Change

We had a big statement win against the longtime rival Lakers last Tuesday. I feel like once we change the team around and get more wins, the Lakers will be a real rival, especially with the history the two teams have had in the past. That game drew a big crowd at ARCO — the best crowd I’ve seen. And we didn’t disappoint with our 12-point win that gave them their third loss of the season. It was a real good win for us. Everybody played with a lot of energy right from the jump and that’s the most important thing. Guys were playing defense like their lives depended on it and it showed.

After that we had a couple practice days and then we went to L.A. and played the Lakers in another tough game with a high-intensity atmosphere like at ARCO. It pretty much went down to the wire. In the last minute-and-a-half they had a couple more things go their way and they came out with the victory. But it wasn’t one of those losses where you’re like, ‘Man, what happened?’ We felt real confident and knew we should have won the game.

We came back to ARCO to face the Knicks with a lot of confidence but we didn’t start the game like we wanted to, like we started against L.A. I feel like we played to the level of the competition, which I was afraid of. But we did, and now we know what we got to do in the future.

Today Coach Theus got let go and Coach Natt has replaced him. I guess the big word is change. I don’t think our record speaks for the team that we have but that’s what happens when you’re a head coach in this league. That’s business. When you have success and when you have downfall the credit goes to you, first, and then it goes to the star players and then it goes to the guys like me who are learning.

Now, tonight we play the Timberwolves — a team we beat at ARCO and lost a close one to at their place in the first game of the year. Then we have a long road trip. We’ll be on the road for about a week and we’ll really see how we are. It’s going to be a real big test for us.

On my off day, yesterday, I got to help out my boy Donté Greene once again as a special guest on his show. We went to Raley’s. We rode around in some motorized shopping carts singing some songs and making the show a success, just like the last episode was. The question was, ‘Should JT come back?’ And I guess you guys — Kings fans — chimed in and said, ‘Bring him back!’

So, Happy Holidays everybody! Keep supporting us. Keep trying to pack ARCO. The most important thing is once we have you guys supporting us in ARCO it’s hard for us not to play well. Once you guys have it packed and start making it lively, we thrive off that energy. So just keep doing what you’re doing, bring your friends and family to our games, be safe and once again, Happy Holidays!

Oh, and we’ll see if JT has some type of show in the future!

All Access Practice Scoop

After the Kings finished practice on Wednesday, a day after pundits called the Kings 12-point win over the Lakers, “the biggest upset of the season in the NBA,” the team was in an understandably upbeat mood. As is custom from what I’ve seen across the entire League, the Kings held their post-practice half-court shooting contest. While most of the team competes in the light-hearted heave, John Salmons, Beno Udrih and Francisco Garcia seem to regularly finish among the top three. So it was only fitting a day after ‘Cisco tied Salmons with a team-high 21 points, it would be his shot that tickled the twine first. The amusing part, however, was ‘Cisco exclaiming, “I’m still hot!” afterward. Moments later, his teammate’s shot fell awry and as he fell to the floor playfully, assistant coaches, media members and surrounding teammates shared the entertainment that wasn’t nearly as common as it had been during training camp and the early weeks of the season. Check out the 12/10/08 practice video interviews in the Multimedia Center on the Kings.com home page to see what Coach Reggie Theus and veteran Bobby Jackson believe the team needs to do to build on its big win. Jackson also discusses the joy he has in interacting with his younger teammates and the strength of the team’s camaraderie.

Also, check out the Multimedia Center on the Kings.com home page tonight to see what Theus had to say about the team’s Sunday meeting, which led to the Kings energetic and focused effort against the rivals, and his thoughts regarding Lakers coach Phil Jackson commenting on the energy the Kings play with.

Season Analysis: Coach Theus

K-Mart’s Defense & More

Thank you for checking out the Kings.com Blog.

If you’ve subscribed to the Kings.com Live Blog at all during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, you’re probably acquainted with my blogging. Otherwise, you may be familiar with my writing/video blogging and podcasting on Kings.com and SacramentoMonarchs.com. With the Kings 2007-08 season in the books, I’ll be blogging in this forum during the summer months along with Kayte, Daniel and a couple more bloggers that we’ll be adding to the blog roster soon. My goal for this blog, as you may have read last summer, will be to keep you up to date on all things Kings — Lottery, Draft, Summer League, workouts — and any other NBA musings that are inevitable.

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I want to follow up on a story I wrote about Kevin Martin in the beginning of March, which focused primarily on his offensive growth and maturity, with a few notes on Martin’s defensive development. Like the feature, Kevin Martin’s Quiet Ascent, I have some quotes from Kevin’s personal coach David Thorpe — who many of you are familiar with, thanks to his great work on ESPN.com — regarding Martin’s defense.

The last two months of the season, Coach Theus voiced much praise for Martin’s effort on defense. The most noticeable example of his improvement came on weak side defense. If you caught Martin’s postgame comments the past two months of the season, you probably noticed him reference that same defensive side on a number of occasions. More than any statistical evidence can show, it was effort and positioning that demonstrated his new attention to defense. While Martin took 22 charges over the course of his 61 game season, he was a regular in the paint on defense in the team’s final months, if not taking one for the team, working to disrupt the opposition’s post players and take away easy weak side buckets.

Spending more time guarding the paint also helped Martin improve his rebounding statistics for the fourth consecutive year. He grabbed 4.5 rebounds per contest in ‘07-08, including 3.7 defensive rebounds. Those totals — RPG and DRPG — ranked Martin 14th and eighth among guards in the NBA, respectively, which is notable considering his rebounding effort is seldom discussed.

As I alluded to, Martin’s defense picked up the second half of the season after he received a visit from Thorpe in early February.

Here are some of the thoughts his personal coach shared with me during his visit.

“I told him, ‘That’s why I’m coming out here. I think you can score 24 to 25 points a game in your sleep. And you’re capable of more on both ends of the floor.’”

“So we talked about, ‘What can you do better?’”

“You know, we think he can make more plays defensively. I think he’s a better defender than the average person would think.”

“The net result is very, very positive. I’m watching pretty much every minute of his games and he gives up baskets, but in the NBA two-guards get scored on.”

“I think he’s ready to take that next step and take those risks a little more.”

“I think he’s quick enough to disrupt a lot of people and I think as he gains more experience from having to guard other teams’ best players, which he was doing from time to time, he’ll get better at it because he’s a competitor.”

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• Sure, Mikki Moore felt the need to debate every foul called against him this season, just as he has done throughout his career. A penchant which has earned him a number of comments from former and current smiling teammates like, “Mikki has never committed a foul in his life!” Or, as Coach Theus said in one of the last home games of the season, “That’s the first one he’s had right all season! He hasn’t been right all season, but that (was a foul)!” In spite of the good humored comments and Moore’s rebuttals, it doesn’t take away from his adeptness at taking a hit for the name on his jersey. This season the Kings power forward drew the third most offensive fouls in the NBA — 51. Only Derek Fisher (54) and Andrew Bogut (53) took more blows from the offense in the name of their respective teams. And while Moore may not have agreed with them all, he did lead the League with 189 shooting fouls committed this season.
• The final standings are in for games missed due to injury and with no surprise the Kings were one of the leaders — 11 players missed action in 2007-08. With 12 players missing time due to injury, the Clippers were the only team to miss more than 260 games this season. Thanks in large part to Shaun Livingston and Elton Brand’s major injuries, Los Angeles missed a league leading 321 games. The Kings ranked ninth, tallying 199 missed games due to injury. The Wizards and Lakers were the only Playoff teams that totaled more injuries than the Kings. With a League low tying seven players missing time, the Suns saw the fewest games (30) missed due to injury.
• The NBA Draft Lottery takes place on May 20 and the Kings have one selection among the top 14 picks. Finishing the 2007-08 campaign with a 38-44 record, the Kings will have eight out of a possible 1,000 combinations to win the Lottery. Miami has the greatest chance of winning the Lottery with 250 combinations. While the concept seems to imply that all 14 picks are decided through the Lottery, it is only the first three picks in the Draft that will be determined by the Lottery. The remainder of the “lottery teams” select in positions four through 14 in inverse order of their consolidated standings at the end of the regular season.Speaking of the lotto, the Kings will be the first team in history to send a Season Ticket Holder to be their official representative live on ESPN during the NBA Draft Lottery. In fact, fans vying to be the Kings LUCKIEST Season Ticket Holder taped their short auditions last week at ARCO Arena.