I saw that the Kings were beat by the Cavs last night behind LeBron's triple double and Mo Williams' 43 points. I noticed that the Kings have the misfortune of playing back to back games on the road against the Cavs and Celtics. I thought for sure I'd log into Sactown Royalty and find dejected here-we-go-again fans lamenting their rebuilding franchise. Not so much. Instead, Tom Ziller was too busy gushing about Kevin Martin's game. His post is sarcastically titled: "I Am So Sick of Kevin Martin"
I mean, against one of the two best defenses in the league, where do you get off scoring (a team-high) 35 points on 17 FGAs, with (a team-high) seven rebounds, (a team-high) seven assists, (a team-high) four steals, and a block? (Sure, the FGAs and turnovers [three] were team highs too. Whatever.)
All I'm saying is that Kevin Martin was basically in-freaking-credible, and this is the type of game we should point to whenever someone on TV or in a magazine or on a blog or in a typo-ridden FanPost tells us Kevin Martin is not good enough to be a major player on a great team. Martin drilled every single Cavalier who tried to guard him. He could have scored 50, but any time one of his bigs had a mismatch Kevin found them. He hit Jason Thompson, Brad Miller and Spencer Hawes. He hit his guardly friends, too. He didn't get called for traveling once. He hit the defensive glass, he played the lanes ... he played active defense (although Sasha Pavlovic blew by him a few times).
And he did it all on 1.5 legs. That ankle still isn't right; you can tell every so often in transition. He won't make that excuse -- he's refused to shed some blame onto the bone bruise. But Sam Amick has noted a few times in detail that it continues to be a problem. And again, you see it every once in a while.