The Cleveland game was different. Outside of a few plays here and there, the Kings played that game intelligently. Paul Westphal coached a good game, and the Kings simply ran out of gas and were beaten by a better team.
Tonight, the Kings should have won and instead played their way to a loss.
The atmosphere at Arco was close to a playoff game, with the standing room only crowd likely split equally among Kings and Lakers fans. And just like most games this season the Kings played hard. They competed with the defending champs. They fought for rebounds, scrapped on defense and ignited the crowd. But things fell apart because the Kings changed.
The Kings trailed by 6 points with 3:30 to go but managed to keep the Lakers from scoring, and the game was tied with 22 seconds left. The Kings had the final shot, but in an eerily similar occurrence to the Cavs game, Tyreke Evans dribbled and dribbled and dribbled some more, only to be stopped by a premier defender (LeBron Wednesday and Kobe Bryant tonight). While Kings players looked on, some with open looks, Evans dribbled the clock right out and failed to get up a shot.
With Evans sitting on the bench to start overtime, the Kings stormed out of the gate. The ball movement was spectacular – 3 different Kings scored – as Sacramento took a 101-94 lead with 2:49 left. That’s when Tyreke Evans returned to the game.
The blame does not fall on Westphal for putting Evans back in the game. Evans is the Kings best weapon and needed to be on the court. The problem was the change that happened on the court. The Kings became stagnant, with Evans dribbling at the midcourt line until the shot clock dropped to single-digits.
The Kings attempted just two shots in that final 2:49 of overtime and watched helplessly as the Lakers attacked. After a Pau Gasol tip-in with 0.4 seconds left, the game was headed for a 2nd overtime. The Kings seemed demoralized, and after keeping Bryant quiet for much of the game, the Lakers star took over. Back-to-back triples were the nails in the Kings coffin. The Kings scored just two points in the final 7:49 – after Evans returned to the game.
For the first time, the Kings were outcoached. Whether Westphal made a conscious change in gameplan or not, he allowed it to go on for much too long. And Evans should have recognized the problem as well. The Kings were rolling, but the failure to continue what put them ahead led to a loss, a loss that should have been a win.
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