Noam Schiller of ESPN.com Daily Dime Live chat commenting fame discusses the idea that people seem to think Tyreke Evans isn’t a point guard.

My response to people who think he can’t play point or is “clearly a shooting guard” is that you “clearly don’t watch Kings games.”

Here’s the link. Enjoy.

Omri Casspi will be at the All-Star Weekend for two events. We already know about the Rookie/Sophomore Game but now he’ll be competing against Kevin Durant and Rajon Rondo in the weekend’s H-O-R-S-E event.

From TrueHoop, here is a Western Conference team executive’s take on the event.

One bad quarter.

That’s what it’s often been during this tailspin of Kings defeats. The Kings have played well for 36 minutes most nights but they can’t seem to get the other 12 minutes to help their cause. And it’s not always the fourth quarter. Sometimes it’s been the first, second or third quarters. There is always one period in which the Kings’ lack of defense or lack of rebounding or poor offensive flow destroys their chances of winning.

Against the Raptors on Sunday, it was the fourth quarter. During the first three quarters, it looked like the Kings had something going. There was a certain energy that the Kings usually don’t have to start road games. Even though they were down early with Toronto’s hot first quarter shooting, they were able to fight back with the second unit and clear the deficit.

Hedo Turkoglu seemed to destroy the Kings early. Omri Casspi had the task of checking him and it didn’t go well at all. Hedo had him off balance and skating all over the place defensively. If Hedo wanted to go to the basket, he did. If he wanted to pull up for the jumper, he did. He dictated everything that happened offensively for himself and Toronto when you’d like the Kings to force his hand a certain way and make him adjust. But when Andres Nocioni came into the game, the Kings were a little better defensively and able to go on a bit of a run.

Amazingly, the Kings stayed in this game early with free throw shooting. They took advantage of the flow of the game in which a lot of whistles were being blown. They made it to the line 22 times in the first half and 36 for the entire game. It helped them weather the storm that was Chris Bosh in the low block and in isolation.

Let’s talk about Chris Bosh for a minute. I know Carmichael Dave from the radio has had thoughts that Chris Bosh is the answer for this team. Signing him in the off-season or trading for him in-season would be the future star the Kings need to get back to prominence. I’ve always been skeptical of Bosh because I felt he was too good to be a definite second banana but not quite good enough to have as your go-to guy all the time. But the way he’s been playing this season and the efficient way he shredded the Kings interior on Sunday is making me rethink that.

Bosh was unstoppable. He was 13/16 from the field inside of 10 feet. He kept getting Spencer Hawes and whoever was unlucky enough to have to guard him on a jab step towards the middle before driving baseline. It was set up by when he went middle, he was able to get good positioning and attempt a shot before any double team could form. He was two steps ahead of whatever defensive scheme the Kings threw at him and it resulted in 36 points, 11 rebounds and five assists for the impending free agent prize. Unfortunately, he’ll never sign in Sacramento so it’s just a nice pipe dream to have.

Overall, defense was always the issue with this team during this loss. It was okay to deal with when the Kings were making their shots but when the fourth quarter came around and the Raptors tightened up on defense the way playoff teams tend to do, the Kings had no answer. Tyreke Evans, Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson played nearly 18 fourth quarter minutes combined and didn’t score a single point. In contrast, Antoine Wright of all people managed to pour in 10 fourth quarter points. The Kings shot an abysmal 6/21 in the final period and missed five free throws. With about four minutes left, you could tell this game was lost. Raptors had the momentum and the Kings looked ready to watch Brees try to topple Manning.

Once again, the one bad quarter ruined a game’s worth of effort, execution and energy. Such is the life of a 3-22 road team.

Final Game Notes

- The Kings blew A LOT of Tyreke Evans’ early assists. And when you see that he finished with nine assists in the ball game, makes you wonder if he could have reached 12, 15 or even more.

- Speaking of Tyreke, going against the Raptors defense you would have hoped he would be more aggressive offensively. It’s unfair to pin that on him because he made the correct play more often than not. He made the extra pass and set up his teammates perfectly. But in nearly seven and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, he attempted only two shots and missed them both. He was being guarded by Jarrett Jack and/or Jose Calderon and could only muster 11 points? It was a game in which Evans needed to be able to master the art of running the offense and knowing when to take over. In three years, it will never be questioned; he’ll just be able to do it. But as a 20-year old rookie, it can hamper you.

- Kevin Martin started out extremely shaky with a 1/6 start. But instead of showing a lack of confidence in his game when things weren’t going well (like he did against the Warriors in Sacramento) he got more aggressive and started barreling towards the basket. He finished the game 7/18 from the floor and 9/12 from the stripe. It’s not a great game but it’s a game in which he figured out what he was doing wrong and corrected it. He just didn’t the outside shots to fall.

- Even though Spencer Hawes was getting abused on the defensive end of the floor, his 11 rebounds impressed me quite a bit. It seems like ever since Sam Amick gave him a D+ for the mid-season report, Spencer’s fire has been a little greater and his effort has been night and day from what we saw in the beginning of the season. I wonder how much of a cut Sam will be able to secure for this…

- Donté Greene’s three straight three-pointers in the third quarter reminded you of just how deadly he can be. Right now, he’s on the court despite his offense because his defense has been so good. However, when he let it fly in the third period the Raptors could do nothing but watch him.

- Beno was 3/5 from the field but 2/5 from the free throw line. It looked the entire game like the ball wasn’t coming out of his hands properly on jumpers and free throws – even on the makes.

- Jason Thompson gets into quiet foul trouble. It felt like all of a sudden in the third quarter he had four fouls.

- From some of the Raptors bloggers that were covering the game and sitting near the Kings bench, it was nice to hear that during timeouts, they’ve never heard so much encouragement and teaching coming from a coaching staff. It’s good to know that they’re in the right hands and when this team figures it out, perhaps some of those assistants will end up being rewarded with their own head coaching jobs.

So I was perusing the Sacramento Bee as I tend to do when I wake up and I came across this piece from Sam Amick about Beno and Westphal differing over playing time. In it, we are getting two different stories about the condition of Beno’s feet and the results on the court because of this injury.

Paul Westphal is saying the sore right foot and plantar fasciitis has slowed Beno Udrih down a step, which seems completely logical. Westphal kept Beno out of the game on Wednesday and instead played Sergio Rodriguez. But apparently, Beno said he was “fine” and okay to play basketball on the injured foot. He says he’s been dealing with it all season:

“I’ve been icing it after every game, playing with it. I didn’t say I don’t want to play because of my plantar fasciitis. I said, ‘I’m fine.’ He just decided he’s going to play Sergio. That’s his decision. Not mine.”

This is a point in which you’d like players to put the ego aside and gain some perspective. The Kings are a bad team right now and can’t seem to get a W to save their lives. When Kevin Martin came back, it meant that Beno’s starting spot was going to disappear. In fact, his minutes were going to be cut because now you had a player coming back and taking away starter’s minutes in the process. Add in Beno’s bad foot with a serious nagging injury and the fact that Sergio Rodriguez seems to get things done on the basketball court in his limited playing time and of course Beno is going to see a dip/hit in his minutes.

But instead, he’s going to pout a little and claim that he’s no longer being involved.

You remember this conversation he had with Carmichael Dave on Media Day?

This was frustration with the Theus/Natt regime (more Natt than anything) of throwing him in the corner and making him a spot-up shooter. But I don’t see that going on since Kevin Martin has returned from injury. Beno is still getting opportunities to run the point, run the offense and create like he loves to do. You’re still seeing pick-and-roll plays with him. You’re still seeing him come off screens and create mid-range jumpers.

So what gives?

Maybe this is Beno’s default complaint. When things aren’t going right for him, he decides that he’s just being thrown to the corner (literally and figuratively). Personally, I think it’s dumb for him to play through this plantar fasciitis. It’s a serious injury that can have damaging long-term affects if it isn’t treated properly. He needs to sit some games now to get his body right rather than try to play through it on a team that will be lucky to reach 30 wins.

With the money he’s signed up for, it’s better to fix the injury now with rest and treatment than feed his ego and need to prove the validity of his contract.

It’s hard to believe that there are such things as fun losses. Well, maybe there aren’t even fun losses. Maybe there are just losses that frustrate you even though it was fun to watch a team attempt an impossible comeback.

After the Kings rolled up on a +35 Chicago Bulls team in December, it always gave you the notion in the back of your mind that the Kings could come back in ANY game. And when they nearly pulled off a comeback when they were down 20+ to the Bobcats a few days ago, it was fun to watch even though the end result wasn’t ideal.

Seeing them try to claw back from a seemingly (and later proved to be) insurmountable deficit against a team that only knows how to win 50 games and go to the playoffs for more than a decade-plus was a lot of fun. The Kings managed to avoid something they have been susceptible to as of late, which is play three really fine quarters and get killed by one really inept quarter. They never really played a bad quarter in this game.

They had a couple of bad stretches throughout that ultimately put them in too deep of a hole to climb out of but managed to break out of that malaise before it became a 12-minute issue. When the Kings cut the lead to 82-81 towards the end of the third quarter, San Antonio went on a 6-0 run to close out the period. When the Kings cut the lead to 92-89 in the fourth quarter, the Spurs put on an 8-0 run and then had a 7-0 run when the Kings got it down to 100-94. By that time it was a 13-point lead with just over two minutes to play and the Spurs were going to cruise to victory.

Except, Tyreke Evans wasn’t cool with letting the clock run out before hitting the showers, getting dressed and leave the arena to do what 20-year old franchise players do in their spare time. He wasn’t going to just accept their beating because they’re the Kings and it was against the Spurs and that’s what is supposed to happen. Instead, Tyreke Evans attempted to challenge some Tracy McGrady magic with a late flurry against a Spurs team that just wanted to move on to the next road game.

- With 1:43 left in the game, George Hill tried to cross over Tyreke Evans on his way to the basket. ‘Reke slapped it away from Hill like he was on an ESPN Wednesday Night Doubleheader, took it the other way and dunked it (2 points: 107-96).

- After a Manu Ginobili travel, Tyreke found Spencer Hawes at the top of the key for a jumper (2 points, 1 assist: 107-98).

- Then with 50 seconds left in the game, Roger Mason Jr proved that he hadn’t been watching the game. He tried an even slower crossover than the one George Hill flashed at Evans. Tyreke ripped that one too, took it down the length of the court before lobbing it up to Donté Greene, who flushed it down (2 points, 2 assists: 107-100).

- After Tim Duncan sinks one of two free throws, Tyreke Evans comes down the floor, puts a move on the Big Fundamental, and easily scores a quick layup with 30 seconds left (4 points, 2 assists: 108-102).

- After Manu Ginobili makes just one of two freebies, the Kings attack again with Tyreke Evans. He uses a horrific moving screen by Nocioni that somehow doesn’t get called and scores a layup against Richard Jefferson and his diabolical goatee (6 points, 2 assists: 109-104).

- After Manu sinks both of his free throws, Tyreke Evans comes down and calmly pops a three-pointer over Keith Bogans with just over six seconds left in the game (9 points, 2 assists: 111-107).

- George Hill makes both of his free throws and the Kings inbound the ball at halfcourt after a timeout. Tyreke Evans finds an open Andres Nocioni for three, who makes it with just over four seconds left in the game (9 points, 3 assists: 113-110).

- George Hill makes two more free throws and Tyreke Evans banks in a three-pointer as time expires, leaving Gregg Popovich with a sheepish shake of the head as he walks off court (12 points, 3 assists: 115-113).

All in all, it wasn’t really that close. The Spurs were always at a safe enough distance from completely blowing a double-digit lead in the final two minutes and ended up closing out the game. But the Kings put pressure on them. Primarily, Tyreke Evans put pressure on them. The Spurs ended up having to be perfect in the closing seconds of the game. They couldn’t miss a free throw. They couldn’t afford to go 1/2 from the line any more. Tyreke Evans was going to make them pay if they did.

It turned a bit of a frustrating loss into a brief moment of hope. I doubt Kings fans really thought this team was going to erase a six-point hole with six seconds remaining in the game. But it showed that Tyreke Evans was capable of going on one of those insane stretches of scoring in the fourth quarter. It’s something to put in his memory bank for another time when the Kings are a much better team, trying to win an important game.

Final Game Notes

- I really like Jon Brockman. He’s been one of my favorite players to watch this season out of anybody in the league. He’s an old school type of player that brings his lunch pail, clocks in to work and throws himself into the other team. He bothers big men. He bothers BETTER big men all the time. He crashes the boards and makes things happen. Going into this game, he was fourth on the team in +/- and possessed one of the best rebounding rates in the entire NBA.

However, he was completely neutralized with DeJuan Blair on the floor. DeJuan Blair is a mythical creature. It’s the only way to describe him. He’s a Minotaur roaming the paint, looking for loose balls, offensive put backs and defensive rebounds that turn every opponent’s trip into a one-and-done. He out-muscled Brockman every step of the way. He was quicker to the ball. He was stronger in grabbing the ball. Brockman bounced off of his opponent for once instead of it being the other way around. There are many times that Jon Brockman is going to get the best of a better opponent. Very few, if any, of those times will be against DeJuan Blair.

- Kevin Martin was completely taken out of the game by the Spurs in the fourth quarter. He attempted four shots but didn’t score. He didn’t score in the final 14:38 of this game. It was great that Tyreke was able to take over and be the almost-hero at home but some help from Kevin Martin in the most important quarter probably gives the Kings a better chance.

- This was the second game of the season in which Spencer Hawes played extremely well against the Spurs. Both games were good games as a result of Hawes being aggressive early and trying to establish himself as a presence down low. He attempted half of his shots around the rim and only took four shots out of close range (and made half of them). He was also very active on the boards and defensively. He blocked three shots and grabbed six rebounds (three offensive). It’s not the type of performance that makes you think he’s an All-Star in the making but it’s also not the type of performance that makes you think this guy might be the next Travis Knight.

- With 46 seconds left in the game, Tyreke Evans had a line of 22 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds. He finished with 32 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Think about that for a while. It’s preposterous.

- Done thinking about it? Okay, good. Now click this link and look at the list of 20-year old rookie guards in NBA history who have averaged five assists per game in their first year. Not a very long list, is it?

- He’s pretty incredible.

“Don’t let him pull that move! That’s the move! Oh, that’s the move!”

That’s a quote from White Men Can’t Jump and it’s all I could heard in my head when I watched Tyreke Evans obliterate Tim Duncan on this play late in the Kings’ loss to the Spurs.

Another losing streak for the Kings is upon us and with the upcoming schedule it’s not going to get any easier for this team to rack up some wins.

Spurs tonight, Suns tomorrow and then a three-game road streak on the East Coast.

At this point, you can’t assume the Kings will win any game the rest of the year and I don’t mean that as a dig at them. They’re not the worst team in the league. They’re not the Nets and they’re certainly not as bad as the Wolves. But they also can’t seem to close out road games and the home schedule will get tougher and tougher as this team struggles to put winning streaks together.

There are some good and bad things that we’ve learned from this current three-game slide that has capped off the Kings 3-17 record over their last 20 games. First I’ll start with the bad news because the bad news is always what you want to get out of the way. End on a high note, I always say.

Bad Things

- Tyreke Evans hip is a concern to me. Not because I think it’s going to be a chronic problem for the rest of his career that will derail him from being the superstar we all see that he can become. I’m concerned that his style of play of being aggressive and attacking all the time is going to lead to more and more injuries. Luckily, he hasn’t suffered any serious hiccups in his physical health that would cause him to miss 10 to 15 to 20 games at a time, like has befallen Kevin Martin over the past three years.

But watching Gerald Wallace the other night reminded me of how aggressive players can find themselves doing as much harm to themselves as good to the team. It starts with an ankle here, a back injury there, and maybe even a bad hip pointer. And perhaps, the addition of a consistent jumper and an inside presence to help him out will eliminate the amount of times he has to go crashing into another object. I’m probably just being paranoid but that’s what happens when you see a young player getting nicked up from time to time.

- The Kings starting frontline has given 69 points to this team over the course of three games. That’s all. And that’s including a 23-point outburst from Spencer Hawes against the Nuggets. They’ve also grabbed 55 rebounds between the three of them, which isn’t bad by any means but it’s also a number that has been inconsistent in these three games. It was helped by Jason Thompson’s 16-rebound explosion in the Bobcats game.

The Kings frontline has a ton of potential. Jason Thompson is much better than he’s played over the past six weeks. In fact, I’d say he’s much closer to the fantastic first couple of weeks that he enjoyed than what we’ve seen lately. Spencer Hawes has all the tools in the shed. He can be a really good, All-Star caliber center if he makes the commitment to be aggressive and tough. And Donté Greene might be the Kings best defensive player in three years and that’s with the caveat that I believe Tyreke Evans can be an All-Defensive team regular in his career. However, at some point this frontline has to start producing, producing together, and finding some better positive consistency than what we’ve been shown.

- The late game and end of quarter execution with the Kings is extremely suspect and confusing. I don’t mind what Kevin Martin did at the end of the Nuggets game. I don’t think the refs got the call wrong but I think the idea Martin had was good. Now whether he broke from the designed play and just did his own thing or not is a whole other issue. You can’t have a young, impressionable team getting the mentality that it’s okay to go into Kobe mode. You can’t just break off from the plan and go on a gut instinct. It undermines the coach and that’s a bad thing for a young team to learn is okay. As for the actual play itself, it was a very good idea. He took Kenyon Martin one-on-one, tried to draw contact and get to the free throw line for his 12^th and 13^th attempts of the night. Most of the time, he gets the call. Whatever.

I also still can’t figure out what Spencer Hawes was doing with the ball, down three and needing to make a full court pass with 0.7 left in the game. He didn’t throw it anywhere near to a spot on the floor that would benefit the Kings. He threw it to the free throw line area, which would have been fine if the Kings were down two. This type of late-game decision-making is the issue I have with the Kings right now. And it’s not just late-game. It’s every end of the quarter possession the Kings seem to have when Beno Udrih doesn’t have the ball in his hands. The Kings waste possessions far too often and get turnovers when they should at least be getting shots up.

It makes me remember the game against the Memphis Grizzlies from back in November when the Kings needed a quality possession and score to force overtime.

I feel like Tyreke Evans should be making plays at the end of games right now when he’s available because he needs to learn that pedigree for closing out games. But when he’s not an option, I’d love to see more plays like the video above in which the Kings are given a number of options out of the high (or very high) post. This is Kings basketball to me – good passing big man with cutters, scorers and shooters all over the floor.

- I love the Kevin Martin-Tyreke Evans backcourt with the way they’re playing off of each other. However, it’s been a terrible thing for the rest of the guys on the team. It seems like Evans is making it a point to show he can work with Martin (see: first half against the Bobcats at home). He’s over-looking for him on every play. The rest of the guys on the court are being completely ignored and that’s a bad thing. Kings need to stop force feeding Martin. I think after the past three games, his scoring touch is back. Now, the Kings need to concentrate on running a team instead of a backcourt.

Good Things

- I really like aggressive Spencer Hawes (or Rick Hawes as Jared Wade dubbed him). When he seems to have a purpose to his moves, he’s hard to stop. He can mix in the jumper with his scoring in the post. It’s much better than watching him just settle for the jumper. He also seems to be more active defensively and on the boards when his offense is clicking. I can get behind this version of Spencer Hawes. I can be optimistic about the Spencer Hawes we saw in the Nuggets game. I just wonder if we’re going to see him tonight.

- Andres Nocioni seems to be out of any shooting slump. He’s eight for his last 15 from the field and four for his last six behind the three-point line. Until he’s traded, the Kings need his shooting threat off the court to keep the spacing on the floor and the offensive flowing.

- I loved what I saw from Omri Casspi towards the end of the Nuggets game. He took players inside and showed a nice half-hook from around four to six feet. He was also aggressive and didn’t hesitate to take the big shots. Couple that with the flurry of playmaking we saw from him in the game against Charlotte and maybe he’s getting out of his funk. He’s the guy that needs to step up on the perimeter with Martin and Evans trying to find each other because when they make the extra pass, he’s the perfect guy to make slow defensive rotations pay.

- Hopefully, Jason Thompson is out of his slump. Although he played poorly against the Nuggets, a team he’s struggled against all season long (8.0 points per game in three games), we saw a very active JT against a very active Bobcats frontline. Even when his offense isn’t there, he should be a rebounding force. 16 rebounds against the Bobcats is nothing to sneeze at. I almost don’t mind the fact that he committed four fouls in the fourth quarter of that game because at least it showed how aggressive and positive he was trying to be. He ended up with eight points and six boards in the final period to help the Kings almost complete a comeback.

An active JT and an aggressive Spencer Hawes to go with the re-emergence of Omri Casspi and the burgeoning backcourt of Evans and Martin are all good things to help this Kings team snap out of these losing ways.

Alex Kramers from When Kingdom Come on Blogcritics has a nice interview with Donté Greene.

Check it out.

Aykis16 from the Sactown Royalty community put in some great work trying to hash out any possible trade wants, needs, and likelihoods between the Kings and the rest of the NBA. He hit up a blogger for each team and even asked me about my beloved wretched Timberwolves.

It’s a very good read (long but good) so set aside 20 minutes and dive in.

Here’s the link.

From the Kings: Tyreke Evans and Omri Casspi have been named to the Rookie Team for next month’s All-Star festivities in Dallas.

Sacramento Kings rookies Tyreke Evans and Omri Casspi were selected to the 2010 T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam to be held on Friday, February 12 in Dallas during NBA All-Star 2010. The participants in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam were selected by the NBA’s assistant coaches, with each team submitting one ballot.

The last time a Kings player participated in the NBA All-Star Weekend was in 2004 when Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic were members of the Western Conference All-Star team. Stojakovic also was a 3-Point Shootout participant that year, finishing second. Evans and Casspi become the seventh and eighth Kings players to play in the Rookie Challenge, joining Brian Grant and Michael Smith (1995), Tyus Edney (1996), Michael Stewart (1998), Jason Williams (2000), and Hedo Turkoglu (2002).

Really happy for Omri to get recognized by the coaches around the league here. He’s been one of the best rookies this season and while we knew that, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody else knew it. Now, let’s see if Omri can find his way into the Three-Point Shootout.