In what has to be one of the most disjointed, awkward, poorly played games I have ever seen, the Kings pulled what turned out to be a pretty entertaining win.

For much of the game the Kings had a double-digit lead which was frightening and confusing to me. I don’t like new things. Kevin Martin was going berserk (32 points through three quarters) and Ron Artest was throwing in everything that wasn’t a free throw.

Then the magic started…

Martin was taken out of the game with three minutes left in the third quarter, apparently because he was just too on fire for Theus’ liking. Cue Francisco Garcia’s rampant, flailing turnover fiasco, and…nice. Martin stayed on the bench through the first few minutes of the fourth, just long enough for him to go from white hot to arctic cold.

The Knicks eventually took the lead as rebounding just stopped being fun for the Kings. Some nice plays from the inexplicable new sixth man John Salmons knotted things up down the stretch.

At the end of regulation the Knicks had a shot to win when the stunningly immobile and inappropriately enormous Eddy Curry had a wide open layup as time ran out. He missed and I was able to resist the urge to punch myself in the face repeatedly.

The overtime periods were an epic struggle that came down to who wanted to lose less. The Kings, up by seven with a minute and a half to go in the second OT, thought the fans would enjoy 36 turnovers in a row. It was pretty entertaining, I guess, to see millionaires paid to play basketball at a higher level than myself play like…myself.

In the end the Kings did a worse job of trying to lose than the Knicks did, so it goes into the old W column. I won’t complain. Martin set a new career-high with 43 points in the win. I have decided to add a little something to this blog. I will call it the Martin Meter. When Martin shoots 20 times the Kings generally win. When he doesn’t, well…

Martin Meter - 11-for-21, 43 points (W) (20+ shots - 2-0, < 20 shots - 1-6)