Kings win back-to-back home games, but what does it mean? We'll see

It’s important to attempt to discern what we’re seeing.

It’s not just that the Kings have won two of their past three games.

Or that they’ve won their past two home games over Memphis and Phoenix, respectively.

Or that their 7-24 record results in the NBA’s worst winning percentage at .226. Or that the Kings currently are grouped with the L.A. Clippers (10-24); Minnesota (9-25); New Jersey (9-25); Washington (8-24); Detroit (11-22); Toronto (11-22) and Charlotte (11-20).

Basically, these are the worst of the worst. And Sacramento’s .226 winning percentage comes on the heels of two victories, while uplifting in nature, that surely rank as remarkable, if not downright miraculous.

Actually, the Kings could have lost those games more easily than they were won.

Teams usually do not win with 55-foot shots, buzzer-beaters as the Kings did with Tyreke Evans bomb against Memphis.

Nor do they normally outscore their opponents, 19-2, during the game’s final six minutes by limiting a team to one basket in its final 10 possessions as they did against Phoenix.

There can be no sugar-coating where the Kings and the rest of these teams reside in the NBA’s hierarchy. We’re talking way on the outside hoping to get into a position in which they can look.

While assessing the Kings, the surroundings cannot be ignored. The teams whom share Sacramento’s early-season struggles have youthful bases.

New Jersey (Avery Johnson) and Washington (Flip Saunders) are considered first-class coaches. Larry Brown almost is universally acknowledged to be one of the world’s best coaches, yet he’s already been replaced in Charlotte by Paul Silas.

Others such as the Clippers, Minnesota, Detroit and Toronto have relatively young, new and/or inexperienced coaches.

The league’s most successful coach – the L.A. Lakers’ Phil Jackson – has his own problems at this time. Granted, the two-time NBA champion Lakers’ problems are relative and totally unlike those of the bottom-barrel group.

Yet, problems are problems and as Kings coach Paul Westphal alluded to following the victory over Memphis, the season can be described as attempting to plug leaks in a dike. Just when a hole is filled, another arises.

Many of the teams struggling to win also struggle to score. The Kings rank sixth from the bottom in scoring at 94.1 points per game. The inability to score usually indicates a lack of prime-time talent.

Yet, New Orleans averages 93.9 points with all-star point guard Chris Paul running the show. There are no givens when teams struggle other than all teams will. Some just will do it more and longer than others.

Clearly, the recent performances of rookie center DeMarcus Cousins have given the Kings reason for optimism. While Cousins figures his way, the Kings should be realizing their course of patience with the 20-year-old must be followed.

Cousins’ youth and inexperience will be a factor, but his growth cannot be denied. Cousins understands his growth also requires patience. As much as he’d like to be an immediate dominant presence, he has to learn the league, his teammates and himself.

Said Westphal of Cousins, “He’s cutting down some of his impatient mistakes and doing a better job of getting a wider base. He’s reading the defenses better, before he makes his move and he’s staying out of foul trouble.”

Cousins has a unique and distinctive game. He’s listed at 6-foot-11, yet at times he plays the game as if he’s a 6-footer. He’ll attempt to push the ball upcourt via the dribble or lay in the backcourt to try to poke the ball away from a guard.

These aren’t particularly smart moves, but they are part of what makes him who he is. Cousins isn’t scared and that heart in a big man has been needed around here a little longer than virtually forever.

He plays as if he‘s a big guy who grew tall relatively late instead of always being a big guy. He says that’s not the case.

“For me, I was never afraid to try stuff,” he said Sunday night after scoring a career-high 28 points, grabbing eight rebounds and handing out season-high and team-leading six assists. “When I first started playing ball, I used to take off dribbling the ball and coaches would flip their (lids). I’d just keep going and I guess I’ve benefited from it.

“My shot has been messed up, but I’m comfortable shooting (15-footers).”

The extra bonus Sacramento gets with Cousins is he is naturally silly and funny. It’s difficult ever imaging an uptight locker room with him roaming with walk-bys.

When told most of the Phoenix players believed he’d walked on a key fourth-quarter, three-point play, he said, “I took eight steps because I had a guy (Robin Lopez) on my back and I couldn’t control that.”

What Westphal and the rest of the Kings coaching staff and front office have not been capable of controlling is the players’ inability to make shots. It’s the coaching staff’s job to help their players get good shots. The coaches can’t make the shots for them.

Perhaps the players need to put in more work and control what they can control.

Witness 23.1 percent field-goal shooting (6-for-26) in the first quarter against Phoenix and 35 percent shooting in the second quarter. Then the Kings shoot 61.1 percent (11-for-18) in the third quarter and 10 of 20 in the fourth.

Explain that! Moreover, the Kings made eight of their last 12 shots in the fourth, so that means they missed six of their first eight. Explain that, too!

We’re still waiting to see what the Kings look like if they play a solid 48 minutes. It was nice Sunday, however, to see Sacramento receive workmanlike performances from Francisco Garcia, Omri Casspi, Carl Landry, Jason Thompson as well as Cousins. For once it didn’t matter that Evans and Beno Udrih stunk up the joint.

And it didn’t hurt that Pooh Jeter contributed four points, four assists and no turnovers during the fourth quarter, his only 12 minutes of action.

All Elie has done is win

Sacramento Kings assistant coach Mario Elie's name is not among the leaders in the clubhouse when it comes to NBA coaching candidates.

But it should be right there.

Elie can bring three rings to any potential interview with a team trying to win a title. Elie played an integral role in Houston winning two rings and one more in San Antonio. So he's seen how it's done and then helped do it.

Elie was an 11-year NBA player after being drafted in the seventh round (the 160th overall pick) by the Milwaukee Bucks out of American International College - a Division II school in Springfield, Mass. He played in Portugal, Argentina, Ireland as well as the USBL, WBL and the CBA before a 10-day contract with Philadelphia in 1990 led to deals with Portland, Houston, San Antonio and Phoenix.

He speaks Spanish, Portuguese and French and has been an assistant under San Antonio's Gregg Popovich and Dallas' Avery Johnson and Rick Carlisle.

Elie never has been a head coach, but he's had every other experience one can bring to the table.

What he also brings leadership, toughness and the respect of players - qualities that are irreplaceable for a successful coach.

It'll take a strong, independently-thinking general manager to hire Elie, especially for a team with legitimate title aspirations, with nay-sayers ready to pounce.

The good thing for Elie is hasn't had to take a job with a bad team. The bad thing is he's not even spoken about as being a candidate. He has interviewed with Charlotte and Sacramento.

However, at some point, a team will show the intelligence and the stones to recognize Elie is a hidden gem waiting to be plucked.

Some one had to give Popovich, Byron Scott, Carlisle and Johnson, among many others, a chance to be a head coach. Many of the league's head coaches had never run the show before getting their NBA shot.

It's time for front-office intelligence to take over. However, now we'll see how long that takes to occur.

By the way, Utah's assistant Tyrone Corbin and Houston's assistant Elston Turner also fit smoothly into this category.

As an aside, after watching Mike Brown get jettisoned in Cleveland Sunday after back-to-back 60-win seasons, there are more secure gigs to be sought, for sure.

NBA Finals matchup

If the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics meet in the NBA championship series, the Lakers will go from dominating the questionable defense of the Phoenix Suns to the superior defense of the Celtics.

There may not be a bigger gap in the playoffs than going from the Suns defense to the Celtics'.

Yo, LeBron, Wake Up!

Derryl Zimmerman, one of my former roommates, of which there have been many, makes this salient point.

LeBron James said next season he was changing his number from 23 to 6 out of respect for Michael Jordan, the almost universally acknowledged 'greatest player' ever.

So James picked No. 6 - the same number worn by Bill Russell, the greatest winner, perhaps in the history of professional sports.

History, my brother, history.

Seven lost teeth

Chicago Black Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith lost an amazing seven teeth Sunday against the San Jose Sharks when he was struck in the mouth by a puck.

Keith returned later in the game to play more minutes than anyone on either team.

That kind of gives a description of 'toughness' new meaning, doesn't it?

And I wasn't thinking, crazy, nutty or insane, though those also came quickly to mind.