On Monday evening, the Kings did exactly what they’ve been asked to do all season: they beat an inferior, injury-riddled team at home with ease. With their defense leading the way, holding the Joel Embiid-less Sixers to just 96 points, Sacramento was in control for the majority of the evening, and they never trailed in the second half.
Domantas Sabonis ended the night with 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists, but far more importantly, he broke the post-merger NBA record for consecutive doubles at 54 games. Keegan Murray and De’Aaron Fox were the high-scorers for Sacramento, both pouring in 23 points, while Fox filled out the stat sheet elsewhere, finishing with 23 points, 8 boards, 5 assists, and 2 steals. For the Sixers, Tyrese Maxey put up 29 points, including 21 in the first quarter, but he was held scoreless for the entire third quarter and most of the fourth, only scoring when the game was well out of hand. Sacramento’s defense completely took Philly’s one ray of hope out for the entire second half.
The Good, The Better, & The Best
The Good:
- No Three-ball, No Problem: For most of the season, the Kings have struggled mightily when they’ve failed to sink at least an average amount of three-pointers, but lately their defense and paint presence has sustained them in three-point droughts, and that was once again the case on Monday night. The Kings made just 10 of their 38 three-point attempts (26.3%), but they still managed to pull out an easy win over the Sixers.
- Davion Mitchell: Davion Mitchell hasn’t exactly had the season he likely envisioned to start the year, but he’s stepped it up as of late, and he was one of Sacramento’s best players in their win over Philly. He was an excellent on-ball defender, especially after Keon Ellis’ foul trouble took him out of most of the contest, and Mitchell was also excellent on the offensive side of the court, scoring 18 points on just 9 field goal attempts. With Kevin Huerter likely out for an extended amount of time, Mitchell’s resurgence could be a key factor in Sacramento’s final playoff positioning and playoff success.
- Giraffe Cattiness: Buddy Hield scored 7 points on 3/9 shooting.
The Better:
- Bench Production: Another one of Sacramento’s Achilles heels this season has been their lack of bench production, but outside of a rough shooting night for Chris Duarte, Mike Brown’s backups were offered some fantastic two-way play. Davion Mitchell played some excellent defense and was a capable shooter after Keon Ellis’ foul trouble, and Alex Len was his usual low-key positive self. Monk, Mitchell, and Len combined to score 36 points on 13/23 shooting from the field.
- Mike Brown: Challenger Extraordinaire: MIKE BROWN WON BOTH OF HIS CHALLENGES!
The Best:
- Defense: After an entire season of inconsistent defensive performances and effort, the Kings finally seem to be finding their identity on that end of the floor. In their 16 games since the All-Star break (not counting Monday’s game), the Kings rank 11th in the league in defensive rating at 111.6, a far cry from their pre-All-Star rating of 116.6, and the Kings held the Sixers to just 96 points on 41.5% shooting from the floor. It should come as no surprise that the Kings have now won 8 of their last 11 games with the rediscovery of their defensive identity.
The King of Kings
Anytime a player sets an NBA record, they win the prestigious, all-important, contract-impacting King of Kings award – congrats Domantas Sabonis! Despite being hit it the face approximately 74 times on Monday night, Sabonis still managed to post a casual triple-double on his way to the consecutive double-double streak.
Playoff Impact
After the Phoenix Suns disaster against the lowly San Antonio Spurs, and the Dallas Mavericks win over the Utah Jazz, the Kings are now tied with the Mavericks for the 6th and 7th slots in the race against the play-in. With fewer than a dozen games remaining, Sacramento’s two upcoming matches against Luka Doncic and the Mavericks may very well end up deciding the final team to avoid the play-in in the Western Conference.
Up Next
Tuesday, March 26th vs Dallas Mavericks – 7:00 P.M. (PT)
It feels like the entire identity of this team has changed over the course of this season and especially this month.
Coincides with Ellis minutes over Huerter. Huerters injury has made the team better.
Teams were targeting Kev whenever they needed a bucket. . and now Keegan gets more touches on O.
Heurter showed who he was last playoffs but Monte too enamored with shooting (or didn’t get enough blah blah) to trade Heurter then. Or Brown let him/make him play a bench role.
In any case, it’s a huge difference in their D and team now. They figured it out at least, despite ignoring the obvious over the summer and deadline.
Solid win!
And a special dance for Akis
Good solid win. I’ve liked that the Kings have been playing better defensively lately, and hopefully this continues for the remaining regular season games/playoffs.
Also nice that we got another guaranteed winning season (42), along with home and away records (21 each).
Gotta be ready for Dallas tomorrow. Won’t be easy being the third game in four nights, but we gotta keep this momentum going.
Even worse, it will be the 5th game in 7 nights! But at least the Mavericks are having to travel from SLC after their game tonight and the Kings can play at home again. It will be another tough test for the Beam Team, hoping they find a way to pass it!
Pels next 5:
Thunder
Bucks
Celtics
Suns
Magic
All in NOLA, but that’s a rough sequence either way – they might actually be catchable
Clippers have kinda been struggling too. If we get momentum it’s certainly possible to move up further than the 6th seed.
Mathematically that is true.
I think more likely is LAC and NOP battle over home court for their 4 v 5 matchup. They have the same record tonight, with Pels head-to-head advantaged and now at the 4th spot.
On the other end of the Western Conf. playoff picture, Houston Rockets are soaring with a 9 game win streak which puts them over .500 and a half game behind Golden State who are 4-6 their last 10 and starting tomorrow do an away back-to-back in The Sunshine State, with Miami then Orlando.
The end of the season squeezin’.
Nothing would make me happier than the Warriors missing the play-in.
Except the L*kers missing the play-in.
Considering the Kings have not matched up well against either NOP or LAC it seems it would benefit them to try to end up in the 6 slot, as they have played the top 3 teams much better, so no matter which of those ends up at #3 they would theoretically have a better chance in the 1st round.
This! I think they should stand pat at 6. We have way better odds of beating Minny and OKC. Sac vs Den in the first round would be a damn slugfest.
Let NOP and the Clips battle it out. Both are bad matchups for us.
It’s likely to be a fight until the end, so I will be surprised if teams are in the position to pick and choose their spots much.
Yo Rik. Agreed. Every game is a playoff game here on out. We may not be able to choose our spot, but man I DO NOT want any parts of NOP.
We have one more crack at them. That game will show a lot about the progress or lack thereof of the team.
Yeah, that one’s gonna be interesting, for sure.
I don’t think we’d be able to beat Denver in a first round series. I’d be way more comfortable playing OKC or Minnesota.
Remaining schedules for Sac, Phoenix, Dallas, New Orleans, & Clippers. At a glance Dallas definitely appears to have a much easier schedule than the others.
Which is why winning these next two against Dallas is so critical.
Thanks for posting this here Klam. Great visual.
The upcoming Dallas games are obviously huge; But I have a feeling final seedings will come down to the Apr 11th and 12th games vs NO and PHX.
The suspense is terrible… I hope it will last!
It’s crazy that the Kings have the worst record of the Suns remaining schedule
And they lost to the team with the worst record on their remaining schedule last night against the Spurs. It’s actually pretty wild that the Spurs beat the Suns this season 3-1.
Excellent win.
I hope Davion can keep this up. That was great.
And Domantas Sabonis. Wow. Give this man his flowers. And a new jaw.
Live by the D… Don’t need the 3!
I defy anyone to name another player who is legitimately having an MVP-caliber season who is routinely permitted by referees to have the shit kicked out of him.
No respect from the press, no respect from the league. Imagine what his numbers would look like if he was officiated the way Jokic or Giannis are.
I’m practically unable to recognize a Kings team that plays defense. This is overloading my synapses.
What are we up to now with Keon starting? 9-1?
It’s such a different team w Ellis. Do we give Brown props for making adjustments?
Yes, we do.
But at the same time we can also wonder why it took so long, and keep in mind that it took a Huerter injury for Brown to really commit to it.
Benching Huerter earlier this season backfired. I’m not surprised Brown refused to do it again until he had to. The rotation instability earlier in the season (beyond just Huerter’s benching) clearly affected the team’s chemistry and individual players’ confidence. It’s telling the team is playing much better overall lately–the rotation has been the most stable it’s been all season. McGee is officially out, Huerter’s injury brought in Keon, which also gave Mitchell and Duarte more predictable roles while making Barnes the clear 4th option on offense, etc. It was addition by subtraction, and that’s no disrespect to Huerter, who’s been a good soldier. Just my viewpoint!
Good points. The roles were all over the place before the Huerter injury. Some guys would play for a week or so and then be benched, and then come in for a few spot minutes, all leading to some uncertainty. “Staying prepared” is a cool tag line and all, but consistency/defined roles is what some players need so they can thrive. That seems to be present now, and the structure of the minutes seems to be leading to some cohesiveness on the defensive end.
I don’t thin it backfired. Brown didn’t even give it a chance and, at the time he didn’t give Ellis a real shot.
Brown and McNair were too caught up in what they thought was their “team”. And shooting. They couldn’t see Forrest for trees. Should have but this injury has forced what we all knew needed to happen.
Absolutely agree. My comment was a bit tongue in cheek.
Huerter being an issue was obvious last playoffs and yet. I think McNair has some to do with this?
Now, if they make the playoffs we will find out if Brown can continue 1/2 court O adjustments and if Sabonis will shoot the mid range/figure out how to be successful when no DHO and vrs good D.
Playoffs require D/-1/2 court O and you can’t have a Defensive hole or non shooter hole in lineup to win.
The Keon Effect
The Ellis Algorithm
Ellis’ law of deterrence
Ellis Tirith
Steal curtain
I loved the last two especially.
Also: Fun Fact.
The Kings are one of three teams in the last 10 games to allow less than 10ppg to opponents on fast breaks or 2nd chances. They’re the only team that is doing both. They are 3rd in the league in steals during that time and almost dead center for blocks per game. It’s not just rebounds. It’s not just being pests. It’s all of it.
Mike Brown may need to be in the conversation for greatest NBA coaches at some point.
I mean, sort of. He was way too late doing it. I think we’d have had 3-4 more wins in the 20 prior games if he’d made that switch earlier.
He definitely is the change this squad needed. He’s altered the entire dynamic of the team on the defensive side of the floor.
Gives us 3 plus defenders and 2 solid defenders in the starting lineup.
And it gives Keegan more touches. Again, the idea of a defender at Huerters spot was the obvious move last playoffs.
Last 8 games the most points the Kings give up is 111 and that was in OT.
Teams Defense | Stats | NBA.com
Is this the same team?…
I have a working theory/hypothesis/idea etc…has the defensive rating improved in March because the Kings have been playing at a slower pace?
Someone better at finding those stats, please test my theory above.
For the entire season, the Kings pace is 99.85, 12th in the league.
Teams Advanced | Stats | NBA.com
In the last ten games, the Kings pace is 97.83, 13th in the league.
Teams Advanced | Stats | NBA.com
So in the last ten games, the Kings pace has slowed by about two percent.
But there is some overlapping of data, because the entire season data includes data from the last ten games. I don’t know how to isolate data for the entire season minus the last ten games.
The Kings have some weird splits in their pace numbers. Offensively, their pace is very fast and the possessions don’t take long. On defense, the possessions take much longer. Check out Dunks and Threes for that data. I think currently they are 4th in offensive pace and 26th in defensive. Not sure why that happens, but it occurred last year as well.
Maybe teams are deliberately playing slow on offense to counteract the Kings’ offensive pace? Or, the other teams are being patient in the hopes the Kings’ defense breaks down late in possessions?
Whoah!
I don’t know how to post a gif, but it would definitely be Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man!
Didn’t realise this until James Ham tweeted this: with this win, the Kings recorded their second +.500 season in a row, their tenth in Sacramento Kings history.
Major props to the front office, coaching staff, and players for achieving this. With all the talk about getting the sixth seed, I’m still just happy that the Kings are no longer a dumpster fire and are actually a stable, and pretty good team.
Crazy that only two coaches have been able to get the Kings to .500 or better for a season.
It’s two people on here that were hating on the Kings “4th grade defense.” I need both of you to come out of hiding, especially if the Kings show up again tonight.
Great all around win. We look like we are prepping for a solid run.
It was 4th grade defense until a few weeks ago.
The scheme did not play to the strengths of the players. The players did not understand the scheme and execute it well. Now the scheme and the players appear to be on the same page, and the results are going well so far.
Thank you my fellow Kings fan. You see what I see. This scheme fits and the players understand it. They have bought in…finally.
They scheme changed from whatever the hell they were doing before March to now. Lots more jumping out on ball handlers and looking for deflections, more fighting through screens and sticking to your man.
I was at a metal concert last night but they had the game on at the bar so I caught a tiny bit and of course saw the beam when I got home. Great win! Saw a couple crazy layups by Davion which got me pumped. BIG TIME GAME TONIGHT!! LET’S GO KIIIIIINGGGS!!
yup. he also changed the game with his ability to guard Maxey.
When they started doubling Maxey, denying him the ball and forcing him to give it up, things changed quickly. Davion/Keon/Fox/Murray did a good job in that regard.
the Kings mixed it up, sure. the Sixers also had to bring a screener to try to pick off Davion. They did not have to screen the others off.
Most importantly, at least get a split with Dallas. Would be 3-1 against them in the head to head and tied but not down 2 full games.
Badge Legend