Turnover Tuesdays with Mr. Taylor

After a week off, Turnover Tuesdays is back with a vengeance.

The Kings followed up an 0-3 road trip with two straight home wins, to go 2-3 since we last chatted and 9-15 on the season.

There was some good, some bad, and some ugly. Let’s look at it.

• With Willie Cauley-Stein’s finger injury, early season standout, Omri Casspi has been inserted into the starting lineup. After missing the disastrous game in Mexico City versus Boston, he started four straight and averaged 14 points and 6.3 rebounds on a fairly pedestrian 43 percent from the field, 30 percent from 3, and an abysmal 53 percent from the stripe.
• Rudy Gay continues to shoot much better with DeMarcus Cousins in the lineup with a 49 percent from the field, 37 percent from 3, and 90 percent from the stripe in the last five games. For the season, Gay is shooting 51%/39%/84% with Cousins and 39%/25%/86% without.
• Despite all the claims of improved defense the past two weeks, the Kings managed to slide 2 spots in defensive rating to 28^th in the league.
• It was without doubt, one of the more challenging stretches in recent memory for Cousins. The big man averaged 18.6 points and 9.8 rebounds on a dreadful 36%/19%/63% shooting line the last two weeks. He did bounce back a bit in the home games, or those numbers would look even worse.
• Really nice run of games for Kosta Koufus in limited minutes (19.6) off the bench. He averaged 8.0 points, 6.6 boards, and a stellar 1.4 blocks while shooting 57 percent from the field and only turning the ball over once in five games.
• Ben McLemore is an enigma. He shot incredibly the last five games 55%/46%/88% but seems to disappear for stretches at a time. A more aggressive McLemore on both ends, would serve the Kings well.
• Marco Belinelli shot 21 percent (4-19) the past two weeks. The Kings brought him in to do one thing…Just atrocious.
• James Anderson played 10 minutes in the last 5 games, going 0-2 against OKC. He’s now shooting 27 percent from the field and an incredible bad 15 percent on 2-pointers.

The week ahead:

12/15 versus the Houston Rockets (in Sacramento, CA)

12/18 versus the Minnesota Timberwolves (in Minneapolis, MN)

12/20 versus the Toronto Raptors (in Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

12/21 versus the Washington Wizards (in Washington DC)

I see the Kings splitting these 4 and bringing their overall record to 11-17 next week.