So it turns out the Kings are actually pretty good when their threes start to fall down.
Sacramento made 16 of 34 three point attempts (47.1%) on Friday night en route to a 140-113 victory, their largest of the season. It was a balanced scoring effort from the Kings, with six players in double digits, led by DeMar DeRozan’s 23 points. The Spurs were without Victor Wembanyama but got 30 points from Julian Champagnie and 11 points, 13 assists and 8 rebounds from Chris Paul.
Despite the final score, the Kings actually got off to a bit of a slow start in this one, with Champagnie and Keldon Johnson raining threes early on. The Spurs actually built up a 28-16 lead with 3:29 left to go in the 1st quarter before the Kings came back and tied the game at 33 to end the period, outscoring the Spurs 17-5 in those final few minutes. Domantas Sabonis had left the game early on in the period before the Spurs made their run to deal with a chipped tooth, but came back to score 7 points in that stretch.
With the game tied at 40 with about 9 minutes left, Zach Collins got whistled for a foul on Domantas Sabonis and had some words with the officials as he left the floor with Sabonis shooting free throws, even flipping the ref off at one point. Collins was ejected, the Kings made four straight free throws and never gave up the lead from there. Without Wembanyama and now Collins, the Spurs went to Charles Bassey and sometimes Jeremy Sochan at Center instead. DeMar DeRozan also got going in that second quarter, scoring 10 of his 23 points in the period, with most of that coming at the line. By halftime, the Kings had built up a 10 point lead at 69-59.
The Spurs came out aggressively in the 3rd quarter, even cutting the lead to just 3 points early on at 77-74 on a Stephon Castle three pointer, but Sacramento responded well. Starting off with some De’Aaron Fox drives and taking advantage of San Antonio’s lack of rim protection, the Kings lived in the paint for much of the rest of the period, scoring all but five points in the paint or at the line. The Spurs on the other hand couldn’t buy a basket, shooting just 9-23 in the period, and 3-12 from three. At the end of the quarter it was 100-86 with the Kings firmly in control.
The 4th quarter is where the Kings really blew the game open, and this time it was on the back of their three point shooting. Sacramento shot 8-11 from three in the final quarter, with almost everyone getting in on the action. It was a comfortable closeout period and something we haven’t really seen from the Kings all season. By the end of the quarter, the Kings had scored 40 points, their highest total yet after scoring at least 31 in each of the prior three quarters.
Wins like this one are much needed for this franchise, but hard to enjoy too much when the Kings are still under .500. Sacramento hasn’t won back to back games since early November when they beat the Heat and Raptors. They still have a lot of work to do, but it was nice seeing them take care of business against a team that has given them some issues this year. Of course, Wembanyama wasn’t around and that was a big factor, but the Kings have a history of playing down to their opponents anyway and I’m glad they didn’t this time. I do think much of this team’s struggles this season have been because of the three point shooting, and I hope going forward we can see more of a balance on that front from the team. The Kings will have a chance to carry that momentum forward when they return home on Sunday to face the Utah Jazz.
Random Observations
- Coach Brown did a little bit more lineup tweaking tonight as he searched for the right fit. Tonight Orlando Robinson got the call early on and played 9 minutes in total, scoring 5 points to go with 4 rebounds. I do think he was a little hesitant on some of his opportunities around the basket, but overall he played alright.
- Malik seems to be fitting right in as a starter. 22 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists on the night for Malik, and 3-8 from distance as well. I think the biggest benefit of having Malik in the starting lineup is simply the fact that he gets to play more. Even last season where he should have won 6th man, he was only averaging 26 minutes a night. As a starter, he’s closer to 36, and that feels more in line with what should be happening. Get your best players on the floor.
- Kevin Huerter had his best game in what felt like weeks tonight, and there’s no coincidence it was because he was 4-4 from three. I just wish he wasn’t so all or nothing. These last two games have been a microcosm of his entire Kings tenure, with him going 0-6 last night and 4-4 tonight. I’ll take a consistent 2-5 from him instead please.
- Keegan also shot well tonight, 3-5 from distance and 4-6 from two. He had a really nice move in the second half where he almost bullied his way into the paint against a smaller defender and rose up for the midrange bucket, and it goes to show just how much he has improved since he was strictly a catch and shoot player as a rookie.
- DeMar had a bad game against the Grizzlies and I think he knew it because he looked a bit more in control and less forceful on offense tonight. He even shot some more triples than usual, going 1-3 (and it should have been 2-4 but one of the ones he made came with a toe on the line). I do think the Kings and DeRozan are still in the figuring it out stages, but hopefully most of the bumps in the road are behind us.
- I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Kings player take as much punishment as Domantas Sabonis does on a night to night basis. Tonight it wasn’t just the chipped tooth but multiple hits to the head and neck. And in the end he still finishes with 22 points, 16 rebounds and 4 assists. I do think another benefit of having Malik in the starting lineup is his ability to get Domas good looks in the Pick and Roll. Those two have great chemistry in that regard, and it’s hard to guard when Malik is such a threat to score himself.
- Keon Ellis was fully back in the rotation tonight after spending a couple games mostly on the bench. He scored just 3 points on 1-4 shooting but played good defense (4 steals) and dished the ball as well (3 assists). I’m not sure why Keon has such a short leash with Mike Brown considering he is one of our best defenders and shooters and our bench depth is already bad as it is, so hopefully this is more in line with what we will see in the future.
- Stephon Castle would be a cool guy to have on the Kings purely from a name perspective. Other guys in recent NBA history with fun regal names: Brandon Knight, Taurean Prince, Royal Ivey. Any others you can think of?
Kings win, cold magically vanishes, I’ll take it for a Friday.
I wonder how long our streak will be of getting an opposing player ejected.
I wish my cold magically vanished!
Maybe it was just allergies for you?
I don’t think allergies have ever given me a near 102 F fever before. Get well soon, Klam!
Was it the tequila?
I kid you not, watching on League Pass cut to the in arena feed during commercials, and there was a crowd singalong to Tequila.
Tequila might not be the universal solvent, but it could be the universal solution.
140 Points!
&ct=g
Kings got some giddyup in their game!
Kings Win! Dance!
1 game winning streak!
Or, 1 in a row if you prefer
Fox and Sabonis ran a pick and roll this game. It worked. It’s wild how strange that felt just seeing the most basic play in basketball being run by a couple guys that should just run that in to the ground.
Fox is not necessarily a team offense kind of guy in my opinion. He runs free and takes what he wants without slowing down to set up anything with his teammates.
True, he needs to focus more on flowing within a system and save ISO for last few minutes or end of clock. We need more wide open looks and easy lays/dunks.
Fox had 8 assists in this game, twice as many as Domas and 2 more than Monk, yet somehow doesn’t “set up anything with his teammates”?
He had a good game. I am not saying he was bad. Speed is his gift. Fox’s first priority is to create a shot for himself anywhere on the floor. It works for him and his style of play. He does not set up and run a half court offense or go to specific places for a pick and roll all that often.
Domas typically ends up with more assists than Fox because he runs an offense when the ball goes through him.
Just the thoughts of a fan who watches basketball that is not an expert.
With Monk starting and sharing the floor with Domas, his assists go down, Monk’s go up. Monk is closer to a traditional point guard, as others have noted.
I think a lot of us would agree with that conclusion It’s not a negative view of Fox’s game, just a solid ovservation.
I agree that Monk seems to fit the traditional model of a point guard better than Fox does. But when you look at the assist stats for this season it’s not quite as definitive.
Per 36 assists: Fox 5.7, Monk 5.8
Per 100 possessions: Fox 7.7, Monk 7.8
Assist %: Fox 25.7, Monk 23.9
Monk and Fox are both combo guards, more or less. Monk has developed really nicely in the bbiq part of his game and he seems to really thrive with the ball in his hands, looking to score but he seems to enjoy passing and makes some fantastic ones. Our back court is pretty fluid and the last couple games have been fun to watch. If only we had a bench to really capitalize having Monk starting at 2. Fox should really take advantage of his speed and cut to the basket a lot more and I’m sure Monk or Domas would find him most times
IMO, it’s more the type of assists they are getting than the numbers. For half court, PnR, PnP and two man game Monk is a much more creative and better passer.
Fox is more of a score-first, drive and kick passer.
I love having the combo in the starting backcourt.
Been saying it for awhile, Monk is more of a PG than Fox. Fox is elite at getting his own shot especially when being aggressive, at most other skills he is average.
Undefeated since 12/6!
I can’t get excited about this performance. Their good shooting nights happen so infrequently. They’ve had two good shooting performances in the last three games – does that mean they’re turning a corner? This team doesn’t turn corners, they travel straight along in relative mediocrity. I’m concerned they’ll continue to hover around 0.500 for the rest of the season.
No, they constantly turn corners which keeps them hovering around the same place and us dizzy.
I mean, you play an opponent who should be worse (on paper) and missing their superstar and two main subs and then one of their other main rotation guys gets ejected and you still have to play all your starting five at least 32 minutes. And you still give up 113 points (2 above the Spurs’ average).
Suddenly Robinson gets early playing time and Isaac Jones is an afterthought?
A win is a win but it just doesn’t instill much confidence that this team has it all figured out (yet).
I think the convo about this season starts with 3-pt shooting, if the Kings could have been shooting just league average, what would they have, 3 more wins? 4? The conversation about how to get better would be different then
Watching MB’s substitution patterns this season, it is like he dumps all the player names in plastic cup then rolls it out, and sometimes he gets a Yahtzee, and sometimes he doesn’t.
It looks like Domas/Fox/DDR/Keegan/Monk is the starting five from here on out, and I like that group, as I think having two guards with the quickness and shot creation like Monk/Fox puts a lot of pressure on a defense.
Between Kevin, Keon, Isaac, Trey, Orlando, and situationally, J-Mac & Len, plus Carter coming in the next 6weeks or so, it seems like he should be able to have a passable bench. There is some shooting, some defense, some size, some positional versatility, if they could have consistent role, and have some time to gel and less randomness, it would probably be “fine”. Then it would be easier to identify what player to target in a trade to level up this season.
I mentioned a few times at the end of last year that Mike had lost his swagger a bit, and as a Coach that has been fired from three high profile gigs already in his career, seemed worried about it happening again(this was pre-extension). Some games I feel like he is trying not to lose, rather than trying to win. Constantly making adjustments based on the other team, rather than trying to force them to make adjustments. This last two weeks, it is like he is doing a Darvin Ham impersonation. The refusal to change the defense when putting Malik Monk as the lone defender on Wemby for the last five minutes of the game, or the last five minutes of the Memphis game, when they went to iso ball rather than the motion offense (I had flashbacks to Tyreke’s 1-4 flat over and over). Domas was getting the ball inside and scoring so easily in first half, as Memphis had no one guard him, and never got the ball, and I kept thinking that Mike might call a play, or a timeout and draw something up, but he was Ham-ing at the moment.
I think I am a lot higher on this roster than most, they are 6th in offensive rating even with the poor 3pt shooting, and 14th in defensive rating, so playing above their record, and imo should be at 14/15 wins. The players need to nut up and shoot with confidence, and Mike needs to quit playing Yahtzee with the substitution patter, and then it will be easier to see what move could be made roster wise.
I agree with a lot of this. The starting five is solid and reliable. The bench is a crap shoot. If the bench is hitting some shots they can beat anyone, if they don’t they can lose to anyone.
Solid points and hope MB figures out rotations and would develop some offensive play calls for at least specials situations . Seems top teams do in final minutes .
Great post.
The way MB handles I. Jones and Keon baffles me. Feels like if they make one mistake, they will lose substantial minutes.
While Huerter, for example, has gotten a very long leash.
Weird
Yea, there seems to be a preordained hierarchy where high picks, “big” acquisitions, and established players get longer leashes, while the lower picks and two-way players see their minutes yanked. From what I can tell:
– missing threes in any given game will not necessarily get you yanked, even when you miss lots of them. You are more likely to get benched for passing up threes. It took a year-long shooting slump for Huerter to get relegated.
– defensive lapses in the team concept will get you benched, even if you are an otherwise good defender (looking at Keon). And, advanced stats don’t matter. So even if the stats show that team is better overall with Ellis on the floor for the season, Brown does not care.
– If you are not one the established players, the minute changes can be drastic. You can go from 25 mpg to a DNP-CD.
So what I think happened with Keon is that there were certain things he may have been doing that both offensively (passing up open threes?) and defensively (over aggressiveness? missed assigments?) that was counter to the scheme. Perhaps Brown tried to correct this, it wasn’t working, so he said, ‘okay you’re gonna sit for a bit until you figure it out’.
This is all speculation though, and if that’s what happened, I think it’s pretty drastic and unecessary to dole out DNP-CDs to a player that was previously starting and clearly makes the team better when he’s on the court. Maybe just bench him in the moment? But I guess that’s coach Brown for you.
I hope we are not the team that averages 50% from three because every fourth game we shoot 75% and the rest are zero. Ideally some players are shooting well to carry the average. So far we are on or off.
Great win by scoring 140 tonight! I will take it!
Missed the game. Thanks for the recap.
So Isaac Jones has a down game in Memphis, and he goes into the dog house immediately? That’s the Mike Brown I know.
I love how enraged these other teams get because usually it is well known the Kings will get screwed by refs and when tables are reversed or calls are actually equal these teams throw a fit. I swear, not even joking. These teams expect Kings to get tons of bad calls going their way. I couldn’t stand Cousins but there’s a reason he was so pissed all the time. I see Fox, Sabonis and some of others struggle with it too. These other teams getting a taste of our norm and don’t like it.
Solid win but we need a streak and get over .500, come on Kangz be better than Lakers at least haha
Earl Barron?
I’m bummed I missed this one. At my daughter’s bball tourney, where she won as well! Good day!
You were where should have been. Priorities!
I don’t regret a thing! Gotta take in as much of my kids as I can while I have them. My oldest is already a Senior and off to college next fall!
❤️
Bernard King, Trevelin Queen, and Sir Charles Barkley.
Sir’Dominic Pointer
Peon Lowe?
Marquis Daniels
Wilt Chamberlain
Jimmy Butler
Devin Vassel
David Duke, Jr.
…. uh – Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had Turret’s Syndrome …. (yeah, I know, Tourette’s, but hey, I’m trying, and I hope Stephon Castle isn’t afflicted)
Earl Barron has to be the best as a double
To counter the feudal system:
World B. Free.
Prince Luc Mbah a Moute.
Malik Beasly, the late Malik Sealy.
Did you know that Malik means King in Arabic?
“That’s my kind of guy!”
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I almost hesitate to bring this up because it will likely get passed along and wind up on every broadcast. My son’s name is an alternative spelling of Keon.
Keon a common Persian name meaning “king.”
One step above a king: God Shamgod.
Ok, ok, he was just a sham god, but still…
Other mentions:
Tayshaun Prince
Stacey King (who was a Sacramento King for like a day during a preseason)
for that starting five to be somewhat decent on defense, would it require Fox to play his best defense? And if Fox is just sparring, like he normally does at beginnings of games and the start of the third, would it be a bottom five defense in the league? your thoughts please …
If Fox was fully engaged for his 35 or so minutes on the court, this team would be better. He seems to coast too often on both ends. Your star players can’t coast, especially with the Kings roster as currently constructed.
Haven’t looked though all the comments, but Baron Davis.
I’d like them to win games against opponents who are actually at their same level of talent. Its nice they took care of business against a depleted team but they need to start turning in some consistent effort into some consistent wins. Last night’s progress was incremental, let’s keep it going.
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