Casspi remains upbeat despite Kings coach Westphal's decision to start Donte Greene in his place.
By ALLON SINAI311_Omri Casspi against the Cavaliers(photo credit: Associated Press)
After an impressive start to the season, Omri Casspi has suddenly found himself out of favor with Sacramento Kings coach Paul Westphal.The 22-year-old Israeli forward was left on the bench for a second straight game on Sunday night, playing no part in Sacramento’s 75-71 home loss to the New Orleans Hornets.After coming off the bench in the first game of the season, Casspi started in eight straight encounters for the Kings, averaging over 10 points per game in 26 minutes on the court.However, with the Kings losing five consecutive contests, Westphal decided to tinker with his starting five, with Casspi not only losing his place as a starter, but dropping completely out of the rotation.Nevertheless, Casspi is doing his best to remain upbeat, despite having “DNP-Coach’s Decision” next to his name in the box score in the last two games.“Next time [Westphal] puts me in the game, I’ll play hard, play to win like I do all the time, and good things will happen,” said Casspi, who has been replaced in the starting lineup by Donte Greene.“I’m a professional. Coach made a decision on who he wants to play, and we have to accept that. I can only worry about things that I can control.”Despite Sunday’s loss, Westphal looks set to continue with his current lineup.“We’re not going to hold teams to 32 percent shooting every night, but that’s two games in a row that we’ve played first-class NBA defense, and we will win a lot of games if we do that every night,” Westphal said.
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