The Weekend Wrap: Home Sweet Home

Omri Casspi continues to provide energy off of the bench

Last weekend when we took a look at the Sacramento Kings, things didn’t look very good as they were coming off of an 0-3 week and had struggled mightily on the road. Thanks to a favorable schedule and a little bit of home cooking, the Kings appear to be back on track. They have a tough game this evening as they face a hot New Orleans Hornets squad that is playing inspired basketball since head coach Byron Scott was fired in an attempt to light a fire under the team. Apparently the firing has sent a message as the Hornets have won four of their last five games as they roll into Arco Arena. Hopefully the Kings can continue to protect the home floor this evening. Let’s take a look at the week that was for the Sacramento Kings in another edition of The Weekend Wrap.

On Monday morning, Blake Ellington of Bleed Black and Purple told us to look closely at these particular things for the Kings this week:

1. Hang on to the rock – The Kings opened up the week on Monday night against the Memphis Grizzlies and failed to take care of the basketball in a disturbing trend on the road as they turned the ball over 21 times and lost to Memphis 116-105. They were never really in the game and looked like a road weary club. Ah, thank you schedule makers for sending us the New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets to help get the club back on track. Unfortunately, the turnovers continued against the Knicks as the Kings gave it away 18 times, but the combination of high energy, Donte Greene, and New York ineptitude proved enough to propel the Kings to a convincing 111-97 victory. In one of the most important games of the season for the young Kings, the 0-15 New Jersey Nets rolled into town. How can a game against the league’s worst team be so important? Because it was a game that this young Kings team absolutely had to win. They were expected to win and the Kings haven’t been in that role in a long time. New Jersey played a spirited game, but in the end the Kings took care of business and held off the Nets for a 109-96 victory. The Kings still turned it over 17 times in the game and that was a key reason the Nets were able to make several runs and get back into the game after the Kings had a commanding 17 point lead at half time. The Nets were able to trim it to six in the second half, but were unable to get it much closer.

2. Closing out games – As mentioned in the last segment, the Kings were able to hold off the teams that they were expected to in New York and New Jersey at home, but a lot of questions still surround this young team on the road. They are still turning it over too often and while they are able to overcome that deficiency at home, they have struggled to do so on the road. The Kings ability to protect the ball and close out games will go hand-in-hand on the road. While they were better this week in handling the two teams that they were supposed to, they will need to close out some quality opponents to prove that they can.

3. Omri Casspi’s role – Blake hit the nail on the head asking about Omri Casspi’s role in the Monday Morning segment. Casspi was one of the leading contributors in the victory over New Jersey, adding 18 points, four rebounds, two threes, a steal, block and assist in just under 31 minutes off of the bench. He was even a major storyline when Nets coach Lawrence Frank went to the “Hack-a-Casspi” strategy in the final minutes to try and take advantage of his 47.2 percent free throw shooting. Casspi stepped up and hit 3-of-4, putting an end to the strategy and effectively icing the game. He proceeded to thump his chest and looked every bit the enthusiastic 21-year-old that he is. There is just something special about this kid as he oozes confidence. Frank may have done the Kings a huge favor employing that strategy as it will give the young Casspi even more confidence in knowing that he hit them when they counted and it calls to light the obvious in that he needs to improve from the line. Coach Paul Westphal even seemed to relish the moment by refusing to remove Casspi from the game despite his free throw shooting liability and coach Westphal even yelled “Take that!” at the Nets bench when Casspi hit both of his free throws in his second trip to the line after the strategy was enforced. Westphal has done several things to show confidence in Casspi’s ability this season, even sending him to the line to shoot a technical earlier in the year to try and get him going from the line. The “Hack-a-Casspi” might have been exactly what the doctor ordered. I still think he needs to completely reconstruct his delivery, or do the “Nick Van Exel stepback” (Van Exel used to shoot his free-throws closer to the three-point line than the free-throw line), but hopefully this gets him going. In other games this week Casspi was a key contributor and he is averaging 15.3 points in his last four games for the Kings. Look for him to continue to contribute off the bench as his energy is a must for the Kings. 

 As always thanks for reading and catch up tomorrow morning with The Monday Morning Rush when Blake Ellington tells us what we should watch for in the upcoming week.