposed to do,” Kings head coach Keith Smart said of his team’s performance after the game. “We got home, played in front of our fans and played some pretty good basketball from a numbers standpoint.” The trip home marked the first time for the newly acquired Kings to take the court in front of the home crowd. Kings general manager Geoff Petrie completed a controversial trade in late February that sent Thomas Robinson, Francisco Garcia and the Kings second-round pick next year to Houston for Patrick

Kings’ point guard Isaiah Thomas is taking advantage of his increased playing time, after spending much of the season in a three-man point guard rotation. Earlier this month, Sacramento head coach Keith Smart made the decision to use primarily Thomas and Jimmer Fredette as his two point guards, fellow point guard Aaron Brooks to become an observer from the bench for the majority of the time. In fact, Brooks has tallied just 14 minutes of playing time in the last four games including three games where he did not see the floor at all. Thomas has responded by producing the same types of plays that earned him the starting job last season after he was drafted 60th overall out of the Universit

Sacramento Kings fans showed up in full force as their team defeated the Utah Jazz 120-109 for what was dubbed, “Here We Buy” night, by local grassroot campaigns attempting to keep the team in Sacramento. Kings head coach Keith Smart knew the atmosphere would be overwhelming before he even made it into the arena. “To come in this building today and see the fans and the level of appreciation while they were out in the parking lot, that was a huge key for us as myself and everyone else coming into the arena, driving in here ready for a game, saw the fans in the parking lot first,” Smart said. Fans kicked the night off with a planned tailgate in the parking lot prior to the game where fans