The Kings beat Phoenix last week. They lost badly on Friday. As the Kings have the worst record in the league, and as the Suns are in playoff contention in a great Western Conference, this should not be particularly surprising.

Friday's loss, realistically, should be the norm. I mean, that the Kings held on for three quarters is a minor upset.

Mix in the lack of your best player, and … this was no surprise.

Beno Udrih, for some reason, can't figure out why things went wrong.

"I really don't know what to say. … I don't know how we can play three games good and then one game just play bad. I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know what to say, seriously."

Again, Kevin Martin didn't play Friday. He's the team best player by a wide margin. Set aside the TI-50. It's pretty easy to figure out the biggest reason for the team's demise.

But if you'd like another reason, I'll submit that (ahem) Beno Udrih himself is a big reason the Kings offense underperformed in Round 2.

Last week against Phoenix, Beno was aggressive, taking 10 FGAs and 5 FTAs in 32 minutes. Steve Nash ain't no cheese grater — you can beat him like a drum, provided you have a pulse and two legs.

Friday night, Beno took five FGAs and two FTAs in 28 minutes. No pulse. No drum-beating.

You have to exploit mismatches in this league. Phoenix exploited Beno's bad defense, with Nash taking more shots than any other Sun. The Kings, instead, went straight at Phoenix's best defenders. Unfortunately, because Martin is injured, this is a necessity. With options limited, the Kings have rely on whoever has a pulse that given night, and whoever is feeling it. Francisco Garcia and Rashad McCants were feeling it. (Note: McCants is always feeling it.)

Why did the Kings play worse Friday than in the last three games? Beno wasn't aggressive. Martin is injured. Phoenix made their open threes, in part because Phoenix has a lot of good shooters and in part because the Sacramento defense is beyond disorganized. Maybe it's hard to see when you're right there in the trenches. Maybe Beno drank the Kool-Aid from three straight competitive games and assumed this team became good overnight.

This team did not become good overnight. There are serious defensive deficiencies from toe to top, the point guard vascillates between feisty on comatose, defensive rebounding is a major problem, about six of the top seven contributors have been largely inconsistent and the coach make adjustments as frequently as McCants makes passes. This isn't that difficult to understand.