Jon Santiago of DavisSportsDeli.com forwarded along this awesome video that is a must watch for nostalgic Kings fans.

Great work by Marvin Dinozo and the crew over at DavisSportsDeli.com.

While I haven’t finished the game recap from last night’s Kings victory against the Los Angeles Lakers, I would like to reminisce with the greatest highlight video of all time.

Also, to finish up the news from Thursday, click here.  Like Carl Landry, we are going to move on from this story and get back to hoops.

Yes, Tyreke Evans does work on that half court shot in practice.  Here is a video from an October 20, 2010 practice, that proves it:

That footage does not look as pretty as this:

I guess practice makes perfect.

Here is an exchange between Tyreke Evans and myself in the Kings locker room last night following his amazing half court buzzer beater:

JH: Now, I’m at practice most of the time and I watch you guys shooting those half court shots but…you aren’t usually the one who makes it in first…

Evans (laughing):  I just have to get a rhythm.  I start out missing, you know, I try to trick them.  Once I start missing, they keep going.  They make one and I say, keep going.  Then I hit about four straight.

JH: How good does it feel to have your team run over and all of you guys huddle up in the corner, celebrating and jumping up and down?

Evans: It felt good, we needed that.  We all felt good and that’s how we’re all supposed to live as a team you know, all happy with smiles on our faces.  We have a good team on paper, and we just have to go out there and prove it.

JH: Do you think that shot goes a long way towards you being the leader of this team?

Evans: Definitely.  Me, just playing to the ability that I can play.  Just going out there and trying to take over the game.  Like Cisco said in the locker room, they need me so I just have to go out there and play to the best of my ability.

After a shot like that, when his team so desperately needed a victory, you can’t help but think that this might get Tyreke Evans back to the form that won him the rookie of the year last season.  Confidence is a fickle thing in the NBA but after last night, it shouldn’t be an issue any longer.

THIS.

Immediately after the Kings’ final possession against the Dallas Mavericks failed, Paul Westphal was under scrutiny from those who watched the Kings lose at home in probably their best game of the young season.

But after watching it a couple of times, I have to say there was nothing wrong with the play call. It was actually a very good play with tons of options to score. The ball was put in the hands of DeMarcus Cousins and he ended up failing. It wasn’t Westphal’s fault. Cousins just made a mistake.

Let’s break this down Sebastian Pruiti style and pretend we’re NBA Playbook for a day.

Play starts with a clutter of Kings between the elbow and the 3-point line with Francisco Garcia down by the baseline. Omri jets to the near corner, Landry flashes to the far corner and Garcia moves to the far sideline above the 3-point line. Cousins flashes towards Tyreke to receive the pass.

As soon as Tyreke inbounds the ball, he cuts through the lane behind Jason Kidd after he fakes towards Cousins for the hand-off. At this point, Cousins should have hit Reke with a good pass over the top. This is where the play begins to fall apart.

Once Cousins misses the opportunity, Chandler’s wingspan takes away the passing lane and closes off that option for DeMarcus. This gives Cousins the lane to drive, which he does.

Cousins has one more chance to pass to Reke once Chandler has to cut off the drive, but Kidd drops down. As DMC gets into the lane, Dirk helps off of Carl Landry. This is another misses scoring opportunity because Cousins did have a slight window to drop the pass down to Reke. He also could have just tried to score the ball himself.

Cousins opts to kick out to Landry at the 3-point line, probably out of nervousness. Dirk tips the pass and it gets Landry farther away from the basket but actually gives Carl a better driving lane on the baseline.

Landry drives the baseline but instead of just going into Chandler and trying to score over him or draw the contact, he goes deeper towards the baseline and gets caught behind the backboard.

Landry really has nowhere to go with the ball or the pass at this point. He forces one out to Garcia about 35 feet from the basket. Jason Terry cuts over to intercept the pass and seal the win for the Mavericks.

Sad Panda. Terry steals the ball and the Kings lose the game.

Here is the play in real time.

Overall, I think Westphal is unfairly taking heat for this final play. The play in theory was brilliant. It gave the Kings multiple opportunities to score and tie the game. Maybe you can rip him for putting the ball in the hands of a rookie, but that happened a few times last season and worked out fine.

Good play but poor execution.

This was a pretty awesome moment the other night during the Kings-Wolves game.

Lieutenant Jeff Mennicke was put on the spot by Joe Maloof while he was on the court. If he hit a free throw in front of everybody, he would win himself a car.

Normally, that would put a lot of pressure on regular people and they’d probably miss the rim by two feet. But Lieutenant Jeff Mennicke is not a regular person. He’s an actual soldier. I’m guessing this was no big thang for him.

Knocks it down cold. It was pretty awesome of Joe Maloof to give him that moment and even more awesome for the lieutenant to make the shot.

Sign this man up. The Kings could use some free throw shooting tips.

Check out this little video of Reke and McGee working out with trainer Rob McClanaghan (via Dime Mag):

I don’t know if it’s just the extra medium workout shirt Tyreke has on but he looks HUGE. He’s definitely added some muscle to his frame this off-season. I’ll have more on that this week but I feel bad for the point guards in the NBA for now.

This came from Reke’s Twitter account:

The form looks so much better than it did last season. He’s not bringing the ball behind his head and his shooting arm looks to be a lot more straight up and down.

I’d like to see his form when he’s shooting off the dribble to see if it stays true to what we see here. But in terms of sheer structure of his jumper, this is a big step forward in making him a complete offensive force. Keep working, Reke.

The Boost Mobile Elite 24 is a nice little get together for all of the best high school talent in the country. This year, some pros showed up to take on the youngsters and Tyreke Evans was one of those pro players. His team was comprised of himself, Brandon Jennings, DeMar DeRozan, Bobby Brown and John Wall.

Check out this video of some of the highlights. Tyreke has a few moves (including a much better looking jumper) at the 23-second, 1:06, 1:39 marks:

(H/T: Southern Distinguished Gentleman Kyle Weidie)

Dime TV captured a video of Hassan Whiteside juggling three basketballs at the same time (big ups to Aron Phillips for all of the coverage he gave us with the rookie photo shoot; follow him on Twitter):

Seems like this lady is going to be out of a job…