Kings Blog and Q&A

I'll be Tweeting during tonight's game as well as doing the in-game blog, so follow me by clicking here.

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So as we discussed in today's paper, the Tyreke Evans-Beno Udrih pairing is working fairly well these days. But this offense still has plenty of room for improvement, especially the newest model.

Since adding forward Carl Landry to the mix, the Kings are averaging just 93.8 points per game. The recent win over Utah should be the DVD each Kings player watches before every game, as the Kings did their best impression yet of the Jazz themselves with the way they shared the ball and pushed the tempo. And while the topic of how to use Landry certainly comes into play, Evans and Udrih and how they run that end of the show remains most relevant.

As such, Kings coach Paul Westphal weighed in on his team's scoring state as it currently stands.

WESTPHAL

"There are still kinks to get out, but I like that we're getting into our offense sooner, we're moving the ball better and involving more people. In general, I think that it's a credit to the backcourt and also to Spencer (Hawes) because he gives us another ball-mover and I think that Carl is a very versatile player too. He doesn't have to be in just one spot to be respected by the defense. We're a lot harder to guard because we have a lot of versatile players out there."

On a comment Udrih recently made that the first pass needs to come earlier in the shot clock...

"To say the first pass (should come early), I agree with that too. But what I really want is the first attacking event to be earlier in the clock, like at 17. Sometimes you might not make the first pass, but if you set a high screen and somebody gets to the paint, that's good. What we don't want is stagnation, where we don't know what we're running and don't know where we should be and are looking at each other saying, 'Now what?' We're not trying to run the shot clock down and shorten the game. We're not a ball control team. We want to get into it and take a good shot when a good shot comes."

From The Bee

'Success of Evans-Udrih pairing pleasantly surprising the Kings,' By Sam Amick

'Landry's presence sparks Kings offense,' By Sam Amick

From the Dallas Morning News

'Mavericks a 'danger' team among the West's Elite Eight,' By Eddie Sefko

'Terry to miss anywhere from seven days to two months,' By Eddie Sefko

'Mavericks should have gotten tougher, DeShawn Stevenson says,' By Eddie Sefko

GAMEPLAN

TONIGHT'S GAME
KINGS (21-40) AT DALLAS (41-21)
When: 5:30 p.m.
Where: American Airlines Center
TV: CSNCA.
Radio: KHTK (1140 AM).

Kings update: Contrary to last season, the Kings have shown an ability to handle themselves quite well in tight games. They are 14-10 in games decided by six points or less, and this one certainly qualifies as a game in which simply being close would be a moral victory in and of itself. It's the beginning of a brutal stretch, as the Kings face teams that are in playoff position in seven of their next eight games. They've lost twice to the Mavericks already, falling 104-102 at Dallas on Nov. 20 and 99-91 on Jan. 2 at Arco Arena.

Mavericks update: The Mavericks' current nine-game winning streak is their longest since they won nine straight in March of 2007. More than that, though, they are 9-1 since the trade that brought them Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson and Brendan Haywood and looking every bit like a team that could challenge the Lakers for Western Conference supremacy. Despite Butler's 6 of 15 outing in a win over Minnesota on Wednesday, he has added a two-way toughness on the perimeter that they so badly needed.

Probable starters

KINGS

No. Player Pos.
19 Beno Udrih PG
13 Tyreke Evans PG
18 Omri Casspi SF
24 Carl Landry PF
31 Spencer Hawes C

MAVERICKS

No. Player Pos.
2 Jason Kidd PG
4 Caron Butler SF
0 Shawn Marion SF
41 Dirk Nowitzki PF
33 Brendan Haywood C - Sam Amick