http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13707499p-14550045c.html
By Sam Amick
First game no laughing matter
Rick Adelman finds plenty to criticize from the preseason opener.
Corliss Williamson wasn't laughing about the game.
The wise and wily veteran has been at this too long and is too smart to commit such an unforgivable offense.
No, the forward who had just concluded Kings practice Wednesday was cracking up at his clever play on words, how he had called the Kings' 96-83 preseason loss to Dallas the night before "a poor exhibition of an exhibition."
Luckily, coach Rick Adelman wasn't within earshot. He still finds nothing funny about it.
A day after the debacle, there was more angry analysis from Adelman, who saw preseason game No. 1 out of eight come and go without learning much about his team.
Across the court, the offensive woes were deemed excusable, put best by center Brian Skinner, who said, "We're trying to get ... instant chemistry, but it's not going to be something that's instantaneous."
But the new Kings struggled with old problems that Adelman blamed on effort, giving free passes in the paint (48 points in all) when they got back to defend and giving up 20 fast break points when they didn't.
It left Adelman wondering if anyone had been listening throughout those seven days of training camp.
"I really didn't have any answers after that game (Tuesday) night except that we didn't pay much attention to everything that went on for the whole week," Adelman said. "I didn't understand how they cannot be concentrating on certain things when that's all we drilled on the whole time."
Specifically, there were pick-and-roll drills that wound up being quite prophetic. The Mavericks ran much the same screens, though Kings were rarely there to defend them with help defense.
"We'd been doing that for seven days, and now because it's a different team you think it's suddenly not important," he said. "(The Kings are) smart offensively, and we give them a lot of room to do things because they are smart. Well, if you're smart at that (offensive) end, then you're not stupid at the other end."
Shooting guard Bonzi Wells, who said he's far from finding his place in the Kings' offense, took the optimist's approach.
"I understand that (Tuesday) was bad, but I'd rather start off bad and have something to build on rather than start off great and have nowhere to go but down," said Wells, who had six points on 2-of-7 shooting. "It's not all going to come together in one game."
Although Adelman has a reputation for not playing inexperienced players in camp, his necessity to see what the main group of players can produce is making his evaluation of the youngsters even tougher. As long as the plan is to keep 13 players on the regular-season roster, he likely must choose between point guards Ronnie Price and Luis Flores to trail Mike Bibby and Jason Hart. And although Price played three minutes and Flores didn't play, Adelman said there are no conclusions to be drawn there.
It's much the same, Adelman said, with the big-man spot, where forward Jamal Sampson was the only unknown commodity to see action and none of his competition played. Not enough there to deduce much of anything, but plenty to criticize nearly everything.
By Sam Amick
First game no laughing matter
Rick Adelman finds plenty to criticize from the preseason opener.
Corliss Williamson wasn't laughing about the game.
The wise and wily veteran has been at this too long and is too smart to commit such an unforgivable offense.
No, the forward who had just concluded Kings practice Wednesday was cracking up at his clever play on words, how he had called the Kings' 96-83 preseason loss to Dallas the night before "a poor exhibition of an exhibition."
Luckily, coach Rick Adelman wasn't within earshot. He still finds nothing funny about it.
A day after the debacle, there was more angry analysis from Adelman, who saw preseason game No. 1 out of eight come and go without learning much about his team.
Across the court, the offensive woes were deemed excusable, put best by center Brian Skinner, who said, "We're trying to get ... instant chemistry, but it's not going to be something that's instantaneous."
But the new Kings struggled with old problems that Adelman blamed on effort, giving free passes in the paint (48 points in all) when they got back to defend and giving up 20 fast break points when they didn't.
It left Adelman wondering if anyone had been listening throughout those seven days of training camp.
"I really didn't have any answers after that game (Tuesday) night except that we didn't pay much attention to everything that went on for the whole week," Adelman said. "I didn't understand how they cannot be concentrating on certain things when that's all we drilled on the whole time."
Specifically, there were pick-and-roll drills that wound up being quite prophetic. The Mavericks ran much the same screens, though Kings were rarely there to defend them with help defense.
"We'd been doing that for seven days, and now because it's a different team you think it's suddenly not important," he said. "(The Kings are) smart offensively, and we give them a lot of room to do things because they are smart. Well, if you're smart at that (offensive) end, then you're not stupid at the other end."
Shooting guard Bonzi Wells, who said he's far from finding his place in the Kings' offense, took the optimist's approach.
"I understand that (Tuesday) was bad, but I'd rather start off bad and have something to build on rather than start off great and have nowhere to go but down," said Wells, who had six points on 2-of-7 shooting. "It's not all going to come together in one game."
Although Adelman has a reputation for not playing inexperienced players in camp, his necessity to see what the main group of players can produce is making his evaluation of the youngsters even tougher. As long as the plan is to keep 13 players on the regular-season roster, he likely must choose between point guards Ronnie Price and Luis Flores to trail Mike Bibby and Jason Hart. And although Price played three minutes and Flores didn't play, Adelman said there are no conclusions to be drawn there.
It's much the same, Adelman said, with the big-man spot, where forward Jamal Sampson was the only unknown commodity to see action and none of his competition played. Not enough there to deduce much of anything, but plenty to criticize nearly everything.
