Sacramento Kings guard Marco Belinelli went a little crazy on Monday. In the team's preseason opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, he dropped 32 points on 12-for-18 shooting, including 4-for-10 from 3-point range. Belinelli added four assists, three rebounds and three steals in his 34 minutes, helping his team earn a (meaningless) 109-105 overtime win.
Many of the shots were off-balanced, contested and extremely difficult, which seems about right for Belinelli. It looked a lot like what he was doing for Italy in EuroBasket last month.
Belinelli scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and 10 more in overtime. While he won't be relied upon to do this much playmaking during the regular season, he'll remain a good option at the end of the shot clock. It's likely he'll finish lots of games even if Ben McLemore is the starting shooting guard.
This was a messy game featuring lots of wacky lineups -- the Blazers finished the game with Phil Pressey, Tim Frazier, Luis Montero, Pat Connaughton and Omari Johnson on the court -- but you can see why the Kings wanted Belinelli. He fits head coach George Karl's offensive system, and he can put up points in a hurry.
