HOUSTON - It felt like two Kings shoot-a-rounds this afternoon.
First, there was my early Toyota Center attendance at the session for the Kings South, otherwise known as the Rockets. Then, of course, the actual Kings.
A brief conversation with Kings coach Reggie Theus led to the discovery that point guard Beno Udrih (lower back strain) will return tonight after a three-game absence and center Brad Miller (right elbow bursitis) will start as well. Ron Artest will not play, although Theus wasn't sure which ailment - knee or elbow - was bothering his small forward.
"You have to ask him," he said.
Artest, however, was already on the team bus.
On the other side, I asked former former Kings assistant and Rockets' assistant Elston Turner about the sort of defensive topics I covered in today's paper, and he wasn't shy to share his views.
"It ain't like we went back and read a book on defense for dummies," Turner said. "We know what we're doing on both ends. You don't get as many wins as we've gotten (over the years) coming up short in some areas."
Turner always took great offense to the claims that Adelman's coaching staff didn't coach defense, namely because that end of the floor has long been his area of expertise as a coach and when he was a player. His argument, then and now, has been that you just can't do much defensively if the players given to you don't have a good amount of defensive pedigree on their own.
"A lot of these guys had defense on their resumes before they got here," Turner said. "It's been good. They really work at it, execute it, and they hold each other accountable. We hold them accountable and they hold each other accountable. We've got a team that's pretty good when we're clicking on all cylinders."
"BIG GIVE" TODAY
As a reminder, the Maloofs are on Oprah's show this afternoon giving away mounds of cash to people in need. All the info you need is right here.
- Sam Amick
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