Kings Blog and Q&A

LAS VEGAS - This was going to be a handy audio file uploaded for your listening pleasure, but technology issues mean you'll now have the pleasure of reading the material.

After the Kings' loss to the Lakers on Thursday night, coach Paul Westphal had plenty to say about his squad's play.

WESTPHAL

General thoughts on the team's third preseason game...

"(The Lakers) are miles ahead of us, but I thought we had spurts of really good basketball, and we had spurts of getting schooled. It's all good. We can learn from them, learn from our mistakes, and learn from the good things we did. I thought the first half we were horrible at transition defense, horrible at pick and roll defense, and horrible at controlling our defensive boards, and they had a big lead. In the second half, we did better at both of those things. I like the way we responded.

He lauded reserves Kenny Thomas, Sergio Rodriguez and Andres Nocioni for playing "with hair on their chest" and was pleased with how Beno Udrih responded after a blown defensive assignment early on...

"He didn't rotate over one time and they got a layup, and in the second half (Udrih) did (rotate). I said, 'Just pretend you're Derek Fisher and draw a charge.' And he did. That's the play he got hurt on. Great coaching, huh? (laughs) But he's OK...I like the spirit of this team. They just have to take care of the dirty work that wins games."

On Tyreke Evans' defense on a night when he nearly the entire Lakers starting five at one point or another (really just Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, that I can remember, but there were more)...

"(Evans) needs to improve his conditioning a little bit. He's in shape, but 40 minutes against the Lakers is a different kind of shape.
"He's got some things to learn. But in general, he's a real presence out there. I thought he played with poise, and looked like he belonged out there...

On whether he got into the offense quicker than he had in Portland...

"We did a better job of (getting into offense quicker). Ten turnovers the whole night? I thought that was pretty good. We got to the line (atrocious 14 of 24). I thought offensively, there's some things we need to work on. But in general, we shared the ball a lot and played to our strengths a lot."

On the fact that after hitting just 36 of 86 shots against the Lakers, the Kings are now shooting just 40.6 percent...

"Hitting baskets is a big part of this game. You can't win without doing the dirty work - transition defense, pick and roll defense, limiting the second shots. But even when you do that, you can't win when you can't hit baskets either. I mentioned the free throws, and that's got to get better too."

On the fact that after praising Omri Casspi before the game, he issued 16 minutes to the rookie and zero to second-year small forward Donte' Greene.

"I didn't play (Greene) tonight. That's a fact. We played those other guys. I thought (Casspi) did pretty well. It's not like he's going to shut Kobe down, but he did a respectable job making Kobe take some shots that were tougher than they should have, so it was good."

TYREKE EVANS

On facing Kobe for the first time...

"It's Kobe. He went out there and played his game.

On where he's at defensively...

"I tried to play my best defense. I got a piece of everybody tonight - D. Fish, Kobe, Lamar. I went out there just playing hard and trying to do my best job as a defender."

On what he must improve on right now...

"Getting better at pick and rolls, I've been getting to the basket, but probably to pull up more in the paint because they had a lot of shotblockers. Coach wanted me to attack, but (he'll look to pull up more) just to save from getting beat I'll just try to pull up."

FINAL NOTES

* Not a good night for Desmond Mason, who hit just 1 of 5 shots and had two points in 17 minutes but did add three boards and four assists. Kings desperately need scoring from that spot.

* Very solid night from Jason Thompson, who had 19 points (9 of 17 shooting) and 14 rebounds in 37 minutes.

* For the second straight year at this annual Kings-Lakers preseason affair, the Maloofs were joined by boxer Floyd Mayweather. Joe, Gavin, George and mother Colleen were on hand.

* Chuck Person was there too. The former Kings assistant is with the Lakers now as Artest's shooting coach. It's a role he knows all too well, having now been with Artest in Indiana, Sacramento and with the Lake-show. Person - who was known as a tireless worker by Kings supporters and detractors alike during his Kings tenure - was fired along with then-head coach Reggie Theus midway through last season.

* I spoke briefly with Mitch Kupchak before the game, and the Lakers GM detailed how the Francisco Garcia injury was a wake-up call for his organization. Kupchak - who was clearly on the long list of folks who feel awful for Garcia - had all the team's exercise balls checked for holes or wear and tear or overinflation. They're not alone, as San Antonio has responded similarly as well.

* Garcia did not travel with the team. Kings assistant Pete Carril did, however, and appears motivated to continue doing so.

* Vegas is on its way back, baby - at least if this game is any indication. After drawing 11,090 fans last season for this game, there were 14,741 on hand on Thursday night. Then again, it just might have something to do with the whole championship thing and addition of Ron Artest yada yada...

* Kudos to Kings VP of Business Communications Mitch Germann for his job well done on a panel of the Blogs with Balls 2.0 convention Thursday. Good meeting so many folks who were previously no more than clever names on a web site or pseudonyms - Bethlehem Shoals, for example - when it came to my consciousness. Fascinating stuff and good discourse about a sports media landscape that is changing at an incredible rate (And bite your tongue Dan:).- Sam Amick