In a duel of two of the NBA’s brightest young star guards, De’Aaron Fox and the Sacramento Kings outlasted Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder in an electric matchup between a pair of young up-and-coming Western Conference squads at the Golden 1 Center. Fox finished with 41 points and 7 assists, including 23 points in the second half, and Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 43 points and 9 assists in a contest featuring two All-Star locks and MVP hopefuls. Domantas Sabonis had another dominant contest against the Thunder, finishing with 18 points, 16 rebounds, and 7 assists, while Malik Monk and Keon Ellis combined for 35 points off the bench for Sacramento to help stave off the Thunder.
Oklahoma City trailed by as much as 14 points in the 4th quarter, but clawed their way back in the closing minutes off relentless attacks at the rim by Shai and a flurry of three pointers by Josh Giddey. The referees became a major storyline throughout the evening, earning the ire of Fox, the Kings bench, and the 17,608 Kings fans in attendance. Oklahoma City finished 24 of 27 from the line and Sacramento went 16 of 21, but for much of the contest it was a much more one-sided affair from the charity stripe. There were 4 fouls in the first 70 seconds into the game, and by halftime the Thunder had gone 15 of 17 from the free throw line while the Kings were just 5 of 7. Gilgeous-Alexander put on a legendary display of foul-drawing abilities, getting 6 trips to the line in the first quarter alone and 18 total attempts in the game. But while Sacramento and the Golden 1 Center crowded felt the crew was one sided throughout the night, it clearly had an effect on the Kings late into the four quarter, as Sacramento lost their composure along with the extended lead before clamping down and securing the win in the final minutes. Keegan Murray, who finished with 15 points on the night, hit a big floating jumper with 1:21 to give the Kings a 123-117 lead, and then went 4 of 4 in Sacramento’s last two trips to the free throw line to lock in the victory.
Rookie Chet Holmgren finished with 14 points and 10 boards for the Thunder, while Lu Dort added 17 points. Giddey, who was loudly booed every time he touched the ball, scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, two numbers he should understand much better than he does.
Fox’s usual 4th quarter takeover started just after halftime – he had 12 points in the first 6 minutes of the 3rd quarter, and had 30 total points by the end of the 3rd, capped off by deep pull-up three to help the Kings finish the period with a 100-92 advantage. He also tried to draw back-to-back charges against the Thunder and took the punishment for both without earning a call. His effort on defense spurred the rest of the Kings to do the same, but Sacramento started to lose their composure with 5 minutes left in the game when Fox was given a technical after what he felt was a clearly missed no-call. Fox was the emotional and physical leader of the Kings tonight, and fair calls or not, he put on an offensive display that few in the NBA can match.
Malik Monk caught fire from the moment he stepped on the floor, hitting his first 4 shots and finishing with 18 points and a team high 9 assists in the win. Keon Ellis was also fantastic off the bench, and scored a career high 17 points to go with 6 rebounds while shooting 5 of 7 from three. Mike Brown gave him extended run and tinkered with the lineups to give Keon minutes alongside Fox and Monk deep into the 4th quarter. He also had some strong moments while guarding Shai, while also getting too handsy on some others. It was a statement game for the two-way player, who has clearly earned a real spot in this rotation.
The Kings continue this 6-game homestand on Saturday when they match up against the Utah Jazz.
Which team got the benefit of the refs’ whistles tonight?
And another poorly officiated game. When is the NBA going do something about it? The officials just make bad call after bad call with no accountability. No shame.
I’m glad Lightning (in the form of De’Aaron Fox muffled the Thunder
Hopefully Fox’s shoulder is okay. I suppose it doesn’t look like it was serious since he kept playing. And man, love what I saw from Ellis. Hoping he continues to grow from here on out.
Kinda crazy that we’re now 2-0 against the 2nd seeded Thunder, and they actually got more days of rest than we did.
The Kings have no excuses to not win the next two home games of this homestand. The Jazz only have 2 road wins right now, and, well, the Wizards have 3 wins total. Get those wins and then prepare for the next three which will be much tougher. With the standings in the West so bunched up, you gotta get the wins against teams you’re supposed to beat and don’t let things slip up.
About Keon: I had thought that, before this game, he looked confident on defense but not sure he should shoot. It was as if he wasn’t sure he belonged—offensively. But commenters here have said that he has been very strong offensively in Stockton (I haven’t seen the games). I imagine coaches and teammates have been encouraging him. Now he has proved to himself and others that he belongs.
One commenter here has consistently disparaged Keon as a G-Leaguer—as if players do not develop.
Yeah, that guy has been particularly quiet lately.
I said last season that Keon looked to me like a guy who would be an NBA player soon, and he is on his way. He shoots well, and he defends. There are no teams in the league that don’t need guys like that.
I was surprised he wasn’t asked during his post game interview about his shoulder. Didn’t look good there for a bit.
Me too, that would have been the first thing I would have asked
When Fox went to Recee immediately upon the game ending as per his usual routine, she was standing next to Vivek and Vivek asked Fox about his shoulder before he left the court; Fox seemed to indicate it was fine.
Speaking of Vivek….last night is the first time I can ever recall seeing him get up and yell at the refs. He was incredibly animated.
For all the kids that came of age in the 80s, he looks like the dumber younger brother of Yabbo from Gleaming the Cube.
When getting even means risking it all
2023 Tony Bros is out. Tyler Ford in – anti Kings
All this season I was thinking about Keegan’s next big step, but it turns out the biggest leaps have come from Monk and now Keon Ellis, both of whom had highlight-worthy blocks at the rim.
Those two blocks bookended an apparent Kings game-within-the-game competition as to who could take the most charges . . . and have them called blocking fouls.
Akis writes an article about the Kings second-quarter woes, and in the following game the Kings outscore the Thunder in the second quarter by seven.
Good things all around.
“Giddey, who was loudly booed every time he touched the ball, scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, two numbers he should understand much better than he does.”
LOL
That’s gold
Purple, but we get your point.
Almost spit my coffee on that one!!
How the Thunder can keep playing an “alleged” child molester is beyond me. Watching the game on League Pass and hearing the crowd boo Giggidy-Giggidy-Giddey every time he touched the ball, I was the proudest I’ve ever been to be a Kangz fan.
You’re not wrong, but the Kings are playing in a city and a gym made possible in large part by the efforts of Kevin Johnson. So…
The case is much more complicated than being an “alleged child molester”. Hooking up with an underaged girl that is two years younger than you, that you met in an 18 and over club, only to find out she was under age, is much different than a 40 year old pedophile seeking out young girls.
The guy was a teenager himself. Age of consent in his home state is 16 (if the acts happened there it would never have been an issue). He’s not from this country. All things to consider when adjudicating his culpability. If a 19 year old is dating a 17 year old and they are sexually active, is the 19 year old really a “child molester”?
It could be that he’s a total POS, but it could also be a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time too. I’ll reserve judgement, or at least not cast him in the same light of all child molesters until I hear more facts.
Hmmm, gather all of the facts before passing judgment…
Thank you, glad I wasn’t the only one feeling that way last night. If it comes out he is a POS then by all means let him have it from the fan base. But until all the facts come out or he’s legally found guilty/innocent, I didn’t like the preemptive boo’ing. He’s not Draymond in that regard, this could be the only bad thing he’s done. Or he could have a long list of things and this is just the beginning of it becoming public.
I’ve known people that were in similar situations with regards to age, one “legal” and the other not. Some got married, some split up. Doesn’t always mean the guy is a scumbag or something horrible is going on.
Where are you getting the information that he was 19 or she was 17 at the time? Or that they met in a club? I haven’t seen that on any news sites. As far as I can tell, you’re making up a story to legitimize his case.
I think it’s okay to be upset at someone not being careful with their cock. Regardless of intent, it’s fucked up.
Where are you getting the info that involves his cock? As far as I’ve heard it was a social media post (that has since been deleted by an anonymous source) that shows him with a girl talking to the girl’s brother. It’s now been close to a month and new further news has been released in regards to the matter. I’d wager your assumptions are just as much as anyone else’s.
FWIW, the video shows them in a club.
To be accurate, the videos/picture that started this investigation are not favorable to Giddey.
The 1st video was of them inside the club and shows her saying “I’m dating Josh, we don’t have to talk about it”, then there is a 2nd video of Giddey talking to the girls brother outside the same club where Giddey says she is “his girl” and that they are getting ready to head back to his place. Then there was the picture of the two of them, with a shirtless Giddey behind her giving a peace sign, with a caption that said “just fucked Josh Giddey”. The videos and picture have both since been taken down but can be seen at TMZ or other sites that typically provide info on shit like this.
I’m not trying to say that all of this has been 100% vetted, but the situation is far worse than the one you presented above. And for people who might not understand, even if the girl did get into an 18 and over club, that doesn’t provide any cover at all…not legally anyway.
So it looks like a 19yo Giddy dated or hooked up with a 17yo who bragged about it on social media. Legally he may be screwed. I’m just not putting him in the child molester category. These are two consenting teenagers who broke the law, only because the act occurred in one of the four states in which the age of consent is 18 and there is no close in age exemption.
If there is a more storied past to him, then let him rot. But if it’s just that as a teenager he picked a gf in the wrong state, I don’t want to throw any stones.
This isn’t a Deshaun Watson, Kobe Bryant, Ben R., Mike Tyson, Trevor Bauer, or any number of other predatory athletes that ended up in the news, situation. Not even mentioning many of the domestic abusers, including a certain Kings broadcaster.
I read somewhere that the pictures from from two years ago surfaced, which started this whole thing. He is 21 years old. I did math.
I’m just saying to wait until more is known.
To backup Rob’s use of the age of 19, it was because the incident happened in 2021, 2 years ago when Giddey was 19. The exact age of the girl at the time of the incident is still in question, but it is known that she was a minor and still in high school at the time. It happened in CA, which is why the Newport Beach PD is investigating.
The girl’s family publicly announced that they hired Gloria Allred (a high profile attorney with a history with cases like this) and the only statement she made was that she represented the family and they have no comment at this time.
My source for this info was mostly the LA Times but there is paywall.
Thank you for providing more info. I didn’t know if there were any updates.
Anyone know why this is coming out now if this situation happened two years ago and sounds like a one night stand? Honestly asking, not trying to downplay it or dismiss it at all.
https://nypost.com/2023/12/01/sports/josh-giddeys-alleged-underage-encounter-only-lasted-one-night-report/
I mean, you answered your own question with “alleged.”
Guilty until proven innocent in today’s cancel culture .
Given the fact he is still playing and getting paid, this is quite literally not true
This was a headshot.
made me LOL
I appreciate that Fox doesn’t flop or flail much but, you know, maybe he should try a little bit? The dude just gets mauled but his ref treatment is ridiculously different than what SGA (who really isn’t even that bad of a flopper) was getting tonight.
The beaming was awesome, but I walked out of the arena nearly as annoyed as I was happy tonight. If selling calls has to be part of the game, I guess so be it.
Also, not sure how much they were showing it on broadcast, but Fox clearly was experiencing substantial discomfort with his right shoulder. Hopefully just an owwie – he seems to have loose joints that get banged up easily and then heal fairly quick rather than sustain serious injury on rare occasion so I’m not too worried yet.
I really hate complaining about this stuff, but boy did it feel like the refs tried to outright steal this one. Feels all ther better to battle through it and take the game, really proud of our guys tonight.
Happy to see Ellis have a good game.
what is his contract situation exactly?
Ellis had a really good game.
Things are looking bad for Davion, it’ll be a hard road back for him after games like this
The officiating was rough in this one… It seemed like all the close calls were all going OKC’s way. At one point in the fourth quarter, the Kings were “owed” at least 3 calls by my estimation. Whether subconsciously or not, the refs made a couple home courts calls late to even things out. Problem was, both calls got overturned on video review. Does anyone feel bad for the refs?
Kayte Christensen commented after the replays that even she didn’t know what a foul was. How could those of us that didn’t get to play professional BB possibly understand?
It’s been awhile, but she did have a “Fans might not understand” moment during the broadcast.
Old habits die hard. The first step is admitting you have a problem. 🙂
I can’t recall a worse officiated game in recent memory. Even with the benefit of replay the got their shit wrong. Unless my lying eyes deceive me those guys might consider certain events a “normal tourist visit,” or something to that effect.
Kings had to simply breath on SGA as he looked to make contact more than a real shot attempt and he’d get the call while Fox would get hammered while legitimately trying to make a basket.
Once again, Keon looked every bit the backup to Fox going forward. Great game from that kid. He’s growing game by game and looks to be worthy of a full roster spot by game 50.
“Your comment makes me angry and I’m going to challenge it! Oh, shit, I was completely wrong, and it wasn’t close.”
Mike Brown, maybe
At least he admitted he had relations with a canine on this one. He should wear oven mitts during games so that he can’t spin his finger around to signal for a replay.
I’m under the opinion that a coach shouldn’t use a challenge on something meaningless, like possession in the 2nd quarter. Save those challenges for a questionable foul on a key player or something that takes or puts points on/off the board.
For example, the ideal use is a called charge call on a made shot that gets overturned to a block and 3 point opportunity. You reverse the fouls AND get points.
There were a few calls that could have used Brown’s better choice in challenges. One in particular was a block foul on Lyles that resulted in a three point play for the Cavs. Lyles was clearly outside the circle and in position. Give the foul to the Cav and take points off the board. Save your challenges for that kind of play, not not an out-of-bounds possession.
There were a minimum of three calls after the challenge that could have been reversed, assuming that the referees didn’t engage in willful blindness during the review.
The coaches should keep the challenge until they lose one on a play. Why should coaches have to waste timeouts correcting mistakes by the officials? If the goal is to get it right, then make it possible to get it right. In this day and age, refs can see slow-motion reviews from multiple angles almost immediately after a play. Long delays won’t be required most of the time, especially when it’s as obvious as those uncalled charges on Thursday.
I know it was bad and all, but if i want to hear non-stop complaints about the refs, I’d rather watch a Mavs game instead of reading TKH.
Agree, refs were not good but bitching seems overdone . Seldom are the bad calls benefiting Kings mentioned .
I get what you guys are saying – even when the refereeing is bad, it rarely impacts the outcome of the game, as it usually stinks for both teams.
However, I will state the following, and please note that this is coming from a person that (a) never complains about the officiating, (b) recognizes that the NBA game is almost impossible to officiate well, and (c) will stipulate that last night’s officiating (luckily) did not impact the final outcome of the game: That may have been the worst officiating job that I have seen in my time as a Kings fan. Game 6 in 2002 was a far more important game, but when you watch the full tape of that game the officiating is not as head scratchingly bad as what I saw last night.
On the Sabonis overturned call, he was hit on the wrist and hip checked. On the Fox call, he was bodied and pushed in the back. So in the instance of the rescinded foul on Fox by Jalen Johnson, there were two other Thunder that fouled Fox but got away clean because Johnson didn’t foul him? How is that an appropriate outcome?
And when you watch the calls that SGA got for initiating contact, while Fox got far less for receiving contact, my takeaway is that I simply do not understand what does and does not constitute a foul in the NBA anymore.
I don’t want to bury what should be the lede here: Fox has ascended to another level this year (not easy for a guy that is already all-NBA), Monk is a keeper, Keon Ellis has earned more opportunities (and what a “3rd round pick” he is becoming), and Sabonis is so under the radar good/consistent that we take him for granted. And hopefully this level of officiating is a one-off for the season. But I sure did find it taking away from the enjoyment of the game, which is something that I don’t think I have ever said before.
Fox has been getting beat up without consequences for years. I’m 100% opposed to the way refs treat stars differently, having watched Paul George this week dribbling and extending his arm to push defenders away. In what universe is that a legal basketball move?
Fox, on the other hand, is not only not getting the whistles that his contemporaries do, but seems to get less benefit of the doubt than most players. I won’t claim 100% objectivity, but I’m confident that a comprehensive look at his games would result in a huge collection of missed or wrong calls where Fox is involved.
NBA refs are routinely awful, and Adam Silver has a serious problem with it affecting the perceived integrity of the games. People make mistakes, and it’s a tough job, but there are trackable patterns present, and it doesn’t require a particularly sharp eye to see them.
If Congress wasn’t wasting so much time on inconsequential bullshit, maybe they could look into this particular inconsequential bullshit. We’d probably end up with referees and players switching salaries, and a whip being added to referee gear.
I mean, if this game were Game 6 of the WCF, the first 90 seconds alone would’ve convinced an entire generation of Kings fans it was rigged, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Every single one of those calls was beneath the dignity of a high school JV crew.
I also felt the reffing was a bit uneven, especially the charges that were called as fouls.
But the most frustrating thing about the game was the disappearance of key secondary players like Huerter and Barnes. These guys and a few others have to step up and start delivering. If they expect Fox to carry them through the season, then Fox is going to end up injured by taking one too many charges.
The Kings won. Woo hoo. The game was exciting. Woo hoo. But most of the team did not look that good.
Huerter and Barnes are too inconsistent. When they are on, they make a noticeable different. But nights like tonight and several others are becoming too commonplace this season.
I get your point, but this is a site that is open to comments of any stripe. We all suffered through the same game last night. The officiating is almost laughable when it comes to the Kings. It’s how, despite having a 3 pt shooting percentage advantage of 40% to 30% and an overall shooting percentage advantage of 49% to 43%, the Kings managed to find themselves in a struggle at the end of the game. Kudos to them for fighting through it, but for fuck’s sake, it took a Herculean effort when it should have been an easy double digit win.
It fully impacted my entire game viewing experience negatively. I usually roll my eyes at that stuff but I couldn’t manage to process what I witnessed last night. I usually like your comments, so it’s not personal when I say that you don’t get to dictate how we fan.
I’ve never left a game more upset after getting the W. Shit is just obvious and absurd. It’s like the NBA and refs are shaving points right in front of our eyes and don’t give a F-.
If you’re going to embrace gambling you better fix the fucking officiating issues. Same goes for the NFL. Otherwise, you’re product starts to look WWE out there. That can’t be good for business long term.
Wouldn’t it be great if our team got home cooking calls like SGA gets on the road.
I don’t like when Katie talks about “home court calls,” as if there was a built-in and tacitly approved of understanding that the visiting team should expect a certain level of being screwed because they slept in a hotel last night.
I don’t believe that such a thing exists, or should exist. All anyone wants is for the game to be called fairly, and I mean from an objective standpoint.
Home court calls are like Star Player calls. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. I was just making a joke about how bad the calls were last night.
What would be the incentive for the refs to favor the home team? So that they get booed slightly less?
I just don’t buy it.
There is a longstanding belief that the home crowd impacts the ref’s bias in every sport (some say the refs just want to be liked on a subconscious level, others say the refs get caught up in the energy of the moment, there is no proof other than anecdotal).
Personally, I think it also stems from local games at lower levels of play early in our lives where the refs live in the home team’s city like in youth leagues, tourneys, and local HS games.
Getting robot refs like tennis can’t happen soon enough.If they become sentient and kill us all, at least we’ll have seen a few well-called basketball games before we become extinct.
No, I don’t think it’s too high of a price to pay to get some equity in an NBA game.
But then we’ll argue about some software company tied to Venezuelan dictators that has figured out how to flip calls in favor of the L****s. By then the software will be able to generate “video” to support the altered action!
I’d like to see AI and multiple cameras in the future to take over the reffing. Just have one ref on hand to oversee and explain calls to the crowd.
Last night I posited that Monk is Manu. Tim Maxwell responded with this gem:
Manu Ginobileap.
Did you know that Manu “Malik” Ginobileap in Argentine means “King Euro-step”?
Keon looking like the real deal as a 4th guard. Fox > Huerter > Monk > Keon
ouch
4Q???? Big Beam Energy! ????????
OT: Cleveland is in a tail-spin with Garland and Mobley going down for the next month. Go get Okoro if they decide to tank the season. The Cavs did not extend this past summer, he is about to be a RFA and I doubt the Cavs are brining him back.
Uh huh
Sorry the long-ish post.
Watching a team shoot free throws each and every time down the court for what are barely even technically fouls is a horrible end-product for the NBA and they need to have discussion with the refs on how they want the game officiated (ie. how the rules should be interpreted).
Kayte mentioned it in the broadcast, the Bucks/Pacers game was horrendous, there were some moments of drama but they were all non-basketball related (Giannis and Hali getting into it, the game-ball going missing, etc), but overall it was an absolutely awful game to watch as every trip down the court ended in a Giannis trip to the FT line (32 FTA!).
There was one point in the Thunder/Kings game last night where the game was being slowed to crawl by extremely questionable touch fouls, unneccessarily long challenge reviews, and plain bad/missed calls. This is my fav team and watching NBA basketball is one of fav pastimes, but even I was thinking how boring the game had become and how bad the entertainment aspect of the product was during this stretch. IMO, poor NBA officiating can and will ruin the game for some fans if not corrected. On a nightly basis I see more un-called carries (travelling) in a single NBA game than I used to see in an entire season during the 90s so I know for a fact that the NBA has the ability to tell refs how the rules should be interpreted without actually changing any wording to the official rules themselves (as they stopped calling carrying unless it is egregious).
With all the flopping, bogus calls for “star” players, and downright poor officiating in the last few years, I am concerned that the NBA’s recent popularity boom won’t last long if fans feel like it’s not an even playing field for all 30 teams or if fans feel that they don’t know the rules of the game anymore. Maybe the NBA will leave long-time fans like me behind as they modernize the game into something I no longer recognize…I sure hope not though as our Kings are finally starting to get good.
One of the biggest issues for me this year is the complete ridiculousness surrouding what they’re calling blocks/charges vs what isn’t getting called. There’s literally no rhyme or reason to what constitutes either one this year. It’s been completely arbitrary, and when the calls have been challenged, it’s essentially a crapshoot on what the refs will say. That’s not just for us, but around the league.
You’re right about the game slowing to a crawl. When the second half started the Kings were still in Kansas City.
As far as refs go, the NBA has painted themelves into a corner to a certain degree. And by that I mean they’ve been letting certain fouls go uncalled (unless extremely egregious) for so long that I can’t see them suddenly doing a 180 and start calling these things.
Example one is the off arm push off used by guys like Klay Thompson (he’s not the only one) to clear space for themselves. That’s an obvious foul to me but it’s seldom called. The other one is the big man setting the pick at the top for the guard. Most bigs could consistently be called for moving screens on this as most guys bump the defender with their hip or rear end as the defender tries to go around the screen.
Reated to the above but not seen as much, is when the defender tries to go under the screen and the big starts his roll to rim right at that moment, basically wiping that defender out.
All fouls but almost never called and most likely never will be.
Interrupted dribble is never called and all guards do it . SGA and Fox are prime examples .
Want to get this off my chest: the calls were terrible, inconsistent and did not make sense. What is a foul anyway?
SGA is talented but he is not playing basketball, he is playing “seek a foul”. He has a good first step and he uses that to get an angle so he can either push off or throw his head back like an electrocuted lamprey. Foul! I call it a head flop. He establishes contact and then flails.
I have always liked Keon and hoped he would emerge- he seems to be doing that and a year earlier than expected. As a two way, he is restricted on games, and I think playoffs. To convert him to big roster, someone has to go. There is no demotion to 2 ways. Colby can be sent to G league for experience, but he is signed with the Kings. JTA took the last opening. There may be a trade in the works where the King send up with an open spot on the roster. Keon seems like he can help and help in the post season. A trade or outright release would open a spot.
I doubt Monte is ready to move multiple role guys plus future assets for a starter caliber player. It seems that the offseason is more conducive for that although once the season is over you can’t trade guys who just completed their deals.
The teams that give the Kings trouble have large active centers and peripheral length. The Kings can address this by directly trying to fix those issues or becoming so efficient at what they do that it does not matter.
Every year is different. Only a few guys are performing better than last year” Fox, Monk maybe, Keegan maybe. and Keon for sure. The additions, Keon, Duarte, JaVale and Sasha have had some moments but no huge sustained impact.
all that said, how about them duds? Can’t shoot, can’t stop arguing and pointing fingers, can’t stop getting ejected and can’t stop the injuries.
They have a new theme song which replaced: “I am so Important”- it’s called Free Faling by Tom Petty.
Duarte was the one that needed to work out. His position is the one the team needed, and he looks completely lost on the court most games.
I think Davion gets packaged with another King to balance the roster a bit. They could use a bigger 2/3 (thanks duarte), or a stretch 4/5. That’ll open up a roster spot once Keon gets a standard contract.
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