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OKLAHOMA CITY - I'll leave the breaking down of the game for tomorrow's paper, but this was ugly and unexpected for sure.
A loss was one thing. This was another (although how many times did I say that last season?).
I was prepped to upload my audio file of the night's interviews from the Kings locker room onto the blog, but the work has been done for me. And while I'd normally steer clear of pilfering another outlet's content, I'm claiming intellectual property on the following Kings.com material considering it's basically videos of my conversations. I won't hold my breath for the check...
First, though, here's my leftover quotes from Kings coach Paul Westphal, big man Jason Thompson, third-year center Spencer Hawes, rookie small forward Omri Casspi and rookie guard Tyreke Evans (all answers with no questions but it should make sense)...
WESTPHAL
"We didn't show enough urgency defensively or on the boards at all. And what should've been a little run for them became an avalanche, and we were trying to dig ourselves out the whole game. They soundly thumped in areas we knew we needed to improve, and that we had in the preseason. Ball movement was atrocious. It was pretty much a complete defensive breakdown by us.
"(Evans) can play a lot better than that. He was relatively ineffective. I know he'll do better. It wasn't his night tonight...(Casspi) played like he's been playing in practice. He showed why we like him so much."
On whether he's more worried about offense or defense...
"Defensively, definitely. I think we're real dedicated, and I wouldn't even say it's effort. It's just knowing what it's like out there, knowing how to ramp up your intensity."
More on Evans...
"I look at it more that it just wasn't (Evans') night. Like Cotton Fitzsimmons used to say, 'Some nights you get the bear and some nights the bear gets you.'"
THOMPSON
"I feel like when I'm not on the court I'm letting my team down. I couldn't really produce when I had three fouls. It's kind of crazy when (officials) come up to you and say they watched the film and (that) they didn't think some of the fouls were fouls, and then I didn't get as many fouls in the second half. Go figure.
"They (the Thunder) obviously didn't come flat like they did time. It just so happens they weren't missing any shots. It wasn't like they were getting layups or anything like that, they might have had one fastbreak early on, but they were hitting threes - guys who were primarily going to the basket guys were hitting shots. Scouting report wise, we were doing our job but they were just making shots."
HAWES
"I've come off the bench before. I can't let it be a distraction or anything like that."
On Evans...
"He has a lot of pressure on him. I think as that chemistry...continues to grow, he's not used to having guys around him who can make plays and to help shoulder that whole load. He's definitely capable, but as we get more comfortable with him and he gets more comfortable with us, he'll let a little bit of that pressure off and we'll help him out and he'll realize he doesn't have to do it all. He is capable. He's definitely talented enough, but it's hard to sustain it for a schedule like this."
CASSPI
"We didn't play well at all, and I don't know what's the reason for it. We need to find a solution, because we just can't play like this. If we're going to look like this, we're going to lose a lot of games this season.
"At halftime, I told myself that I needed to pick myself up and help this team with a boost, but unfortunately it was too late. I take every game like it's the last one. And we've got to take every game like that. This team won 17 games last season. And if we're not going to take every game serious - no matter who we play, Cleveland, Oklahoma - we just need to take every game serious because I don't like to lose."
EVANS
"Tough night for us. They came out like we did in the preseason, were fired up and came out like they wanted to show us that that was preseason and this was the regular season, this was where it counted at. We just need to work better on defense, pick and rolls and getting rebounds.
I just thought on the pick and rolls that I had the opportunity to get to the basket, I didn't finish it well. If I would've finished my layups, everything would've been better.
"I tried to start out looking for open guys. We weren't hitting open shots tonight, and there's games that are going to be like that. Everybody can't make shots every night. I just try to start it off like that and then get myself involved, because that's what a point guard has to do."
On how long it had been since he played that poorly...
"It was a while. It was tough. I sit here and look back at the layups I miss. Trying to get in there and get layups."
On the first quarter...
"That was bad. We basically let them do anything they wanted to - rebound, make threes, not getting back on defense, (Kevin) Durant getting open dunks, Jeff (Green) getting easy post moves. It was just terrible defense. Nobody was talking. They were calling plays out. It wasn't the way we're supposed to play. When I got to the basket, I don't know what it was. I just wasn't making layups like I used to."
I haven't watched this Wayman Tisdale segment yet, but was told it was a very touching tribute to the sorely-missed man.
- Sam Amick
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