The Kings were forced to leave this incredible weather we have been having in Sacramento lately and journey up north to the cold tundra that is known as Toronto. The first of a three-game road trip that, on paper, looked like a respite for a serious NBA playoff team, tonight’s matchup instead had some ominous vibes entering into it. With four of Toronto’s starters out with injuries, history has warned us that this would not work in the Kings’ favor. But to hold on to that sixth seed, the Kings need every win they can get, especially the ones they should win. Let’s see how they did:
Quick Stats
Outcome: Kings win, 123-89
Sacramento Kings: 123 pts, 51.1% fg, 29.3% 3 pt, 83.3% ft, 32 ast, 53 reb, 16 to
Toronto Raptors: 89 pts, 41.3% fg, 32.3% 3 pt, 72.2% ft, 21 ast, 31 reb, 22 to
Even with a 23-point lead at the half, Kings fans knew better than to relax. The 20-point lead against a shorthanded team has been a haunting trend for Sacramento this season, often resulting in a nail-biting ending. If I had to guess, Kings fans were able to release their first breath of relief around the middle of the third quarter when the Kings busted this game wide open with a 30-point lead. By then, Toronto looked defeated, Sacramento looked dominant, and we all got to wait for the sun to go down and for the beam to be lit.
The Good, The Better, & The Best
The Good:
- Defense: It took the Kings a minute to sharpen things up on the defensive end. Early on, the Raptors got open looks from the 3-point line, where they scored their first 9 of 11 points, and enjoyed some easy back door cuts when the Kings fell asleep off the ball. But after letting the Raptors hang around for the first quarter, the Kings locked in and mucked up the Raptors’ offense. Keon Ellis, once again, led this defensive effort, setting the tone in the starting lineup. Overall, the Kings forced the Raptors into 22 turnovers and held their leading scorer, Gary Trent Jr., to just 18 points. They turned this defense into fast paced transition offense, scoring 33 points off of turnovers.
The Better:
- Second Chance Points: On the other end of the floor, when the Kings weren’t scoring in transition, they were executing patient half court offense. There were a lot of extra passes to open shooters, allowing them to tally up 32 assists. Harrison Barnes (16 points) and De’Aaron Fox (20 points) cashed in on 3 3-pointers each. And when these shots weren’t finding the bottom of the net, you would see multiple Kings’ jerseys crashing the boards and fighting for extra possessions. Domantas Sabonis led with 6 offensive boards, and Keegan Murray earned 3 extra possessions. Many of these led to easy put backs or open 3s.
- Record Setters: De’Aaron Fox finished with 2 steals tonight, making this the 14th consecutive game with a single steal, which is the longest active streak in the league. Domantas Sabonis completed his 24th triple double by the end of the third quarter with 13 points, 17 rebounds, and 10 assists. This also tallied as his 51st straight double double, now tied for 2nd in the league with Moses Malone. The Kings’ stars were dominant tonight and earned some more accolades, as stars do.
The Best:
- Beating a Bad Team: They did it! The Sacramento Kings beat a bad team. Like, really beat them. Not only was this much needed for morale, but with a 34-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, this allowed starters to get rest in preparation for tomorrow night’s SEGABABA. The best possible outcome for the Kings tonight was to dominate a bad team and they actually did it. And man, it feels good.
The King of Kings
Keon Ellis deserves a crown and some flowers. The Kings are now 7-0 when he is in the starting lineup and it’s becoming more apparent that this isn’t a coincidence. Ellis brought the defensive intensity early and finished with 4 steals and 1 block. It has been such a joy to watch him earn and rise to this moment, especially when it’s benefitting the Kings on the defensive end.
Up Next
Thursday, March 21st @ Washington Wizards – 4:00 P.M. (PT)
The Kings have a glue guy.
Keon Ellis!
Mike, please, for the love of God, don’t start Huerter in the playoffs for the sake of “continuity”
Unfortunately it is too late to trade him and a few others for a player that will help take this team to the next level.
Heurter’s an expensive bench piece but he should also be an effective one. I’m fine with it for now
Unless he can shoot consistently, he belongs on the bench. Maybe he’ll improve playing against second stringers. I still have hope for him that he can recoup his value for a trade this offseason.
Huerter’s contact is not expensive. $16.8M next season and $17.9M after that. He’s around 100th in salary in the league, right around Rui Hachimura and Caris LeVert. The cap will be at $141M next season making his contract about 12% of the cap, and even less to the total roster. He’s right at role player salary levels with a very favorable deal.
Not an Ellis fan boy.
Too late to trade Ellis. Get something for nothing in terms of contracts and experience.
Huerter is a good player on a good contract. Let the man shoot his way back after the injury.
Ellis is taking us to the Finals… His trajectory has been well documented.
You just proved you cannot read.
Funny what a team can do when they play up to their abilities. Good win.
Kings drove the Dinos to extinction!
Did the Grizzlies just take out another NBA player tonight on the Warriors?
Did they?
50/50
Yes or no?
Yes… The Grizz have “issues”
So boring. I miss the cardiac Kings.
Keon Ellis rules. That is all.
Kings win! Dance!
&ct=g
Get high on Ellis D!
“”Ellis Weed?”
Keon is a key on defense.
Hard to believe (?) that no coach in Sacramento history not named Brown or Adelman has ever gotten the team to 40 or more wins in a season.
Joerger nearly got it with 39 wins in 2019.
I remember he pissed away a chance to get 40 against Portland.
DrayMoron getting into beef yet again. Seems like he enjoys targeting foreign born players. Silver needs to grow a pair and just ban this punk from the NBA.
Over the last ten games, the Kings team defensive rating is fourth in the league.
Nice. Where do you find stats like that?
Teams Defense | Stats | NBA.com
On the top right, you can choose the last X number of games with the “Season Segment” tab.
Then to sort for Defensive Efficiency, go to the actual table and click on the “Def Rtg” header.
They’re also 3rd in net rating. So good stuff!
By my quick math, Ellis is averaging 2 steals + 1 block in the last 8 games. Definitely elite territory.
On the one hand, it’s a tiny sample. On the other hand he averaged only about 24 minutes per game during that time.
Blowout win on the road against a bad, depleted team. As it should be. It is possible.
Keon was feisty again. It seems that Duarte is a good fit with him in the lineup, no?
Early in the season, I would expect every Keegan 3 to go in. Now, I expect every Keegan 3 to miss. It is sad really. His body language after he missed one at the end of Q1 was telling.
Agreed. I feel the same about Keegan’s shooting. My guess is early in the season he was missing more because he was putting so much energy into trying to improve his defense. That is a factor for shooting. Now I think he is thinking about it too much and not just going through the mechanics smoothly.
He could also just be tired or has a nagging injury. He reminds me a bit of how Fox was looking before the All-Star break.
Of course the Kings don’t get any respect in the national media, but I’ve seen a lot of outlets suggesting that we are the target for other teams going into the playoffs. But based on the last five games, I wouldn’t want anything to do with this team in the postseason.
I’ve seen multiple articles about why teams should “fear” facing the L****s and Warriors!
Greg mentioned yesterday on the tweet spaces that the media would likely be doing backflips if AD had the double-double streak that Sabonis has. I’d wager if AD had that streak along with the triple-doubles, the talking heads of NBA media would already anoint him MVP.
For sure. Seems like almost any other player on any other team would be getting more press if they were doing what Sabonis is doing. Maybe that fuels him?
We are witnessing a changing of the guard in the NBA. LeBron, Steph, Durant, etc. are the legends of the past. This has made the difference between who is playing the best basketball and who the media obsesses over quite acute.
We always knew that talking heads never actually watched the players they were talking about. But watching them fawn over teams that will not make the playoffs just because they have Bron and Steph makes it embarrassingly obvious.
Yup, it’s never been more apparent when a OKC team leading the West gets little to no coverage. Casual NBA fans can’t even name 3 players on that team but they sure as fuck hear Austin Reeves name everyday.
Seriously and SGA is insane this season.
nasty dunk by Slawson
Kayte gave it a 7. I gave it a 10.
so….8.5?
If not for Monk’s dunks, it would’ve been the best dunk of the game.
haha, he really throws ’em down. got me to watch some Aaron Gordon footage and wonder if he can incorporate some parts of his game over the offseason.
that would be nice!
Message received from the players…Ellis should be the starter going forward not Huerter.
Not only does Ellis play great defense consistently but he sets the tone and has the rest of team focusing on defense more and playing more physical. Great to see and exactly what this team needs.
QUESTIONS: If I (and many fans on here) could see this and have been saying this for quite a while, why couldn’t Brown? And is the refusal to make a change just about hurt feelings?
This never made sense to me especially when Brown has been saying for a long time the defense needs to be better.
yes……..Ellis forced some turnover…and resulted that we can get some easy basket…It’s pretty rare that we can score with ease.
IMO if Keon can finish the rest of the games and hopefully get in the play offs he would surely gain valuable experience plus over the summer work on some offense (he already shoots good 3’s) rhen IMO will be just as good at 24 than either Matisse Thybulle or Alex Caruso. Solve one problem for Monty.
PS. For 5 starters he would be number 5. Doesn’t have to score 20 maybe in the range of 8 to 10. The other aspect is if we would say draft another SG like a Dejounte Murray I don’t know if that would fit well along side Fox. IMO Keon won’t compete with Fox but play defense and facilitate as he does now. Then we go out and get a 3 and D to go along side Keegan.
IMO any points Keon scores are gravy. I’ve said it here before the starting unit does not need scoring from him. What he provides is more valuable than the 10-12 ppg Huerter was scoring. I am more than happy giving Keegan and Barnes the shots Huerter was taking.
“QUESTION: If I (and many fan on here) could see this and have been saying this for quite a while, why couldn’t Brown?”
ANSWER: MB been listening to ABB.
That’s unfair. No one listens to ABB.
This felt so good to get back from kid’s swim practice and turn on the game with 8 minutes of beautiful garbage time to watch. Loved watching the Slawson and McGee dunks. Our starters were having a blast getting some much needed rest.
First time I’ve heard flipping over a rowboat and dumping the family into the water referred to as “kid’s swim practice,” but I am a fan of clever wordplay.
7-0 with Keon starting? Did not know that. MB would probably still put KH in the starting line up if healthy. I’ll give him credit for being consistent. Nice thing about Keon is he doesn’t need to score more than 7-8 points in 30 minutes. Every steal is a potential 2-3 points the other team doesn’t get.
SMH I have never understood MB’s devotion to Huerter. Maybe he is blinded by the occasional hot shooting streaks.
Keon doesn’t need to score a point to impact the game.
What good is Huerter scoring 12 points on erratic shooting if he gives up 20? Also, there is the fact that the rest of the defense suffers trying to cover for him. The weak link has been obvious to me for a long time. Nice to see a change, finally
Badge Legend