As Sacramento prepares to play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night, the odds are if the game is close, then Kings Coach Paul Westphal will call 1-4 Flat.
For the uninitiated, 1-4 Flat is basketball play that isolates one player at the top of the key while the other four wait on the wings. In the Kings’ case, 1-4 Flat is designed just for Tyreke Evans, last season’s rookie of the year.
Unfortunately, in the second season of using it for Evans, 1-4 Flat has become, well, flat. It has become predictable and ineffective. It should be scrapped from the Kings’ playbook because it needs a better decision-maker to run it.
We first saw the 1-4 Flat last season in consecutive overtime losses against the Cavaliers and the Lakers at Arco Arena.
Against the Cavaliers, Evans used the play to tie the game with less than 30 seconds to play. Then, with five seconds left in regulation, the Kings ran the play again. Evans called for a pick out of it and got bunched up in the sideline as time expired. That set the stage for a 13-0 Cavaliers run in OT.
Against the Lakers, the Kings used 1-4 Flat in a tie game with less than 10 seconds to play. However, Kobe Bryant knocked the ball free just as Evans was starting to drive. Cue the Lakers’ win in double overtime.
Since then, 1-4 Flat has rarely worked and last season it caused internal strife. Remember, one purpose of the play by Westphal was to tell the team that they were building around Evans. But it also told the rest of the Kings that they were inconsequential at crunch time.
Using it now is a sad statement because, despite a worse record than last season at this time, they have more scoring options this season. Players like Carl Landry, Samuel Dalembert and DeMarcus Cousins have proven they can take pressure shots rather than relying only on Evans.
The latest use of 1-4 Flat was in the waning seconds of Wednesday’s 102-100 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. And it probably was called because Cousins was ejected from the game, taking away one of the Kings’ clutch options. The Mavs knew it was coming and triple-teamed Evans as he began to drive.
After the loss to Dallas, Evans said he should have looked to pass the ball or gone right to the hoop on that play. Instead, he missed a four-footer. His statement speaks loudly. It sounds as if he isn’t playing smart when it’s up to him on the deciding play.
One-four Flat rarely has paid off during the past two seasons. It needs someone who consistently knows what to do with the ball, despite the Kings’ insistence that Evans is a point guard.
No matter what you call Evans, he still doesn’t have the ability of a Bryant or a Lebron James to close out a game – let alone the final play – on a regular basis.
Copyright 2011/Bill Bradley
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It doesn’t work cuz kings don’t have shooters and other teams pack the lane. But that’s what developing is for. And you for got to mention that it worked against Denver last year.