The Sacramento Kings hosted the Toronto Raptors Wednesday in its first preseason game. One of the biggest things to keep an eye on in this game was Sacramento’s defense – something head coach Doug Christie has been preaching since media day.
The Raptors won and put up 130 points.
The Raptors finished with 32 assists on 44 made shots. So, the Kings did not disrupt Toronto’s flow.
The largest lead for the Raptors was 25. Sacramento went long stretches without being able to stop anything.
Toronto shot 54% from three and 48% from the field. Draining 20 threes on 54% shows the Kings were lost on rotations and closeouts.
After the game, Christie was blunt about the team’s performance on that side of the ball, acknowledging the defensive breakdowns that gave the Raptors confidence. Those two connected forces (breakdowns and giving opponents confidence) in the game of basketball have been a piece of the Kings identity for years and Christie stated his goal is to stop that.
“Ever since I’ve come back here [to Sacramento] it’s kind of been the story, but we’re going to stop that story,” he said.
Christie has been harping on his guys to pick up 94 feet on defense and when asked how his team did with that, he broke it down into percentages of possessions they picked up full court.
“They were in the first half 30 percent so that’s unacceptable and we talked about it – 85 is the number. So that means out of all of the opportunities that you get, when someone turns around with the basketball, they know what you ate for breakfast,” Christie said.
The Raptors had the Kings for dinner at Golden 1 Center Wednesday night. Shout out to Zach LaVine for putting effort in on defense in the first half (he didn’t play in the second) and the third stringers (Dylan Cardwell, Maxime Raynaud, Nique Clifford, Devin Carter and Isaiah Stevens) for showing fight in the fourth quarter and making the game competitive, but it was already out of hand and as a team, the defense was already a collective failure by that point.
Christie broke it down further by saying that out of the whole game, he got the identity he wants out of the team for only a quarter and a half.
“The consistency of what we expect needs to be able to be at a higher level for a longer period of time,” Christie said.
Hey, but is still early, right? Right? The Kings will get another shot at showing signs of improvement on defense Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Defense? Are we talking about defense? Why are we talking about defense?
I hear people with the argument “It’s only one preseason game, we can’t take anything away from it. It’s still early.”
Yes, it was only one preseason game. But this is something that we all saw for years. Different players, staff, GM, etc., but the trend continues. Yesterday just confirmed that nothing has changed. I expect the team will allow opponents to shoot a high percentage of 3s most games.
Until Christie starts benching people, which I don’t see happening even if he wanted to. I’m not confident Vivek would let him.
He won’t, but he should. If they don’t like it, oh well.
Christie is a company shill. It’s how he got the job. He won’t start benching the big name guys.
When will Perry start trading players? He won’t because Vivek won’t let him.
How long until DDR and LaVine start tuning out Christie’s defense first talk and just focus on getting theirs?
I set the over/under at December 1st.
I noticed him putting in the effort on 1 play, and he was going to give up an easy shot at the rim, but Keegan helped with a block. Nothing else stood out to me. So maybe a whisper out rather than a shout out.
I think that ship has sailed. Trying to convince a couple of offensive minded 30 somethings to all of a sudden pick up 94 feet and care about defense is like asking a zebra to change its stripes. It’s just not going to happen.
I watched a total of a few minutes, on and off, of the first quarter because the broadcast was free (I won’t pay a cent to watch this garbage this season). That’s about all the Kangzketball I can tolerate for this year. I don’t plan to watch any more, preseason or otherwise. There were a lot of good vibes coming out of training camp but there was predictably no good team coming out of training camp. The on-court product is a direct reflection of the owner – ridiculous, pathetic, disgusting, etc.
And posted this in the other thread:
Not sure why Perry the platyputz thought that Schröder could suddenly become a difference-maker point guard in his 13th NBA season on his 11th different team. Would’ve been cheaper and given the team more flexibility to just have gotten Westbrook instead of Schröder.
It’s almost like it’s not a coaching problem. Kinda like it wasn’t a coaching problem under Mike Brown.
Doug’s just made the mistake of doing a lot of talking about something that isn’t going to change with this set of personnel.
And all that talking set himself up for criticism that his player’s aren’t buying in, which will ultimately reflect on him as a Coach. Set himself up for failure. That’s how the league works. The player’s won’t be blamed, the coach will.
This. I don’t see Doug remaining the coach of the Kings much past the end of next season. This season is lost before it starts, and the asset cabinet is dead empty on this team, so it’s going to be near impossible to meaningfully improve next season. They’ll never rebuild. Two “disappointing” seasons (or “predictable” if you don’t work in the Kings front office) are either going to end his tenure or put him on a nuclear hot seat.
Then the cycle continues. Doug gone, Perry hires “his coach”, team still sucks so Perry will get fired. The new GM will ultimately fire the coach so he can bring in his guy. On and on and on and on.
Except every hired coach and fired coach decision was made by Vivek . Same for GM ‘s .
Just don’t see how it’ll improve any time soon, when Perry didn’t make any real moves to get good defenders in here. Can’t have a defensive focus with a bunch of older, score first players. They’re going to have a similar outcome as when the PHX brought in Terry Porter to change the SSOL Suns into a ‘defensive team’. Hard to change the DNA of these players who are mostly late 20s – early 30s…at least most of the top 6 players are. Adding Schroder wasn’t enough, he is alright but in spite of most writers/media talking him up as some kind of stout defender, he’s only been above average on defense most of his career.
I believe it’s a Vivek culture problem. When has any GM, coach, or player done a damn thing about the piss poor defense over the last dozen years? Vivek only wants offense because it is exciting. He prioritizes outscoring the opponent rather than stopping the opponent and it oozes down through the whole franchise.
I feel Monte tried to break this spell via the draft with the likes of Davion, Keegan, Carter and even Keon, but Vivek gets what he wants, and that is scorers above all else.
Outside of Monte’s drafting has any player brought in via trade, free agency, or draft been known for their defense?
Did you forget KZ Okpala!!!!!!
The funny thing is, per my viewership, the King’s crows tends to get as excited for a great defensive play, hustle, steals, blocks, etc. as they do for a deep 3 or exciting dunk.
I really want Vivek to be gone. If I still lived in Sac, I would go down to the arena frequently with a shirt or a sign that read “Oust Vivek”, or “#Sell”. Nothing positive will happen while he is owner.
Yeah, the bust your ass on both ends of the floor type players are Always Sactown fan favorites.
See LaRavia
Then start trading people.
I attended G1C and watched the game last night.
Brandon Ingram looked very comfortable and scored when he felt like it. Keegan did his best to slow him down and his 3 blocks in the first half (4 for the game) made up for his lack of outside shooting (he scored on layups and dunks). Zach Lavine was the Kings equivalent to offset B.I. and Domas was a powerhouse inside (though had no rebounds nor assists the first half).
The Kings were slow to stop the 3 and paid the price. I believe Dinos had 20 3FG (54%) to the Kings 10 (30%). The Raptors were the more aggressive team on defense and were very handsy, the Kings bodied okay but just don’t go after the ball much.
Down by 25 in the second half, it was time to clear the benches. The young crew of the Kings outplayed their We The North counterparts. Nique seemed the leader as his teammates mostly deferred to him (not Devin Carter). He did a nice job of setting alley oops for Raynaud and Cardwell. The remaining fans were boisterous in their cheering the guys which was the best part of the evening for me. Cardwell is likable – plays hard and uses his big frame well. His hands are not great and his free throws had me recalling Chris Dudley. Nice moment when he hit the floor with Alex Sarr’s brother, Olivier and immediately asked the other big man if he was okay and tapped him on the chest. A sportsman, gentelmanly move. Nice stuff. I doubt he’ll make it out of Stockton, that said.
The starters are not much fun to talk about. For the others: Keon looked same as usual (good), Monk too (bad). Drew Eubanks first big off the bench, plays hard but he’s a 3rd stringer. Isaac Jones was there, but you had to look for him, his impact was quiet at best.
Not much beam expected when the regular season starts after looking at last night. Next.
All of this and more was pretty easy to see even with not being in the G1C.
That was a lop sided loss for sure, TO didn’t even have Barnes & Poeltl and we were at full strength.
From the article by Jason Anderson at the Sac Bee:
There is already blood in the water.
” . . . four against five . . . ”
Where have I heard that before?
Nobody has even upvoted this yet, but this made me laugh so hard
This season is going to turn ugly quick, that’s my most optimistic outlook because that’s what I want to happen. It’s scary to me when you think picking up full court is how you turn a defense around, the most simplistic of ideas. How about a defensive scheme that works Doug? Any insight on that
The first month of the season, I’d be shocked if we aren’t already 20 feet underwater in the standings, given how difficult it is.
4-16 is how I see the first 20 games going.
Good luck!
Let me be the first to welcome Doug back to the broadcast team. In 3, 2, 1…
For his sake I hope you’re right. Coaching with zero chance of success in the present or future doesn’t seem like a great gig.
I said 30 wins or less and I’ll stick to that. This organizations total inability to understand what winning basketball looks like remains incredible.
Badge Legend