Leadership and accountability are certainly lacking in Washington. They’re also lacking in Sacramento, where Chuck Hayes organized a players-only meeting on Thursday as well, according to Matt Kawahara at the Sacramento Bee:
At the meeting, said DeMarcus Cousins, players “had our heart-to-hearts, we all discussed what we need to do better, we all held each other accountable. Chuck, he got on the bigs. I got on the bigs. (Francisco Garcia) got on the guards.
“It showed tonight,” Cousins said. “We went over film and showed our mistakes, just rotations and how in the offense we catch (the ball) and just stop. So we went over a lot and we got a good thing out of it.”
Francisco Garcia said he addressed the team, not just the guards, about the need to play together on the defensive end.
Guard Marcus Thornton said the main message players took away from the meeting was that better effort was needed.
That, along with a coaching change and 23 offensive rebounds, sparked the Kings to a 103-101 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night.
Will Evans’ meeting similarly help the Wizards? On Friday, they host the New York Knicks (7 p.m. ET, League Pass), a team that’s dealing with its own crisis. They’re two desperate teams who feel like they can use a weakened opponent to get back on track. It will be bad offense vs. bad defense, so something’s got to give.