Under pressure

Need to catch up on today’s news and notes? Here’s my LAKings.com notebook for the day…

Kings notebook (Feb. 2)

Also, here’s what Terry Murray said today about pressure. The Kings are back in a situation, as they were in mid-December, in which they’re having success and getting widespread attention. The first time, they didn’t handle it particularly well, at least in terms of wins and losses. This time?

MURRAY: “It’s a different kind of test, because the later you get in the schedule, there’s more urgency in everyone’s game. You can tell, by the activity around the league in the last several days here, the pressure that’s now on. It’s coming not only from in the room, the players, the coaches, but from management, when there’s a lot of deals like we’re seeing. There is a greater urgency. The game gets harder, gets tougher. The checking becomes more intense. Every play matters now, and we understand that, I believe. After coming through that road trip the way we did, the stick-with-it attitude that, if you’re down by a couple, you stay with the same concept and the same system and everybody stays on page with that attitude, you can have a good end result. To me, that’s a real maturity sign, and it’s an indication that our group in there is really starting to become a pretty solid team.”