DeMarcus Cousins admitted he "had a lot of butterflies" before tonight's game, but it was hard to tell by the way he played.
Scoring 16 points and grabbing 16 rebounds is a nice debut. I write a lot about Cousins for tomorrow's paper so I want to touch on some other players that showed some things tonight.
*Jason Thompson (17 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots) looked freer on the floor with Cousins.
The job of banging under the basket isn't solely on him, like it was at times last season.
"It helps out a lot," Thompson said. "I know I don't have to get down and get all the rebounds. You have some guys there that you're comfortable with and spread the wealth a little bit."
It would be nice to see Thompson paired with Samuel Dalmebert, too. Dalembert is a shot blocking presence that should help Thompson's defensive game, too.
Kings coach Paul Westhpal said only Pooh Jeter might have been in better shape than Thompson coming into camp. It showed tonight as Thompson played with great energy.
*Tonight also showed some of the evolution of Tyreke Evans' game. He made 9 of 17 shots, including 2 of 3 from three.
He looked confident again from the perimeter and still showed the ability to drive to basket when he wanted to.
Twice in the fourth quarter Evans scored on cuts to the basket. One came on a pass from Beno Udrih, the other came on a pass from Carl Landry.
"Coach did a good job of calling plays in the fourth quarter," Evans said, noting late execution has been a point of emphasis.
*Jeter will clearly be a key part of the rotation. His play allows Evans and Udrih to play off the ball more and Jeter has the look of a player that can create his shot and for others.
And he liked the chants of "Pooh" at Arco tonight.
Jeter made three of six shots, showing he can hit the transition jumper or find a teammate in that situation.
*The Kings played better defense in the second half when the Suns went to their bench. Steve Nash and Grant Hill played a little less than six minutes in the first quarter. Hedo Turkoglu logged 15:45 total and Jason Richardson played 23:08.
There was a lot of Jared Dudly, Goran Dragic, Matt Janning and Chucky Atkins in the second half for Phoenix.
You could tell these weren't your normal Suns - they had just six fast break points. Phoenix made just 2 of 16 from three.
Those numbers are probably different with Nash on the floor. Westphal said he's more about evaluating his players and not who they're playing against, so there wasn't much talk of that.
The Kings played their starters a lot more than the Suns did. Small forward Marcus Landry played 22:24. That was the lowest total for Kings' starters.
--Jason Jones
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