Kenny Natt had done his time as an assistant, spending nine seasons under Jerry Sloan in Utah and two more under Mike Brown in Cleveland.
And now, it's time for Natt to prove he can make the most of the lessons learned under those men. This was far from a traditional path to a head coaching gig, at least as it pertained to Natt's last two seasons. He came in under Reggie Theus, a former teammate of one season with the Kansas City Kings, who made him the lead assistant. After the team went 38-44 in Theus' first season and started 6-18 this season, Theus was fired on Monday and Natt was given the title of interim coach. "I'm just grateful for the opportunity to be able to implement some of the things I've learned from those coaches," Natt said "Jerry has always told me 'Win one game at a time.'... I just want to win games, and hopefully at the end of the day, the Maloofs (the Kings' owners) and (Kings basketball president) Geoff (Petrie) -- whatever decision they make -- say, 'Kenny did a (heck) of a job developing our young guys.' If they decide to go elsewhere, that's fine with me."
BLAZERS 109, KINGS 77: The Kings couldn't remain undefeated in the Kenny Natt era, falling big to Portland on Tuesday night at the Rose Garden after the interim coach had earned his first win in a rout over Minnesota on Monday night.
The Kings fell apart after the first quarter, shooting just 3-of-21 in the second quarter while Portland finished the period on a 15-5 run. Brandon Roy had 29 points and hit all 15 of his free throws, while the Kings shot just 31.6 percent.
