Nocioni encouraged despite Kings' loss

NEW ORLEANS – Andres Nocioni was happy. And that, given the current context, was quite a revelation. The Kings small forward has become the unofficial pulse of his team's competitive heart, though not necessarily in the healthiest way. He fumes in practice if a play doesn't meet his standards, sometimes lamenting his presence on the team because he has no interest in being part of a group that doesn't reflect his relentless personality. The Kings lost 97-92 to New Orleans on Friday night. And Nocioni was happy. "If we still play like this, we're going to win games for sure because I think we played really, really hard today, but we just didn't close the game," Nocioni said. "It's a huge difference. I don't like to be on the court or be on a team where they don't want to win games. "If we play like this every night, we can lose 81 games but I'll be much happier. … It's really fun to be in a game...