Rookie Phenom: Evans Mentioned In MVP Race
December 11, 2009 by Andrew Nicholson
After four games in five nights, the Kings are well rested and “stronger than ever,” according to Coach Paul Westphal, and ready to take a bite out of the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
The contest will be the first matchup between the two young teams this season. Despite their record, the Wolves are playing better, thanks to the return of Al Jefferson and Kevin Love.
“Since Kevin Love has been back, he’s been sensational,” Westphal said. “I hear a lot of the same quotes coming out of their locker room as ours. ‘Just can’t quite close out the game. We’re playing hard. We’re playing together. We’re going in the right direction.’ We expect it to be a really tough game.”
Along with the return of two of the Wolves’ starters from a season ago, the team features talented rookie point guard Jonny Flynn. It will be the first time Flynn and Tyreke Evans go head to head, since they faced each other in Sacramento’s point guard pre-Draft workout on June 21.
“He’s a little at a disadvantage, like most of the NBA point guards are,” former collegiate teammate Donté Greene said of Flynn’s matchup with Evans. “Tyreke is a 6-foot-6, strong point guard. He’ll definitely have his hands full.”
Greene’s sentiment fittingly understates opponents’ feelings about Evans’ early exploits this season – he’s a handful. So much so that Evans’ point (20.2), rebound (5.0) and assist (5.1) averages as a rookie rank him among the most elite players in NBA history. Only Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan and League MVP LeBron James have finished their first-year campaign with at least 20, 5 and 5, respectively. With those stats in mind, it’s no surprise NBA.com ranks the Kings rookie among the top 10 for NBA MVP honors.
“I think when you keep playing well, awards follow,” Westphal, who is not one to discuss individual awards, said. “He’s certainly raising a lot of eyebrows throughout the League, and he will for a long time.”
Despite the strong play from Evans and the team’s improved assist and turnover numbers, the Kings have lost four straight. One area that has stood out during the stretch has been the team’s free throw shooting, which Kayte Christensen blogged about. In the last four games, the Kings have shot 69, 62.5, 47.4 and 53.5 percent from the free-throw line, respectively.
“Unfortunately, that does happen to good shooters sometimes,” Westphal said after the team’s spirited practice. “Unfortunately, it happens to good shooters at the same time sometimes. Doubly unfortunately, it happened to us that way.”
“We’re trying to emphasize free throw shooting every day and pressure situations. I think we have good shooters and over the course of the season we’ll make them, but we’ve hit a rough patch. So we’re just going to keep playing with confidence and figure that it will even itself out.”
Watch – Kings Practice: Coach Westphal, including his discussion of the team’s practice and the team’s matchup with the Wolves.
Through the first quarter of the season, the team has excelled at learning from its mistakes and making the necessary adjustments to put itself in the best possible position to win. The work continued before the team even hit the practice court on Friday, as Omri Casspi said the team had its longest film review of the season.
“We can take a lot of things (away from the Spurs game), especially on defense,” Casspi said. “We made a couple of mistakes on the defensive end at the end of the game and (finishing) the game on the offensive end… We were right there.”
Watch – Kings Practice: Omri Casspi, including his breakdown of the team’s extensive film session, his field goal, three-point and free throw shooting and the team’s matchup with the Wolves.
After a strong practice, the League’s third-ranked three-point (percentage) shooter is ready to follow up his career-high 20-point, seven-rebound outing with another exciting performance at home.
“We need to go out there and play really hard, play our game” Casspi said. “It’s our home court with our fans. There is no reason we should lose this game. We’re ready to go out there, play hard, play good defense, and I think we’ll be ok.”
See Casspi, Evans and the exciting young Kings take on Love, Flynn and the Wolves Saturday at 7 p.m. at ARCO Arena. Buy tickets now.
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