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Kings Notes: Team Looks to Bounce Back

For Sacramento, there’s no time to dwell on last night’s home-opening loss to Golden State.

The Kings understand the NBA season can be a whirlwind – with another game, another test, another opponent always around the corner. That’s why veterans like Darren Collison have their sights set on self-improvement and Friday night’s contest against Portland.

“In this League, the one thing you have to do is forget about the previous game,” stated Collison after practice on Thursday. “Whether you have a good game or a bad game, you have to forget about it and prepare for the next game.”

No. 7 drew praise from his coach, thanks to a team-high 8 assists against Golden State while committing just one turnover in 36 minutes of action. The former UCLA guard knows team success will come from unselfish play on both ends of the floor.

“We have to trust the offense and continue to move the ball,” he stated.

On Thursday morning, Collison and Co. watched last night’s tape, which revealed some of the team’s miscues.

“The biggest [takeaway from today’s film session] was our spacing, screening and execution needs to be better,” said Collison. “It’s the little things – if our spacing isn’t there or we’re not screening properly, then guys are just going one-on-one and I don’t think anybody wants to do that.”

Better player spacing should free up shooters, create more opportunities for mismatches and reduce turnovers making Sacramento a more complete offensive team.

Landry Passes First Test

Playing in his first regular season game since Feb. 25, 2014, Carl Landry looked strong and near full health against his former team. No. 24 collected five offensive rebounds in the first half of Wednesday’s game and added six points in 12 minutes.

“It felt good just getting back out there on the court,” he stated. “I put in a lot of work this summer with rehab trying to get back to game form and it definitely felt good to have an opportunity to play the game that I love.

“I’m definitely on the right track. I haven’t had any setbacks and I’m getting better every week. I’ve had two major surgeries within the last year and I’m back competing at a high level right now. So I am definitely happy about that.”

Defense a Bright Spot

Although the Warriors walked away with the 18-point victory, the Kings defense was solid for long stretches in the season opener. Sacramento forced ten first half turnovers and held Golden State to 10-percent shooting from beyond the arc heading into halftime.

“Defensively, I thought we played well,” said Landry. “Especially playing against a three-point shooting team and holding them to 22-percent from beyond the arc. They’re the best three-point shooting team in the League, so that was a bright spot.”

The Warriors entered as the best long range shooting team in preseason play thanks to a 39-percent clip from distance. Against the Kings, they made just 6-of-27 attempts from beyond the arc.

“Obviously, it’s a work in progress, but I really enjoyed watching us compete defensively,” said Malone. “I thought we had a very good gameplan – we took away the three-point line from Steph and Klay, which is hard to do, and I thought that we had a great chance to win and be in that game late until the wheels fell off. Portland’s not going to feel sorry for us. They’re going to come in here and try to get a road win. We have to do a much better job of protecting our home floor and more importantly, protecting the basketball.”

The Kings will need to connect on open shots come Friday night if they want to contest the Trail Blazers potent offense, which scored 106 points in an opening night win against Oklahoma City.

“You’re going to have games where you’re not shooting the ball well,” admitted Collison, who’s team shot just 30-percent against Golden State. “You’re going to have games where we’re shooting the ball extremely well, but at the end of the day the one thing that has to be consistent is our defense. For the most part, our defense has been good – it was good against Golden State, but we clearly beat ourselves. We should have won that game.”

Malone Dishes On Nik’s Debut

Making his first appearance in front of his home crowd, Nik Stauskas showed flashes of excellence in the first 24 minutes against Golden State.

“I thought he was poised – he’s a very confident player and I think he showed that as he continues to learn the NBA and get stronger, he’s going to have a [great] NBA career,” said Malone.

No. 10 connected on two of his first three attempts and finished with nine points – all of which came in the first half.

“He was solid when he came in and hit a couple of shots,” continued Malone. “Defensively, he has to have a fight mentality. Teams are going to go after him – every team that we’ve played has gone at him. So he has to get stronger.”

With 81 games still ahead, progress will be key to Stauskas’ NBA journey.