K-Mart Faces Team He Lit Up in ARCO Return
January 25, 2010 by Andrew Nicholson
With an 8-3 record against the Western Conference at home this season, the Sacramento Kings look to turn back their recent seven-game skid and reignite the energizing upstart they had to begin the 2009-10 campaign against Northern California rival Golden State on Tuesday.
“First of all,” Omri Casspi said. “We have to focus on the game on Tuesday, win at home and get some confidence back.”
To regain the self-assurance that was so evident as the team built toward a .500 record, Coach Paul Westphal said it begins on the defensive end.
“It starts with containing the dribbler,” he said after Monday’s practice. “Then, it goes on to rotating over with our bigs. Then, it continues on to covering for the bigs from the weak side. We have just not done a good job at all on team defense and we went back to training camp on those concepts today. I think the guys responded well and, hopefully, I believe we’ll make marked improvement.”
Rookie Tyreke Evans, who routinely cites the importance of his play on defense before discussing his production on offense, echoed Wesphal’s sentiment when discussing what the team needs to do to come out of the gate strong against the Warriors.
“Once we lock down on defense and limit teams to one shot, get a rebound and push, I think we’re a dangerous team,” the rookie scoring-leader said. “Easy baskets and and-ones get us going and get us into a rhythm. But when we’re in there letting teams have second opportunities, tip-ins and hitting threes off the rebound, that’s what breaks us down.”
Watch - Kings Practice: Tyreke Evans.
Along with the need to improve on D, Westphal said his young team has experienced a drought in offensive production as a result of a range of things – the team’s youthful energy dipping due to the long season, team and player adjustment to Kevin Martin’s return, a difficult schedule and playing on the road. With much of the focus around the Kings zeroing in on the team’s re-addition of number 23, the Kings sideline leader is quick to voice his support of Sacramento’s shooting guard.
“To me, it’s simple,” he said. “It’s hard to be out two months and hit the ground running. It’s rust, it’s conditioning, there’s getting used to your teammates, there’s confidence factors, there’s just recapturing the rhythm of the game – it’s a very difficult thing to do. I think it’s (especially) difficult to do it on the road the way he was asked to do it. All of those things are factors.”
After a pre-practice meeting with his head coach and a post-practice shooting session with Hall of Fame assistant coach Pete Carril, Martin says it’s a matter of patience and averages, until his teammates and him are back in sync.
“It’s tough but some things you can’t explain,” he said of his limited offensive output. “Today I had to go back to basics 101 with Coach Carril, so I tuned up a couple things and hopefully it works out… They’ll start to go down. Percentages always catch up.”
From his first on-court independent practice session with Carril in “four years,” Martin said he was reminded to be more aggressive, play his game and clear his mind.
“We’re just trying to play team ball,” Martin, who is averaging a team-best 21.5 points per game, said. “People will step up when they have to, and hopefully that starts now. You can’t really worry about if shots are falling. I put a lot of pressure on myself and I’m just now getting back. So I just have to come to work, and hopefully it turns out for the good.”
Watch - Kings Practice: Kevin Martin.
Since the Kings faced the Warriors in Oakland on Jan. 8, Sacramento has played six out of eight contests against division-leading or current playoff-bound teams. After letting an 18-point lead slip away in the second half of that tilt, the Kings will focus on the aspects of the game that helped them gain a significant lead – strong execution, ball movement, team defense that forces Monta Ellis to pass and shot clock control.
“We have to focus on us and play our basketball – the way we were playing at the beginning of the (season),” Beno Udrih said. “I think if we do that, we should be fine.”
Watch - Kings Practice: Beno Udrih.
Proud of the way his young team has bounced back all season, Westphal is encouraging the Kings with a positive message.
“I think it’s always important to lead them with some hope,” Westphal said. “And the hope is that we can back to doing what we did to get better like we were earlier and even go beyond that, because even that wasn’t where we want to be.”
Watch - Kings Practice: Coach Westphal.
“(Tuesday) is a new game,” Udrih added. “We can’t think about being sorry for the way we played on (the) road trip. We just have to forget about it now. Half of the season is behind us. We still have a lot of games so we can still turn it around. That’s what we’re looking for and (Tuesday) we have the first chance to do that.”
Injury update: Due to a bruised left hip he sustained in practice on Monday, rookie Jon Brockman is questionable for Tuesday’s matchup.
See Martin’s return to ARCO Arena against the team he scored a career-high 50 points against last season as the Kings battle the Warriors on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Buy tickets now.
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