West Notes: Kings, Harrison Barnes, Blazers, Jazz

Kings

The Kings have won six straight and coach Mike Brown is pleased with the energy and offensive production. But Brown being Brown, he would still like to see some improvement at the defensive end.

“We can score with the best of them,” Brown told reporters after Sunday’s home win over the Pistons. “We have to figure out a way to get stops and not just in the last three minutes.”

• Point guard De’Aaron Fox scored 33 points in the victory. “This is the best basketball he’s played in his career,” forward Harrison Barnes told reporters of Fox. “He’s playing at an All-Star level. He’s doing it on the offensive end, the defensive end … it’s a credit to him and the amount of work he put in this summer.”
• Despite some rumors, the Kings aren’t involved in any trade talks involving Barnes, per James Ham of The Kings Beat. We have a report that Barnes is drawing interest right here.
• Ham indicated that with the Kings on the rise, they intend to stick with their current lineup for now. “They are focused on building chemistry with this group of players, and the positive start to the season,” Ham wrote.

Trail Blazers

In case you missed it, star guard Damian Lillard is expected to be out at least a week after re-aggravating his right calf strain injury, the team announced.

Lillard missed time with the same injury earlier this month and again underwent an MRI on the calf Saturday night, saying that it doesn’t feel as bad as last time, per Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com.

Lillard, 32, is off to another fantastic start, as the Blazers’ have become one of the West’s early surprises. He is averaging 26.3 points and 7.0 assists, shooting 42 percent from the field.

He said the calf tightened up when he took a jump shot in the Blazers’ home loss to the Jazz on Saturday.

Jazz

Point guard Mike Conley Jr. is expected to miss two weeks after suffering a left knee strain, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Conley underwent an MRI on Sunday, and per Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune, could actually return sooner than the reported timetable.

“The ‘out at least two weeks info put out earlier is not accurate,” Walden wrote. “He’s out Monday vs. (the Clippers), will be re-evaluated Tuesday, and then daily thereafter.”

• The Jazz may have an interest in trading for reportedly available Hawks forward John Collins. We have that full post here.