Great Bounce Back Game by Hawes !!!
Give credit where credit is due! Coach Chest Bump caused Hawes to get jacked up and he played an awesome game! Hawes played well enough to help the Kings win the game. He had T W E L V E rebounds! And against a very good rebounding team in the Jazz. That is no easy task! And I like the way he scored when he needed to and facilitated a few scores. Hawes played like he was having fun again, which is important for this young team down the stretch.
Not sure why Donte Greene didn't play but it very well might have been a match up thing. The Jazz have Okur who is a big plodding center and we needed Hawes's length to keep Okur from really hurting the Kings inside. Sean May came in and banged with Okur as well and was successful. I dont think Greene could have come in at the 5, and Landry was great at the 4, and Nocconi made a coupla 3's that were important. I am willing to bet Greene will be in the next game.
Westphal said that Hawes "Showed what he's made of" in this game. We need Hawes to play with the passion he played with tonight. Hawes was relevant and active. He got 12 rebounds! He was able to help on defense and was effective. He was able to make a few assists from the top of the Key. He was the player we need to have every game. The coach was very loose about the whole situation, and the truth is maybe Hawes needed a game off to get his head straight. Maybe Greene needed this game off to get HIS head straight. Who knows?
I'm not going to second guess Paul Westphal because the team IS behind him despite the best efforts of the local papers to try and drive a wedge between the Coach and the players. It looks to me that they are all on the same page
. The rest of this year is about unity and getting the young guys the reps they need to compete. Westphal is foremost teaching our young players what it takes to win in the NBA. The Wins and Losses are secondary to building a young core of players that can compete and win in the NBA. People seem to think that the Kings are trying to compete for a playoff spot this year. Well they are not. This is truly a rebuilding year and PW is going to go with the rotations that are going to help build this team in the LONG RUN to become NBA players. Wins are nice and we will take every one of them, but winning isn't everything this year. I think PW has a plan and he and Petrie are in agreement as to how to get the job done. Lets hope their plan works. I think they are going into the lottery again and are going to draft another piece for this club. Petrie and Westphal will determine from this season what their needs are and they will draft and use free agency to keep the team moving in the right direction. Many of the guys on this roster wont be here on starting day 2010-11.