Kings Ready to Take ARCO Momentum on Road
November 18, 2009 by Andrew Nicholson
Fresh off a 3-1 home stand the Kings practiced for the last time in Sacramento on Wednesday before embarking on a three-game road trip through Dallas, Houston and Memphis.
Though the Kings Western Conference-leading four-game winning streak was snapped at the defensive hands of the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night, the team was in good spirits after a productive afternoon on the practice court.
“It was a good practice,” Coach Paul Westphal said. “We focused on trying to move the ball and being patient and aggressive on our offense at the same time.”
After committing a combined 40 turnovers in the team’s last two games, Westphal is hopeful the players will add the lessons learned in practice to their play against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday.
“We go through drills,” Westphal said in characterizing how the team worked on the aforementioned aspects of the offense. “We try to run our offense with no dribbles and emphasizing passing and spacing, and they did a good job picking that up.”
Along with it being early in the season and the Kings being the youngest team in the NBA, Westphal is happy with the development of the team and understanding that it likely won’t have the execution of a veteran group.
“When you see a team with a lot of veterans and (that has) been together a long time, their execution is usually smoother,” Westphal said. “That’s because basketball is a game of habits and getting to know each other.”
Watch - Kings Practice: Coach Westphal.
One player whose habit of working hard in practice is Dontè Greene. The Kings second-year forward showed against the Bulls that his game is just as entertaining and dynamic as his personality.
“He was just showing his talent,” Thompson said of his friend Greene, who scored a game-high and career-high 24 points. “When he gets a chance to do things, you get to see he had a lot of confidence. He took 19 shots, hit some threes, was driving to the basket, had some dunks and got to the line. It was good.
“The more confidence he gets, the more comfortable he’ll get. With him playing well and other guys playing well, we’ll get Ws.”
The next test for the Kings comes on Friday against the Mavericks, who boast All-Stars at multiple positions. Among them is Dirk Nowitzki, who Thompson will see time defending. Coupled with trying to slow down the Mavs’ power forward who Westphal said is a “walking mismatch,” Thompson and Co. will try to contain Jason Kidd. The University of California product may be defended by Tyreke Evans, but his play making ability makes everyone’s job challenging.
“It certainly does,” Thompson said. “You have to stay to (Nowitzki’s) body, but stay glued on your defensive principles. When you’re with a guy like (Kidd) he can step out and shoot, and if he has 10 or 15 points and then has 10 assists, he’s accumulative (for) about 35 points, so that’s a big-time player in himself.”
Watch - Kings Practice: Jason Thompson.
Watch - Kings Practice: Tyreke Evans.
As tough as the Mavs are, according to Kings guard-forward Ime Udoka, the Kings can surprise the Mavs at home if they play the type of hard-nosed team basketball that earned them a four-game winning streak.
“It’ll be a tough matchup, especially (in Dallas),” Udoka said. “It comes down to effort with us. We went to Utah and got a hard game on the road. We have to match that intensity and come out and play hard and anything can happen from there.”
Though he’s only been in California’s capital a short time, the NBA veteran sees a fan base beginning to embrace the potential and excitement of the this Kings team.
“(Sacramento has) been great so far,” Udoka said. “You can see with the four-game winning streak, it’s starting to get louder and louder (at ARCO Arena). More fans were in there last night than since I’ve been here, but it’s almost like they want to get behind this team and you can see that. So it’s just a matter of us going out there and putting out a good product and effort and all the things they want to see like hustle and hard work, and I think they’ll be ready to come back. They’ve had success in the past, so they’re looking for that again.”
Watch - Kings Practice: Ime Udoka.
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