5 Takeaways from the bench’s big night in Charlotte

It’s always encouraging when a team can still pull out a victory when their two best players struggle. De’Aaron Fox banged knees with Nick Richards nine minutes into his night and was ruled out for the game, but Sacramento’s other guards were stellar en route to a 115-108 victory in Charlotte.

Keon Ellis, Neemias Queta, and Chima Moneke did not travel with the team and stayed with Stockton. On the Hornets’ end, LaMelo Ball (ankle), Terry Rozier (ankle), and Cody Martin (quad) were unavailable on Monday night.

Here are six takeaways from Sacramento’s second victory of the season.

1. Davion Mitchell’s career-night

As mentioned, Fox left early in the game early and Davion Mitchell stepped up in a big way. His defense was tenacious and disruptive as usual, but it was his ridiculously efficient shotmaking that stole the show.

Mitchell made a career-high five triples on six total attempts on his way to a 23-point night that included an isolation step-back on Mason Plumlee to put it away. That’ll be on a highlight reel.

Davion Mitchell takes Mason Plumlee's ankles in isolation to extend the lead to five.

He's up to 23pts on 9/11 and 5/6!! pic.twitter.com/GerCFH8n0J

— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) November 1, 2022

“I thought Davion was huge, on both sides of the ball,” Coach Brown said postgame. “We needed that.” Mitchell shot 31.6 percent on 4.3 three-point attempts per game last season but if that rate can substantially improve this season he could find himself on the floor more often.

Great effort from Davion Mitchell containing Gordon Hayward and then securing the loose ball. Dawg pic.twitter.com/Y56FmAHZBG

— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) November 1, 2022

2. Kevin Huerter remains red hot

After dropping 27 points on 7/8 from three against the Heat, Huerter knocked down 5/10 triples in Charlotte and contributed a team-high 26 points.

Huerter only scored 23 or more points on five occasions as a member of the Hawks last season. Through six games with the Kings, he’s already hit that mark three times. Sacramento’s trade for the 24-year-old wing is paying off early.

He’s been crucial to Sacramento’s spacing and lineup versatility. Coach Brown played Huerter at the two, three, and four against Charlotte and the 6’7″ player remained effective in each spot.

Kevin Huerter is up to 26 points on 8/15 and 5/9 from three with 5 assists, two steals, and a block.

He scored 27 last game against Miami. His career-high is 29 points. 👀 pic.twitter.com/FF9d4WmuXJ

— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) November 1, 2022

Huerter’s off-ball movement, decision-making attacking closeouts, and ability to pass the ball keep the Kings’ offense flowing. On top of his 26 points he added five assists, two steals, and one block on the night.

3. Turned it around after halftime

The first half was atrocious for Sacramento. Their defense looked disinterested, lazy, and confused far too often leading to Charlotte’s 71-49 halftime lead.

Weakside rotations were often nonexistent. Turnovers led to quick and easy baskets on the other end and Mason Plumlee casually strolled into easy looks.

“The biggest thing we talked about going into halftime was the fact that we weren’t ready to play coming into the game,” Harrison Barnes said. “Just a lot of backdoors, careless turnovers. Just not having a presence defensively. So, coming into the second half we wanted to try to fix that.”

They definitely fixed it. The Hornets were held to 18 points in the third quarter while Sacramento’s managed 37 of their own to take back control of the game

“When you go on the road, a lot of times, to get a win it’s just about a mental toughness,” Coach Brown said. “Things aren’t always gonna go your way, and they didn’t for us at the beginning of the game, but we stayed with it.”

17-0 runs are a rare sight, but Sacramento was locked in on both ends of the floor in the third and rode that to an eventual close victory.

“They were the more aggressive team coming out in the third quarter,” Hornets’ forward PJ Washington said. “They got into us, didn’t let us get into our offense, made things tough on us, and on the opposite end we didn’t do the same thing to them. So we lost the game in the third quarter today for sure.”

4. Delly doing Delly things

With Fox sidelined, Matthew Dellavedova was called upon for eight total minutes in the second half of play. Three points, three assists, two forced illegal screen calls while fighting through picks, and a calming presence.

“Delly was phenomenal. At the end of the day, you can have all the talent in the world,” Coach Brown said. “If you’re a winner and you have mental toughness and physical toughness you can perform for anybody at any level and that’s what he brings to the table for us. He brings a leadership presence from the bench. He brings the understanding of what his role is. He embraces his role and he’s a guy that I know that anytime we call his number he’s gonna be ready to play and it showed tonight. He was huge for us.”

Enough said.

5. Domantas Sabonis fouls out, again

For the second game in a row, Domantas Sabonis was forced to exit the game after committing his sixth and final personal foul. Some of the calls have been a bit… tick-tacky, but the Lithuanian big man has got to be more cautious with the use of his hands on defense.

He was a rebounding machine in the 31 minutes he did play, pulling down 16 boards on the night including four offensive. He also had nine points, seven assists and set up his teammates with killer screens all night long.

“Domas again with seven assists but more importantly 16 boards,” Coach Brown said. “We needed that from him tonight, every single one of his boards.”

He’s been effective and efficient when he’s on the floor, but he’s been forced to watch from the bench far too often in the infancy of the 2022-23 season.

This is the third time in six games that Domantas Sabonis has fouled out of a game. He fouled out of three games through 62 games played last season. That will calm down and, hopefully, the whistle-happy referees will as well.