The Sacramento Kings were without Domantas Sabonis (injury), Zach LaVine (personal reasons) and Jake LaRavis (illness) as they took on the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the remaining Kings stepped up and played with hustle, defense, and heart, and toppled the East’s top team, winning 123-119. The game started rough, with the Cavaliers establishing an early lead and looking like they could control the whole game. Despite playing better in the second quarter, the Kings still trailed at half, 56-47. The Kings came alive in the third quarter, at one point going on a 19-2 run, but the Cavs responded with a 12-2 run of their own right after. Still, the Kings won the third quarter 43-32. That’s right, after scoring 47 in the first half, the Kings scored 43 in the third quarter alone. Cleveland showed why they have the league’s second best record, continuing to push and force the Kings to earn the win.
A very iffy foul call against Devin Carter with 2:09 remaining sent Donovan Mitchell to the line for three free throws, and Mitchell made all three to bring the Cavs within 1. A DeRozan miss led to a big Trey Lyles putback. Mitchell drove for a layup to again cut the lead to 1. It was a thrilling back and forth, with both teams trading shots. DeRozan scored on a layup, Mitchell answered with a floater, DoRozan hit a pull-up middie. Finally Mitchell missed, and the Kings secured the ball. Malik Monk drilled a huge mid-range jumper to push the Kings lead to 5 with 35 seconds left, but the Cavs still weren’t done. Coming out of a timeout Mitchell hit a 3 that took mere seconds off the clock. Malik Monk drove into the Cavs defense, created contact and drew two free throws, making them both, giving the Kings 4 point lead with just 12.1 seconds left. The Kings defense swarmed, preventing a quick or easy look but also not fouling, and Ty Jerome missed a three to end the game. It was a thrilling final few minutes, capping off a fantastic team performance by Sacramento.
A few thoughts and observations from this one:
Defense, defense, defense
The Kings played great, disruptive defense in this game. The Kings had 23 points off turnovers in this one, and it should have been 25 except Markelle Fultz missed a wide open dunk after a steal. The Kings also held the Cavs to 38.2% from beyond the arc. Most teams are happy to shoot 38% from three in any game, but when most Kings opponents seem to shoot 55% from deep, I’ll take the 38%.
Devin Carter, have yourself a game
Devin Carter was everywhere in this game, and it was easily his best game as a King. He finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and steals. A truly awesome game for the rookie, and an encouraging sign of what he could become for the Kings.
Monk and DeRozan, coming up big
The Kings needed Monk and DeRozan to have good games for Sacramento to even have a chance against the Cavs, and both players stepped up. DeRozan led the Kings with 27 points, 4 assists, 1 rebound, and 1 steal. He went 2-of-5 from deep, and was 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Monk finished with 22 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.
A win as a TEAM
This was the most the Kings have played like a cohesive team in weeks. 7 players scored in double digits. The Kings got big performances from Monk, DeRozan, Carter, Keegan Murray, Jonas Valanciunas, Keon Ellis, and Trey Lyles. It was beautiful to see the team collectively step up even when down a couple guys and play good, fun, exciting, TEAM basketball.
Quick thoughts on the Cavaliers
The Cavs were without Darius Garland, who was held out for rest as the Cavs were on the second game of a back to back. Still, the Cavs played a fantastic game, and also ended with 6 players scoring in double digits. Donovan Mitchell (26 points) and Evan Mobley (31 points) were huge in this one. This is Cleveland’s third loss in a row, but it also comes after a 16-game win streak. Cleveland is a really good team, and I really enjoy they way they play basketball. I’ll be rooting for the in the East playoffs this year. The Kings will face the Cavs again on April 6th, and it should be another tough matchup.
Up Next
No time to enjoy this Beam, the Kings are back in action tonight hosting the Chicago Bulls at 7:00 PM PT.
The Cavs seeing the beam after the game:
Can you imagine coaches looking up at the overhead screens to make a quick decision about challenging a call, and seeing just the Fantage Point view?
&ct=g
Great game to watch. I love seeing Carter, Ellis, Murray, Fultz, and LaRavia get their hands on everything.
More of those types of players, please, Vivek!
Watching Devin Carter’s Energizer bunny nergy and on the verge of out of control style is exhilarating, exhausting and terrifying all in one.
My hairline may have receded by an inch this game.
When Carter picked up Ty Jerome full court and was giving token pressure but in defensive stance, I really noticed how long Devin’s arms are, and they he pokes the ball away for his second dunk. That kid has serious wingspan.
I am excited by this kid. I hope the Kings are patient and give him some runway to develop. Derrick White, Jalen Suggs, & Ayo Donsumno, are some current comps that took a couple of seasons to find their lane.
Wonderful win but wasn’t as joyful as it deserved due to awful camera angles and non stop talking by broadcast announcers over actual action .
Fify
You need to have a lot of words in your vernacular to be a successful announcer and yet “brevity” is one neither Katy nor Kyle seem to be familiar with in any way.
That was the most fun I have had watching a game this season. A few things that stood out:
Keon, Keegan, and Devin are going to absolutely a menace defensively. They were in the Cav’s soup all night. Devin has something distinctive about him, I can’t wait to see what he does after a proper off-season/pre-season with the team.
DeMar. G-damn. That 28 footer with five minutes to go to tie it at 107. Hunting their KG-esque DPOY candidate in clutch time. He is a bad bad man.
JV, Trey, and Keegan were, in Jerry’s parlance, knocking Allen & Mobley’s dick in the dirt. Super physical play. Trey’s effort can get overlooked sometimes, but what a gamer.
I am all in on Keegan Murray’s honey badger-ness. MB talked several times about how he is a much better athlete than he has shown. Last night he was trying some chase down swats, flying in for rebounds, playing great defense, showing that shoulder bump move we have been seeing for a couple of weeks when knocked Mitchell down for the clutch push shot late in the game. I think he is the Kings most important player for the future.
Devin last night reminded me of the Keon we began to see this time last year when he got minutes due to the Huerter and Monk’s injuries. If Devin can become the next Keon that’s a major win for the Kings. Unfortunately, as the roster currently stands, Monk and LaVine still stand in their way.
Agreed on Keegan. Stands out to me how better he looks when he isn’t the only plus defender on the floor. He hasn’t become the player people wanted him to be in Year 3, but I really enjoy the player he is and hope he can continue to improve.
Something I have noticed lately as well with the addition of JV and Jake, is how great Keegan looks when there is another forward of size on the floor. JV is the first playable center other than Domas that the Kings have had during Keegan’s career, and that allows Trey to play more PF, and Keegan can take advantage of his length and rebounding ability. Likewise, having Jake being able to be a true SF provides the same type of help. The Kings lack of forwards has put a lot on Keegan’s plate, and I think he will likely flourish with a more balanced load and a Coach like DC who values how many of the little things he excels at. I get that people had higher expectations for his scoring, but he effectively guards players from Steph to Luka to Mobley, and that is a rare skill set.
Probably a lot of “drama” on the webs regarding the camera angle and seasickness, but I did get a headache right away and had to just (((((shudder)))) listen to the broadcast.
Shoot me….Their spacing is better without Sabonis.
Kayte is getting worse. I challenge all of you to go into the next broadcast with the phrase “making stuff up” as your filter, and analyze what’s actually being said about that play that happened two plays ago. She straight up makes me hate watching games. Mute doesn’t work for me, my interest leaves.
If I believed in God I would pray to her every night that this is her last year.
Don’t worry Marty, she’s going to be promoted to an assistant under Doug. This is the Kangz way.
…and if that happens the first round is on me.
I agree the main thing she fails to understand is that her job is to throw in an anecdotal story every now and then, but more than anything it should pertain to the play at hand. Too many times she’s explaining a story from one play that lasts into the following possession and feels weird when she abruptly stops the story to announce what just happened.
She does have insights that are relevant to the NBA, however she doesn’t have the “it” factor for being an announcer. Was rooting for her to improve but didn’t take that leap.
I watch the games on mute often, partly because of the announcing and partly because my girlfriend doesn’t want to watch the games each night so I have sneak and watch it while we are watching a movie/show
Overall I am a fan of hers, and I appreciate when she talks about the technical parts of the game, which she should at her age and her resume. She isn’t some 70yo franchise icon whose value is ceremonial, she is supposed to provide insight, not anecdotes. I really feel like her early development having to try and be entertaining while the Kings teams were dismal did not do her any favors. She needs to be more concise and straight forward like she was as a sideline reporter.
I will say, I feel at times the production crew does her no favors. A play will happen that warrants a replay, say a hard foul or tipped ball out of bounds, but then the production crew will cut to a replay from 4 plays ago of some highlight dunk, or will even show the wrong highlight of what the announcers are talking about. There seems to be disconnect at times.
Absolutely. That is such a weird thing to happen so often.
That’s how I feel also. Sometimes she gives insight from being in the trenches and it is informative. Just needs to be more concise.
Also, she sometimes is a bit of a homer. After Fultz blew the dunk, she covered for him.
I agree that shit happens and people make mistakes, and Fultz needs to move forward. Yet he still deserves criticism for going for a big time dunk rather than just laying it up and ensuring the two points.
On the flip side, the announcing crew is much better than some other announcers.
I did like the crew for the Bulls. When the Kings were in Chicago, I listened to them and they were familiar with some of the Kings bench players. It was impressive. They also praised good aspects of the Kings play and criticized mistakes by the Bulls players. And they were entertaining.
The Warriors announcers are the worst. I don’t just say that because I’m kind of sick of the Ws. Talk about ignoring the game play, those guys will go on and on with anecdotes about Curry and Klay (when he was there). You basically get no play-by-play when the opposing team has the ball. Instead it’s, “You know, when Stephon Curry was 10 and played Little League baseball, he once hit a homerun that was the furthest hit homerun in history.”
“You know, Klay once cooked pancakes, and he made a pancake that was mathematically a perfect circle …”
I watched the Bulls broadcast earlier this season, and twice a quarter, Stacey King yelled “Bang bang bang.” All game, “Bang bang bang!” my memory of that broadcast is basically “Bang bang bang Bang bang bang Bang bang bang Bang bang bang Bang bang bang Bang bang bang.”
It was awful. I started getting twitchy. I couldn’t even hear whatever else they were saying. When people here ENDLESSLY complain about Kayte’s talking, all I can think is Stacey King’s “BANG BANG BANG” call.
Reminds me of that insufferable White Sox announcer Hawk Harrelson who was an over-the-top homer and shouted “HE GONE!” any time a White Sox pitcher K’d a guy. When I would listen to him, I would imagine that if they were my favorite team, I would change favorite teams just to not have to hear that idiot. If I lived in Chicago, I’d become a Cubs fan even if my parents’ dying wishes were that I should be a White Sox fan for life.
At the same time, Grant Napear was about that annoying to me, too. Hearing him yell “BLOCKED BY DIVAC!” or “IF YOU DON’T LIKE THAT, YOU DON’T LIKE NBA BASKETBALL!” totally wore me down.
I always watch games late, and one of the first things I do when it is over is check the game thread, and you were cracking me up last night. I kept asking myself during the game “what is Kayte talking about??” then to see your #makingstuffup comments. Hilarious.
This last few weeks have sounded like she took a gummy a half hour before tip off. She is like my least favorite aspect of Monk’s game: when he leaves his feet THEN decides who he is going to pass it to. She starts talking before she even knows what she wants to talk about.
Yea MM it made me particularly crazy last night. Maybe I’m a hopeless optimist who thinks it will improve.
In my line of work we tell people to not “talk themselves into a corner”. Meaning, if you go on and on about something you actually know about, you’ll end up bullshitting. Even worse is when you do it about something you DON’T know about.
Those two things are what is happening. The first can easily be learned, the second is more of a personality trait that takes work.
What makes me CRAZY is she has a built-in timer right in front of her, the ball coming across mid-court. By the time the other team approaches offensive real estate, the description of the previous play should be over. Again, a BASIC skill at this level, like remembering to put your headphones on.
To go all psychological, she either really likes to hear herself talk, and/or thinks she knows so much more than everyone, that it has to come out.
How hard is it to say….
“Did you see the way Keegan crashed the boards there, what a beast he is on the glass!”
“She starts talking before she even knows what she wants to talk about.”
This. For about half the game. Every fkn game.
I feel like they’ve been getting excuse talking points that they are required to use. It’s been getting worse as the season goes on. Kyle even fed her an intro for one last night. Something about even though they had used this lineup before tell us about blah, blah, blah.
On the plus side, she’s stopped saying DeMar rarely argues with the officials.
That’s the thing that bugs me about the Kings broadcast crew (aside from Jones’s bad catch phrases). They feel compelled to play White House Press Secretary with the Kings talking points.
Just call the game as it is. There’s a difference between avoiding a topic because your bosses don’t want you addressing it and spewing BS that’s as obvious to you as it is to the rest of us.
On a side note: I love Deuce and Mo on the pre/post game stuff.
Yes.
Their post-game show/podcast on Youtube is a fun listen.
“Don’t accept in victory what you would not accept in defeat!”
I can’t stand either of them and their over dramatized inflections, rah rah-ing, and general bush league vibe. Its not better with “Ya boy, Drapes” in there, either. The whole lot of them could go back to radio or whatever obscure corners of the country the came from, I find no redeemable qualities in the entire production other than the basketball being played on the floor.
It’s the tone and inflections that she uses that really bug me. Like she is desperately trying to convey her thoughts on the game at times, and overly “stressing” her diagnosis of the game. It’s exhausting to listen to at times, so my volume is often fairly (plus the kids are sleeping when Pacific Time Zone games come on for me).
“What I’m about to say about your post is really important.”
My favorite thing is at the end of the broadcast when the Draper or Jones says to Kayte “can you give us a 10 second assessment of the game tonight?” She actually stays under the time! They need to do that throughout the game.
Great team effort, liked seeing the swarming defense and rebounding tenacity. What gets me is why this type of effort doesn’t happen every game. One thing a player really can control is their effort level. Shots might not go in, maybe there is confusion on rotations, etc., but giving it their all is definitely something they need to do each game.
Bad teams can become good teams by adding talent. Good teams can become great teams by having a level of consistency in their play. The Kings are somewhere along that spectrum. I think they have the talent. They might not have the best fitting pieces to create synergy. If they can find some consistency, then these types of games will happen more often.
Go Kings!
Keon Ellis started and they beat one of the two best teams in the league. YOU DON’T SAY. This organization’s reluctance to start Keon is by far the dumbest thing that’s happened this year, and there’s a lot to choose from. It’s why I can’t take this team seriously. HE’S SO GOOD!
Most of the impressive wins of the year; CLE last night, BOS on the road, GSW drubbing on the road, the two MIA wins, etc. all have Keon starting in common.
Yep. It shouldn’t be this hard but they make it this hard.
IMO, he is slowly turning into the next Derrick White and if the Kings don’t retain him, he’s going to make another team look very good.
I’m worried that Keon is going to get moved in the offseason for a “talent upgrade” (Paul George anyone!!!!!) and he’s going to be AWESOME for a good team.
Luckily, Ellis makes so little money that trading for any big names player would have to include other high priced contracts. I don’t know if that will happen.
Very true but at this point, someone like Lavine only has 2 years left and he’s been relatively efficient this year. I do worry that they’ll move Keon in a package for George or Durant or someone like that. At this point I just don’t know that those guys (especially George) are moving the needle all that much.
If they have Monk, Lavine, and Ellis on the roster next season, I really hope they start Keon and move Monk back to the 6th man role.
I don’t know how they can keep starting the unit they have been when everyone is healthy. It’s just so obviously the wrong decision. I don’t who to blame either because Mike Brown and Doug Christie have refused to start him.
Idk, it’s frustrating. Ellis should have been starting since game 1 this year. That was by far the easiest decision a coach could have made.
Completely agree but at this point, the fact that they STILL aren’t starting him every single game is just insane especially when you look at how they play when he does start. The numbers say the Kings are an elite team when he’s in the starting lineup and they are one of the worst team’s in the league when he doesn’t. It’s nuts.
Maybe they think Monk provides so much offensive creation that he has to be out there? But having 3 players on the court at the same time that need to be hidden defensively is not a recipe for winning basketball.
Ellis has also been showing more offensive versatility recently with a mid-range game, some floaters, and cutting to the rim. I think he can handle being a starter, with Lavine, DDR, and Sabonis handling the creation aspects of the offense.
Why not bring Lavine off the bench?
With the normal starting lineup the game would have been over after the first Q. Either DM would’ve torched Zach or Mobley would’ve torched DeMar.
Our ability to contain them (DM 4pts 2-5, EM 2pts 1-3) allowed us to still be in it, only down 7, even with our putrid early shooting(4-23, 3-12 3pt).
Exactly! Their starting lineup has been putting them in a huge hole all year long, even before the Fox trade. You can’t play from behind every night and expect to be a consistently good team. Keon starting just gives the roster so much more balance.
Are you trying to tell us that defense matters???
I chuckle because when the Kings gets a defensive stop or a steal (the crowd roars), and then shoot a 3 in transition (crowd also roars), Vivek is sitting thinking that the fans love the offensive portion of that sequence, thus fueling the Jazziness part of his ultimate plan. When in reality, I think most fans see the defensive aspect of that play and get much more excited for the steal or stop.
This is such a great point. I think we have over a decade of evidence that Vivek likes a very specific type of losing player that looks cool doing things on the basketball court. Zach Lavine certainly fits that mold and we know Vivek has wanted him for a long time.
But being able to get stops improves your offense substantially because you are routinely playing again defenses that aren’t set.
One pattern I have noticed is when DC is able to get in some practice time this team responds. They get a couple days off and even while missing key pieces they beat one of the best teams in the league.
Compared with early in the season when they would come off a few days break and get their heads kicked in.
Great point. I am excited to see what he can do with the team over the summer with what he has been able to do on the fly.
Friar!!
Damn you McGenius
Badge Legend