The dreaded five-game start from hell has officially come to an end as the Kings hosted the Miami Heat this afternoon. While Miami entered Golden 1 Center with an underwhelming start of 2-4 themselves, the Kings came into this daytime matchup still trying to figure out how to secure their first win of the season. While I’m still not ready to hit the panic button after an 0-4 start, my finger is starting to feel the early twitches of anxiety and a Kings win against the infinitely swaggy Miami Heat would certainly help to calm those nerves. Let’s see how they did:
Quick Stats
Outcome: Kings win, 119-113
Sacramento Kings: 119 pts, 55.3% fg, 45.2% 3pt, 72.4% ft, 26 ast, 43 reb, 21 to
Miami Heat: 113 pts, 42.7% fg, 39.3% 3 pt, 83.9% ft, 18 ast, 34 reb, 9 to
My. Freakin. Chest. The Kings secured their first win of the season in the only way they know how – in the most dramatic way possible. After executing a nearly perfect first half, the Kings were haunted once again by the rude existence of the 3rd quarter. Miami turned the intensity up on both ends of the floor, led by Tyler Herro’s 34 points, but the Kings were able to survive the heatwave and end the night with their first W.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The good
- Beautiful Basketball: The first half was so fun. The game started out fast-paced, with the Kings taking advantage of their quickness in transition and also forcing Miami into tough shots on the defensive end. Even as the refs made their abhorrent entrance and slowed the game down with their whistles, the Kings still managed to dominate on offense in the half court. Their quick ball movement got their leading scorer, Kevin Heurter (27 points), going early, as he made five of his seven total 3-pointers in the first half. The Kings outscored Miami 52-46 in the paint, with most of this production coming from the beautiful ball movement and play action in the first half. Sacramento found the most success when they worked to get switches for Domantas Sabonis, where he would then dive for post position, thus forcing the Heat defense to shade over on the weak side. A simple skip pass to the opposite wing allowed for the Kings to quickly attack as the Heat tried to recover from their shading. This aggressive attack pulled the rim protection away from the basket and often left Sabonis floating in the paint for an easy dump off basket. It was beautiful basketball, the way the game is intended to be played, and rewarded the Kings with a 22-point lead headed into halftime.
- Staggering Rotations: Coach Mike Brown is still fine-tuning his team’s rotations as we saw him play 11 total Kings today. The most notable, and successful, part of his experiment we got to see in the first half was his use of staggering De’Aaron Fox with Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray. In the past, we have seen moments where both Fox and Sabonis are off the floor and the second unit struggles to ignite any offensive movement. Having either Fox, or Sabonis and Murray together, on the floor at any given time ensured that the Kings always had an offensive catalyst on the floor. This also allowed Murray to get more offensive touches in the first half so he could establish a rhythm. Sabonis and Murray combined for 30 points on 13-17 from the field by the end of the first half.
- Weathering & Finishing: Despite letting go of a 22-point lead, that was at one point dwindled down to a 4-point lead, the Kings weathered the heatwave and finished Miami off. The Kings executed important defensive stops and composed offense in crunch time, something we aren’t used to seeing. So often we have seen the usual 3rd quarter meltdown that brings the Kings down to final possessions where they ultimately fail to finish. But today the Kings managed to take every hit in the mouth, get back up, and figure out how to win a basketball game. And for that, I am so grateful.
The Bad
- Turnovers: During the meltdown, the Kings committed some very careless and frustrating turnovers. In total, they had 21 turnovers, with nine coming in the 3rd quarter, and 14 overall in the second half. We saw some unusual rookie mistakes from Keegan Murray, as he contributed five of those, and some other very sloppy passes from Davion Mitchell and Harrison Barnes. With a 22-point lead, the last thing the Kings wanted to do was give possessions away to the Heat, and those mistakes were a big reason why the game came down to the wire.
The Ugly
- 3rd Quarter Nightmare: Given that we are days away from Halloween, it was very on brand for the Kings to bring back the usual spook of the reoccurring nightmare we all dread known as the 3rd quarter. After such a feel-good first half, we were all brought back down to the depths of basketball hell as Miami turned the heat up and the Kings began to melt. Miami came out with a full court defense that fell back into a high half court zone. The Kings took about five minutes to finally adjust to it but only after allowing the Heat to go on a 8-0 run. An early foul call on Domantas Sabonis gave him his fifth foul of the night and put him on the bench for the remainder of the quarter. Without Sabonis’ facilitation on offense, the Kings struggled in the half court set against Miami’s high pressured zone. Due to poor execution, lack of adjustments, and more awful officiating, the Kings ultimately gave their big lead away and finished the quarter scoring only 19 points to Miami’s 33, cutting their lead to just eight points.
The King of Kings
This was an easy one. De’Aaron Fox was EVERYWHERE today. Although his point total was lower than usual, finishing at 17 points, his contribution and value to this team’s win was unmatched. On both sides of the ball, Fox was a star. This shows up in his career-high of 13 rebounds, demonstrating the effort he exerted in doing all the little things. He had two blocks tonight, one of which came late in the 4th quarter and was a huge swing play for the Kings. Fox put the clamps on Tyler Herro, blocked his shot from behind, recovered his position, and drew the offensive foul as Herro pushed off in frustration. Seeing Fox contribute just as equally on defense as he did on offense was wonderful and what ultimately got this team over the hump for their first win.
Honorable mention goes to Kevin Huerter, who finished with a team-high 27 points, 7 assists, and 3 rebounds. He went 7-8(!) from 3 and was a huge part of this win.
Up Next
Monday, October 31st @ Charlotte Hornets – 4:00 P.M. (PT)
Well, there goes Wembanyama …
/sad face
Well, in the fan predictions, I picked the Kings to lose. So if I keep predicting Kings losses, we should finish 78-4!
https://twitter.com/statmuse/status/1586519009830502400?s=20&t=BAy-fcRD0OUkX4lLmdURQQ
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.And they can’t get Wembanyama
Cannot believe that both the L@k&r$ and Lebron are in winless. Too much good in that situation.
And of course Lebron is whining about it. He caused the roster mess they’re in imo and now whines about it which he seems to do at every stop.
To think if they had gone through with the Buddy trade instead of Russ, they’d be in a better situation but would probably still suck, just not as bad
Imagine if they had just kept Kuzma, Harrell, Pope and their 2021 pick. Two of those guys are still starters in the league and the other is a quality bench contributor.
I don’t care enough about the Lakers to imagine what-if scenarios that make them better, sorry. But, yanno, not sorry.
And Caruso!
LA people making fun of the “WE GETTING 40 WINS!” Kings fans video.
L*kers ain’t getting 40 wins!
If there were ever a color beyond purple, this post deserves it.
We are undefeated when Napoleon shows up at G1C and you vote for Pedro
Oops! Meant to post this one
Is there an echo in here?
More like a mirror image
I like today’s Fox
For once the Kings managed to hold on down the stretch!
I’m happy the Kings got the win, but dang it, I missed out on predictions again because I was out most of today and forgot!! 🙁
Never apologize for actually having a life.
WE ARE ONLY 3.5 GAMES OUT OF FIRST PLACE
And the L*kers are still winless!
“3.5 games out of first place this deep into the season you say..hmm, MM make an all in trade!”
Bringing back Bagley the rim runner……
The Kings managed to wake up just in time to dance!
We’ve avoided the Halloween scare! Small head start!
&ct=g
Let’s Dance
(despite the worsened Lottery odds – They Kings can go 78-4 the rest of the way!)
And how about that rookie!
Praise the Lord! Our long national nightmare is over.
The family surprised me today with tickets for my birthday. I hadn’t been to a game in over 4 years after being a season ticket owner for a number of years. I gotta say, it was good to catch a game live again. The crowd makes it well worth the experience. The crowd was pissed with some of those foul calls on Sabonis. With limited ability to review the plays, it sure seemed like there were some blown calls on him.
All that being said, with a Kings win, I’m either gonna have to have more birthdays or attend more games.
Well, you’re in no worse position than say, the referees
If you’re the lucky charm, we need to start a GoFundAdam to send him to every home and road game for the rest of the season and the playoffs.
Happy birthday Adam! Glad you were able to see the win!
Happy birthday………….
Good to know you being one of the crowd and helped the team get a WIN
Kings are undefeated in games that Adam attends… hmmm ????
Adam wins! Kings win!
Coincidence? I think not!
Best wishes and have many more birthdays ????
D’oh!
…Happy birthday, Adam!
Congrats Adam!
If we don’t get Wemby, I’m blaming Adam!
Happy birthday, Adam!!!
Between you attending games and me predicting Kings losses, the Kings should win them all for the rest of the season!
I don’t usually complain about the officiating but it was AWFUL in this game. I thought there were missed calls on both teams and I counted 3 or 4 possessions where they called the ball out of bounds the wrong way. Just a mess all the way around.
Happy Birthday Adam. Glad it went well for you.
N I C E !
Crazy stat of the night: Tyler Herro was a +11 in 35 minutes and still lost. That’s nuts.
♫ We can BEAT Herro
Just for one day ♫
This scene was exactly what came to my mind. You’re doing the Lord’s work Carl.
That 3rd Qtr really sucks……..
But Lyles huge BLOCK really stopped HEAT’s momentum……..
Also, he is hustling around, and fight for off. rebound….hitting some open 3…..
Lyles is the MVP of this game
I’m thinking Fox was the MVP of this game,
But I definitely appreciate Lyles, too.
And for you guys who think Fox can’t play defense. Yeah right!
No doubt that he can. Always doubt that he will choose to do so.
Keep watching.
Once every five years he proves you right.
Yeah Lyle deserves a mention.
Anyway, good to get the winless monkey off our back. Let’s go streaking!
Opposite end of things, Davion looks to have regressed from last year. He contributes almost nothing on offense, and made a few bad passes leading to turnovers that I haven’t seen before. Not sure he can play big minutes for a competitive team.
He also let his player drive past him more than once.
He’s been having a rough start, that’s for sure. My money is getting that he’ll get out of this funk. He was awesome all season last year. Yes he was a rookie and his stats weee free Ny always that impressive but he impacted the game every night in positive ways. Even if just for a few minute stretch he’d be a catalyst to good things on a nightly basis. I refuse to believe that 82 games of that was the outlier to these first 5.
lord knows if we had average Davion from last season this team would be significantly better.
same goes for Barnes. These two are in a funk that’s making this team go from “competitive, beating good teams” to “competitive, losing tough games to good teams”.
See my comments re: playing Lyles in the post-mortem to the Grizzlies game. Aside from missing two inconsequential free throws at the end, Lyles played great and was truly the 6th man.
1st dance!
“The Kings won! The Kings won!
I can’t believe it. My favorite basketball team finally won a game!”
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“They’re still the same stupid team, you blockhead.”
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“Shove a football up your ass, Lucy. And THEN I’ll kick it. The Kings won!”
thank you lord
The Kings fan’s dilemma – happy for the win, sad that it hurts our lottery odds.
Too soon
It feels like a kick in the ping pong balls
These, Old Man Time/ LeBron commercials are really on point. Money and then M<oney and such and then some money
You’ll never look at the stat line and know that Fox was the man. But this was a great moment for him to see how great he can be when not scoring.
Props to Murray and Huerter, but this was a great night for Fox.
Yeah, he was impressive. Doing things that don’t all turn up on the stats sheet.
I’d much rather he has such games with 16/17 points and wills the team to a win than score 32 in a loss.
Totally! The team is better for it when Fox plays like he did last night.
I’ve been really impressed with the defense of Fox and Sabonis, as well as Keegan.
I feel like these are the Kings I expected to see this season, and it’s about damn time
in late 4th, Keegan was on Lowry.
Oh you’re right! Lowry is a bit of an exception among PG’s as he’s not particularly quick anymore, and he was relatively ineffective last night on offense. But yeah Keegan can at the very worst handle switches onto a lot of PG’s, which is a huge plus
I like Mike Brown is pairing Fox and Monk together on the court for some minutes…
And Monk played well for consecutive game with Sabonis……..
I like today’s minutes distribution………
– Just no more Metu and more Lyles
-If Mitchell still sucks…need to play Delly
I think Davion’s play will come around, including his offense. Brown has to play him for him to work through it. He’s too good not to work his way out of this little funk.
The Kings just need to figure out a solution for how the non Fox/Sabonis minutes operate on offense, period. Something isn’t clicking, and it’s not just Mitchell who’s affected
Or trade him. I’d love to see Jalen Suggs run that second unit.
Jack you maybe right but Suggs was injured so much of his first season and is injured again. I have learned so much stuff from the old coach but with respect I find your trade proposals kinda wack. I has been a pleasure to see you grow in respect in this particular community and I look forward to what you’ll post in the future.
On the other hand I don’t know if you had the sarchasm font on or not.
I had doubts about Suggs when he was in college, and nothing about his pro career has moved me off of them. I kept being told he had that “it” factor, and all I saw was a pretty good guard that plays on a team in a conference full of cupcakes.
They’re different players, but why would you give up Mitchell for Suggs?
I am trying to be realistic. Suggs is 6′ 5″ and plays defense as well as Mitchell as shown on tapes. He runs transition much better as Mitchell usually just brings the ball up the floor where Suggs is always pushing the ball up court. When it comes to shooting the 3 ball at this time there is no comparison. Mitchell does like to drive to the basket but so does Suggs.
Better ball movement, better rotations by Brown, and Sabonis was quicker to move the ball before the double team came.
All of that, plus a very lackluster game from Butler (forgot he was on the court most of the night) and finally a win.
A few thoughts.
Outside of missing a few shots in the lane he normally makes, I thought De’Aaron had a fabulous game. Took Herro out of it after he had been hittimh pretty much all game. De’Aaron was the best player on the floor yesterday. Just checked season percentages, but Swipa is currently at 39 3pt% and 80 FT%. Hopefully it stays that way all season.
Harrison Barnes had a 107.6 ORtg and a 119.4 DRtg on the season coming into the matchup with the South Beach’ers. After the game, those numbers were 110.6 ORtg and 115.2 DRtg. While obviously sample size is a big part of such a dramatic swing, it also illustrates Harrison can still have an impact on the game. Hopefully this is part of an upward trend for him.
Kevin Huerter has had a great start to the season. I hope we get this K’Von all season.
I thought Domantas Sabonis handled his foul trouble well in the 1st half, and handled it badly when he picked up his 4th and 5th fouls in the 3rd qtr. The 6th foul wasn’t, and, I think helped the Kings ultimately. That said, if Domas is on the floor in the 2nd half, the Kings blow the Heat out. They had no answers for him in the 1st half.
Keegan Murray is so good I can see why you might complain about the 5 TOVs or 1 total rebound. It’s certainly not possible Murray is all of 22 years of age or have 4 regular season games to his credit.
Nice to see Richaun Holmes be productive. It wasn’t always pretty, but Richaun was a reason, especially defensively, the Kings pulled out the W. There are still issues to be worked out, but if Mike Brown can figure out a way to use Holmes as the 3rd big, I think the Kings will be better off for it.
Trey Lyles was very effective and the only other player off the bench besides Holmes to make much of an impact. It was great to see Lyles driving on the floor to secure possession with like 5 secs to go. Not enough Kings players do that.
I liked Mike Brown’s rotations yesterday. By no means perfect, but that’s mainly due to the performances of the bench unit. Sure, you would have loved a blowout, but this team had to figure out a way to win. Brown pushed a number of buttons and correctly. We’ve all seen this team crumble under similar circumstances in recent seasons.
Overall, a needed win obviously. Sac is currently 16th in ORtg (112.4) and 24th in DRtg (116). They are 2nd in offensive eFG% which is a positive trend. They are also 27th in offensive TOV%…. which isn’t a positive trend. I’d like the Kings more if they were 2-3 or better 3-2 but 1-4 isn’t awful under the circumstances. I’m quite interested to see how the next 5 games go for Sac as I believe they could go 4-1.
Solid takes, all around. One thing I’d add, is Mitchell needs to step up. He at least needs to be the Mitchell of last year if the Kings want to continue a positive trend and turn this ship in the right direction. He is close to unplayable right now, which is something that I did not at all expect.
TBH, I chose not to focus on the negatives including Davion. There’s enough of that around here as is.
Having said that, Lyles block after that 2nd horrific Davion TOV under the hoop was one of the big turning points of the game. But Davion was pretty bad, and the Kings absolutely need him to be really good. Davion is avg’g 4.4 PPG, atm, which is way too low. I have a feeling Brown can get him sorted out and on his way.
I think at this point, I want to see a bench unit of Mitchell, Monk, Davis and/or Moneke, Lyles and/or Moneke and Holmes.
Play Len when necessary, Okpala if you need minutes to be soaked up or an offensive player you’re trying to cool down, and what not, Metu if need be, and I’m not sure what minutes I want Delly playing that isn’t garbage time.
Now that the Kings more or less have a starting lineup, and maybe even a method for minutes, I think establishing a rotation and bench will be easier.
Good takes Guru
I don’t have much to add, great takes all around, but I did notice Barnes was really involved moving the ball around early in the shot clock, instead of standing in the corner.
If the Kings can keep up this type of ball movement, like they did in the first half, it should bode well moving forward.
My optimistic read on the first five is that we are seeing a team struggle to learn to play at a higher level (think the third quarter troubles dealing with the Heat’s pressure zone). However, De’Aaron seems to have truly turned a corner (warning: there will be bad games—see Jimmy Butler yesterday), But he is playing at an all-star level so far. As the Kings grow better and more resilient in response to the coaching staff, they should get better.
third quarter was bad. Some due to just plain poor play and inattention and some due to refs, some to Miami, vet team turning up the heat (pardon that pun)
GSW did the same thing against the Kings in the second half.
Different team when the spacing opens the floor for DS. Putting KM into the starting lineup helped that a lot. Barnes is improving from poor start, and this opens up the middle as well.
Good substitutions tonight. Even Len was effective (well, neutral)
This could be fool’s gold, or it could be a sign new team + new coach is jelling.
Fox’s best overall game- ever,
Buddy vs. Huerter: 3 pointers
BH- 3rd in league at 4.1/9.3 shots per game – 45%
KH 4th in league at 4/7.4 at 54%
Brown has used a lot of bench and some have just not performed. Davion can play but has not shown it so far.
D looks better but numbers do not support the visual.
You might just be comparing Heild to Huerter on offense but Huerter will run circles on every other stat. Better defender. Knows what to do with the ball. A very good passer. Much better team player. Enough.
4-1 on the road against the Heat a second time, Dubs, Charlotte(Actually better than the Kings. Just beat a full strength Dubs team last night) Nets are a mess(But they still have Durant and Kyrie) Magic is the only gimme.
I don’t know what you’re seeing. If they win 3 it will be a miracle. I am thinking they will only win 2.
Highly doubtful the Kings beat Heat a second time. Spoles is far superior to Brown in the coaching category. He will make adjustments and have the Heat ready.
Charlotte can score with any team. Nets are getting players back and bound to start winning.
Dubs at their house. Hmmm. I think Kerr has seen enough from last time. With that horrid defensive performance from both teams. But, you don’t win a shootout with the
Dubs.
Kings defense tells me they won’t go 4-1. They can’t stop anyone. Still ranked 26th.
it took a Fox Herculean effort in stopping Herro last night. If Butler decided to show up, It might have been a different story.
Lastly, they’re on the road. They haven’t proven they win at home consistently, let alone the road.
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Good to look at reality. Thanks.
We’ll find out tonight about Charlotte. But I believe the Kings can go in there and get a solid win. Miami is on a b2b at home after playing the Dubs tomorrow. Maybe they’ll have it, maybe not. But the Kings have an opportunity to beat them. And it’s not a bad matchup.
The Kings don’t play the Nets until Nov 15th. But you must have meant Cleveland, who is playing very well. But the game is at home and that is something you have to consider.
Of course you don’t. Why would you?
Again with the Nets. Do you not bother to look at the schedule before typing out this nonsense?
And, also, sky is blue, water’s wet, sun’s bright etc etc. Of course Charlotte can score points. Any insight beyond that scintillating blanket observation a 4 year old could make?
Can’t stop anyone outside of Herculean efforts, apparently. And Butler wasn’t on the court. It couldn’t be that the Kings schemed him well, or that he had an off night or anything. He just didn’t care but somehow Wednesday he’s gonna amirite or amirite?
Well other than it being a b2b for the Heat and all. It’s gonna be a tough game, no doubt. NBA games usually are. But Sacramento has a great opportunity to win that they don’t normally get against the Heat. I don’t argue Spoelstra is a better coach than Brown, but I don’t think he’ll be the difference between winning and losing. Players decide games.
They’re 1-4 and lost 3 games at home. The Kings haven’t won 20 games on the road since Rick Adelman was the head coach and that was on 2004-05.
So what you don’t believe? And? What rebuttal did you offer? NONE. ZIP. ZILCHO. I don’t expect any different from you, but at least say something new or creative for a change.
More logical rebuttal…..less garbage…..and PLEASE NO MORE COPYPASTE.
Excellent points all around.
Fox played his heart out. It was great to see.
I think Fox was the first sub out for Mitchell. In previous games, Fox usually played close to the end of the first quarter but this game he was subbed out at the 6:00 minute mark. I think this is an effort to acclimate Mitchell with Sabonis’s high post offense. I like the rotation in the first half.
Brown should play Moneke instead of Davis. Davis is too inconsistent.
I would really like to trade Mitchell, Davis and Metu to the Magic for Jalen Suggs and Chuma Okeke if possibe.
Why does any team want Metu?
There is other salary filler that might play as well.
What would that salary filler be?
The rest of the players that are not contributing but have the possibility of contributing.
Ellis being one.
Nice game but def just ignore Haliburton having the 11th best PER in the league right now. Dude looking like a star, better than Sabonis or Fox. I’d rather be tanking with him and Murray, hope these wins amount to something, we’ll see. I’ll be happy if Fox keeps playing hard and good defense.
Didn’t Jerry Reynolds say something about even terrible teams having leading scorers?
Or was that only for our Mr. Fox?
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