The Sacramento Kings were up 130-120 with 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter Wednesday night. From that point, the Detroit Pistons, on the backs of Kelly Olynyk, Saddiq Bey and Cory Joseph, took over the game. The Kings offered little to no defense and only scored 1 more point, while the Pistons scored 13.
Following the 133-131 loss that showed us a new way to lose, Alvin Gentry also struggled to comprehend how his players managed to pull off the loss.
“It’s almost impossible to lose a game in the NBA where you shoot 53%, 44% from three, and have 7 turnovers for 9 points and still find a way to lose the game,” Gentry said. “The only negative was the free throw shooting. I think it’s very difficult to walk to the line and miss 13 free throws.”
The Kings gave up 133 points to a team that is 28th in the league at scoring at 101 points per game. Cade Cunningham was in foul trouble all game and ended up fouling out. And so goes the Kings season.
Terence Davis scored a career-high 35 points, but said “it means nothing without a win.”
Gentry, Davis and De’Aaron Fox, who had 27 points and 8 assists, spoke after the loss. Here is what they had to say. The trade rumors swirling yesterday was a topic of discussion.
Defense
Alvin Gentry: “They had 33 the first quarter, and we talked about that during the first quarter timeout that this team struggles to score, and their best player is in foul trouble, we have to find a way to slow them down. And obviously we didn’t do that, they ended up with 133 points or whatever it was. And so, when you are giving 133 points to a team that is struggling to score then your defense is not where it should be.”
De’Aaron Fox: “We didn’t get any stops. I think they scored like 11 straight, but with the jump ball we had a chance to tie it up and we didn’t.” … “When you’re up 10, 11 it’s not about what you are doing on the offensive end, it’s about just being able to finish a game with defense.”
“Coming out in the third quarter it was either a foul or they scored for probably like the first four or five minutes of the quarter. So, we just have to be better at that. Sometimes we had them in a bad way and then we foul, just cutting out things like that.”
Terence Davis: “Down the stretch we didn’t do the small things. They got a couple of offensive rebounds and we just didn’t execute defensively, offensively we didn’t down the stretch when we needed it most.”
On The Trade Rumors
De’Aaron Fox: “When you’re on the court, you think about a lot of stuff going on during the game so nah, not really, I’m not thinking about that.”
“When I’m at home I’m chilling with my family. Things are part of the business. Am I worried about anything? No. Do I know stuff can happen? Yeah. But I’m not worried at all.”
Alvin Gentry: “That will be something that management will decide. Everything and all my energy is on coaching the team and then whatever happens, happens. But I pour all of my energy into trying to get this team to play better and finish games like tonight.”
A Few Takeaways
- No surprise Fox or Gentry really didn’t address the trade rumors.
- No surprise the defense collapsed.
- No surprise the Kings knew the Pistons struggle to score on the season, but did nothing to capitalize on that. The 133 points is a season high for the Pistons. Detroit has failed to hit 100 points in 19 games this season, and in 8 of those games they didn’t even score 90 points.
- No surprise the Kings are 18-29.
- No surprise Cory Joseph dropped 19 and 9 on his old team. Shout out to Cory Jo.
Back at it Saturday in Milwaukee. What could go wrong?
Thanks coach
Would be so cool for Gentry to simply walk up to the podium, vomit violently, then say “thank you” and walk away.
Given the upcoming schedule… will we get 10 game losing streak?
Luke will say “Thanks Alvin.”
Oh, you’re the person who cares what Luke Walton does.
I am kind… sorry you are not.
My bad. I forgot that your comments are always gilded with kindness.
Not the one up top, but, the rest of the time, apparently.
And apparently the coaching staff isn’t working either.
They’re at home drinking and waiting for people to call and give them a clue. Gentry said so.
What I saw, or thought I saw toward the end of the game, was Holmes refusing to go out to the arc to defend Olynik, who took open shot after open shot. I kept waiting for Gentry to bring someone in who would at least run at Olynyk, but it didn’t happen.
Watching that guy throwing dagger after dagger at you, with no apparent effort to defend, was brutal.
But Holmes was a “steal”.
And he may very well be, but his mind was on something else on the defensive end last night.
He was. We’re just still in our usual “expecting players to be something they aren’t” place. Holmes is a very good rotation/fringe starter Big. $10MM is a perfectly reasonable, even good, price to pay for that.
All I expected was for Holmes to try to stay within ten feet of Olynyk. I don’t see that as expecting something out of line with his skill set, or anyone else’s.
Losing because we needed more Bagley is certainly a new way to lose: 2 times Bagley was subbed out with a 10+ pt lead in the second half. The team promptly squandered the lead both times.
With the Kings defense being so terrible, why on earth are the Kings looking to trade for Jerami Grant, a power forward who averages 4.8 rebounds. It makes no sense. Another example of why the Kings will always remain in the cellar….
I’m not sure that you can use a thing that hasn’t actually happened as an example,
You’re no fun……
That, sir, is a well-established fact.
It’s the ultimate small sample size for sure.
Breaking: The Kings suck. The sky is blue. If you keep putting your hand on a hot stove it will burn you.
Yada Yada Yada
So, when Luke was fired it was stated that its basically the same plays under Gentry that it was under Walton. To expect different results running the same exact stuff is really confusing? But that’s the Kings.
Sounds like the Coach has mastered the gift of understatement.
To be honest though, coach, you’re not where you should be, either, which is somewhere NOT head-coaching an NBA team. Monte’s stupidity kept us from doing a real head coach search over the summer, and he had to plug you in after he fired his anointed “coach who will lead us to the playoffs”. Your occasional statements expressing confusion about why this team sucks suggest that you’re really unfit to evaluate the talent (lack thereof) on your team, and that reality has really passed you by. Good luck at whatever you do after you’re released from basketball hell.
Luke = Alvin
If we’re talking about the Kings Mr. Gentry, let me rephrase that, the defense is exactly where it should be.
Sadly, the Pistons were also chewed out for giving up 131 to the Kings of all teams.
At least Terence Davis is the talk of the NBA:
https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1484418518950891524?s=20
Now that’s hilarious.
Newsflash
Badge Legend