The Sacramento Kings are mediocre. Sure, they have stretches of brilliance, but they have stretches of utter incompetence. They are inexperienced, sloppy and just plain hilarious. The Suns have to use that, and use it well.

The Suns won the last game in Sacramento quite convincingly. Granted, they later went 0-3 in their following back-to-back-to-back, but it still was a nice sight. The Suns can win it convincingly again, as long as everyone steps up as they did in Sac-to.

The Suns had 4 players in double figures in that game while Steve Nash has 15 dishes. Nash’s ability to penetrate against the Kings has been killing them, along with Jared Dudley’s ability to hit the midrange jumper, and Marcin Gortat’s finishing ability. And yet, the challenge awaits again, especially for Gortat.

Gortat will be facing DeMarcus Cousins again. Cousins scored 26 in their last meeting, mostly courtesy of Gortat’s early foul trouble and Channing Frye and Markieff Morris’ tendency to foul him. Tonight however, Cousins should be the one watching out, as Gortat plays much better when at home in Phoenix, and the Suns are having a lot of rest throughout this homestand (interrupted by a game in Oklahoma City next Tuesday)

Meanwhile, Kings point guard Isaiah Thomas (named after another point guard due to a lost bet) has been the Western Conference Rookie of the Month for the month of February. With him added to the weapons that are Marcus Thorton and Tyreke Evans and the rebounder Demarcus Cousins is, the Suns will have to play as hard on defence, as they had the last two games.

Hopefully, all of this can happen, because this game is an absolute must win.

These Suns will have a challenge ahead, a challenge mostly defensive. Stopping DeMarcus Cousins, a beast unleashed from Paul Westphal’s Rusty Cage. Meanwhile the Suns had an unexpected slump from their most consistent producer in Marcin Gortat. Paul Coro attributed it to Gortat getting the yearly “you’re not in the All-Star game” memo, but I’d give a little dubious credit to Alvin Gentry’s scheme of refusing to give Gortat consistent touches before forcing him into a playmaking crunch situation.

The bright spot, however was Channing Frye who finally had a game he was capable of, scoring 21 points on rational attempts. Sure, it’s not much, but always nice to see Channing getting some rhythm. Now, if only the Suns can play some D (a horrible performance against Houston leaving midrange shooting bigs for open Js almost all the time), they should manage to do something right. It will be hard against a team of Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thorton and Cousins, though.

There’s no recipe for success at this point, perhaps other than trusting Marcin Gortat with the ball a little more. He seems frustrated with the role he has, and rightly so. He’s capable of so much more than garbage baskets. The other idea here is going back to the Di’Antoni system. If Jeremy Lin can live and die by the pick and roll, I’m pretty sure that Steve Nash can handle it. But then again, Alvin is trying to force weird solutions rather than work the obvious for a long time now.

Adam’s Suggestion:
Channing Frye is still going strong, so I’m still gonna go out and criticize him. Ever since I started this section, he’s been ballin. DON’T TRUST CHANNING FRYE!