Beno, 6th Man Helping Kings Silence Doubters
November 28, 2009 by Andrew Nicholson
The Kings completed their last home stand with a successful 3-1 record and two games into their current four-game stay at ARCO Arena, they are 2-0, proving pundits wrong and showing continual improvement on the defensive end.
“There’s no one explanation for it,” Coach Paul Westphal said of the team’s impressive 6-2 record at home this season. “Teams do better at home. It’s a fact. The first step is to learn to win at home. The second step is to learn to win on the road. When you learn to do both, then you have a really good team. We’re taking steps in that direction and we want to keep taking care of business at home and go out on the road and see if we can get some there.”
Entering Friday’s game in Sacramento, the New Jersey Nets were the only team in the League without a win. After hearing national analysts predict the Nets would earn their first win in California’s capital, the Kings used it as further fuel to burn their competitive fires.
“They have the Lakers and Dallas (next) and they’re facing the Kings (on Friday),” rookie Omri Casspi said smiling, a day after tallying a career-high 18 points. “They probably thought they were going to come in here and win, and we proved them wrong. So maybe they’re going to win in STAPLES Center, but not in ARCO.”
Watch – Kings Practice: Omri Casspi.
Along with Casspi’s outstanding and timely play, including hitting 3-of-4 clutch free throws late in the fourth quarter, Spencer Hawes’ 16-point, 10-rebound double-double and Beno Udrih and Tyreke Evans’ team-high tying 21-point efforts, the Kings protected home court with their defense.
“Defensively, we’re getting better all the time,” Westphal said. “We’re sticking to the game plan. We’re, for the most part, making (the opponent) take shots from the outside and limiting them to one shot. Everything else feeds off that.”
Watch – Kings Practice: Coach Westphal.
With a trusting and active defense and relentless effort on the glass, the team is able to deliver more highlight-reel plays on offense.
“It definitely (allows) us to fast break much more often, instead of taking it through the net and taking it out of bounds. It takes two seconds immediately off,” Beno Udrih said. “We’ve gotten a lot more transition points this year than last year, so it helps a lot.”
The Kings look to build on the two-game winning-streak momentum they’ve gained on Sunday at 6 p.m. against New Orleans, who will be without injured All-Star point guard Chris Paul. Despite his absence, the Hornets have won four out of the last five outings.
“They’re still a good team,” Udrih said. “They’re playing better than the last two teams that we’ve played, so we have to come in and be even more focused than we were and play even harder and get that third win in a row.”
Watch – Kings Practice: Beno Udrih.
With the number of injuries the team has sustained and the prevalence of scratches and bruises the players maintain, it’s hard to imagine the Kings playing more focused and harder, but the team isn’t looking to slow down anytime soon. The Kings are on a mission, and they’re only 16 games into it.
“We just want to prove everybody wrong, basically,” Udrih said. “We know we are a good team and we can win games, especially at home. We have to defend our home court. I’m not saying we’re going to win all of them, but if we win most of them and maybe a couple on the road, we can be a .500 team easily, especially with the home crowd, the 6th man, it’s much easier to win.”
Injury update: Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson are questionable and probable for Sunday’s game, respectively. Hawes has a bruised right knee and Thompson has a bruised lower back.
Watch the exciting young Kings take on the Hornets at ARCO Arena. Buy tickets now.
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