[Update: 9:20 p.m] – It was bad. The Kings lost 109-91. The largest lead for the Clippers was 29. Dennis Schroder had 4 points, 1 assist, and 1 rebound in 26 minutes. He has not looked like the guy so far in the preseason.
And Domantas Sabonis left the game in the second half with a right hamstring injury. He had 15 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists before exiting.
[Earlier Game Preview]:
Sorry for my delay in getting our open thread up and running here, I was processing the ridiculous Russell Westbrook signing. I’m still processing, in fact, but the show goes on. The Los Angeles Clippers are in town to face the Sacramento Kings in preseason action.
The Kings, from this humble bloggers view, have looked pretty rough through two preseason games. When I say that, I’m really talking about the starting unit. When I say that, I’m really talking about Dennis Schroder and DeMar DeRozan. The defense has also been pretty bad – everyone can share the blame there.
And with Keegan Murray missing several weeks due to a thumb injury, Sacramento could certainly use some momentum. Let’s get to it.
Who: Sacramento Kings (0-2) vs. Los Angeles Clippers (1-1)
When: 7:00 PM PT, 10:00 PM ET
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
Watch: League Pass, and possibly streaming at Kings.com here.
Go Kings.
The Clippers picked up Bradley Beal.
Did he get a Kawhi side deal?
And for Vivek, a task:
Sell the team is our ask.
That’s our Aspiration, for real!
+1 We all have fond memories of the Beam…but now
Someone needs to hack the Beam and have it use Morse Code to send “SOS”.
The
Bat SignalSell Beam!Only 7 months until the draft lottery!
Which PG/SG will they draft this year?
The oldest and shortest one, of course.
Bennett Stirtz. 22.71 years olds at the time of the draft. Lock it in!
It doesn’t count until Westbrook is on the team!
Vivek is the guy in your fantasy league that’s always late to react, still thinks it’s 2015, doesn’t know what defensive stats are, and drafts Steph # 1. The problem is this isn’t fantasy, it’s how he’s running an actual NBA franchise. After fifteen years of starting the season with some optimism and hope (even if my brain was telling me otherwise) I am at the end of my rope. The Fox trade was the last straw – not that he was traded per se, but how it came about, who/what we got back, the whole situation, was a point of no return for me at least until Vivek sells.
So, this year I am truly embracing the dumpster fire and Westbrook just adds to the fun. Will he take away from the young players who need minutes? Yes, but it doesn’t matter while Vivek still owns the team. Will Westbrook give us a few extra wins and hurt lottery changes? Yes, but it doesn’t matter while Vivek owns the team. Is he a bad fit overall? Sure. But nothing matters while he owns the team because it will all get fucked no matter what and every Western team will leapfrog and lap us over an over while he refuses to do an actual rebuild.
But I will be entertained!
Well said.
Henry and the rest of us in a 1st through 4th quarter time lapse of every game this season:
Sac Bee will report in a couple months: “Alcohol sales in Sacramento County skyrocket with no rational explanation. Also, Kings slide to 5-20.”
OT: Murray got his extension.
Great!
Good for him, I think
He is now under longer term control of Basketball Hell
I’ve decided the Kings haven’t signed any good forwards because the cost of electricity has soared and it’s too expensive to light the beam too many times. I guess we should be happy that they’re in Sacramento and don’t have PG&E because we’d probably never see the beam again.
”Watch: League Pass, and possibly streaming at Kings.com here.”
For those masochists interested in watching this game, it’s listed to be on NBC Sports-CA.
Wow.
I guess Keegan is not banner worthy.
Not old enough
Super forward, just young.
Not banner worthy, because he is not a guard!
Not small enough.
Saturday is No Kings Day around the US.
In Sac, it’s No Kings Season.
Super Dario at the 4!
O yay!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DP1w2n2kpIo/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Uninspiring 1st quarter.
1 for 10 on 3 pt shots doesn’t inspire you?
It inspires me to not want to watch it.
Oh look! Another opposing team with an NBA-level bench. Must be nice as we’re running Max, Eubanks, some guard, and Keon. Wonderful job GM Vivek!
3-24 run. My Spidey sense tells me we’re going to see a lot of these this season.
I’m beginning to wonder if this team will win a game before December…
What is Schroder supposed to be good at again? All I see is him dribbling the ball up the court and passing it to someone and then doesn’t do anything else. Or he is clanking mid-range shots.
The Eurobasket rim must be bigger.
And the overall talent isn’t that good compared to the NBA.
I agree. Right now I am not a Schroder fan. He has not shown me anything that would suggest he is the King’s starting point guard. So Sad. In comes Westbrook. Wow we are saved. Yea right!
He was playing in a tournament as a team, that thing that win games. I think after 2 days in Sacramento, he was asking about he is playing the same sport he was playing a month ago. Not even close
LOL, snuck out of a late meeting early to try and catch some of the game. What a joke. Down by 20 at halftime?
Has a newly hired coach or GM ever been fired before the season has even started?
Dario isn’t the answer, and I just noticed Monk hasn’t played. He must have the night off. Or maybe there is a trade in the works and they don’t to get him injured?
Monk is out with an illness. Probably sick to the stomach of the roster.
Illness.
Why does Zach Lavine make me so upset as a fan? I might need to go on Bulls fan site to better understand.
even when he makes a bucket, my sad meter just goes down a bit temporarily. I honestly can say that as a Kings fan i haven’t felt this lost since I became a fan.
this is not a team, it’s a collection of pros who are cast offs, and some rookies. I’d be curious what Doug thinks…this stinks man we need to regroup.
There is no other explanation for it other than it’s a fantasy league constructed roster. Dudes like Alex Caruso, Herb Jones…and now Keon Ellis have no interest to Vivek.
And it’d be a terrible fantasy team at that.
Doug is living the dream, man.
His sucking up to Vivek was rewarded with being a head coach, AND he got his son in law a cushy job nearby.
I have zero shits to give for Doug. He got exactly what he wanted.
How do these guys suck this bad on offense? Defense I get but they should at least be able to get buckets
21% on threes. Great! IMO LaVine is doing OK and the only one who can shoot. How many threes did Sabonis make last night or any other player? Just like last year.
Sabonis was 0-5 or 6 from 3 last night. All flat
Because they aren’t a team. They are 5 players playing their own game every night.
No synergy amongst the group.
Eubanks is bad, in like he’d be backing up Alex Len level bad.
All the Eubanks and Saric minutes should be going to Isaac Jones and Max.
Yeah, he’s a decent third-string center but you’re in trouble if he’s your primary backup center.
Eubanks is terrible. In 3 games with the Clippers last spring he totalled 14 minutes and 4 points in the playoff series against the Nuggets. Actually, the Kings got two forwards in both Eubanks and Saric who made minimal contributions in the league last year – 12.2 and 13.1 minutes respectively – yet somehow expect these players to make significant contributions this season.
If it isn’t the Kings where would Saric and Eubanks play and how much?
LOL. Didn’t even realize there was a game today. Judging from the comments here, sounds like it’s a good thing I’m not paying attention.
They looked terrible. Starters were out of sync, bench looked like a pickup game at the gym where nobody had ever played together before. I expect this to be the norm this season.
Domas hurt. Good times, folks…good times.
It’s fine – we have Eubanks!
Ugh. How bad did it look?
Probably on one of those 3pt attempts. His form is so stiff it probably tweaked his hamstring.
His entire play looked stiff and uninspired like he knows the season is lost. I has a sad now.
Kings now have exactly zero uninjured starter or 1st backup level forwards and centers. Insanity.
Except for Isaac Jones, and its time to give him the starters role.
Should Domas be out for an extended time, like Keegan, the Kings are screwed. Now that they have signed Westbrook they have no roster spots or even the space under the tax to sign a guy to the vet minimum. By my rough math they are now a bit under $2M below the tax line.
This may force Perry’s hand into a trade in which he has no leverage because other GMs know he is desperate. Good times.
All signs point to a youth movement and letting the “young” guys get a good dose of playing time. But they won’t do that because they want to try and compete to win as many games as possible with an aging roster that isn’t very good.
I just really hope they see the writing on the wall and move the vets as soon as they can for a decent return of picks and/or young guys with potential. I don’t see that happening, though.
I don’t think they are going to get a decent return on the vets. They are going to get pennies on the dollar offers, which is fine. At some point you have to cut bait and start fresh.
When trying to start a new culture, keeping the old guard around makes it tougher. Get some fresh bodies in the building that don’t have the Kangz stank on it.
Kangz down 30 going into the 4th, definitely a preview of what’s to come.
I watched 5 minutes of this game, that was more than enough
Time for Doug McDermott!
That’s evidence of how bad it is.
Christie in mid-season form!
I personally don’t blame Christie. Even Popovich could do any better. Time toake some changes.
Why put in McDermott as a hail mary to try and win a preseason game? Just play the young guys and let them develop. This roster is trash, the starters look like they have never played together, and the bench is abysmal.
And….. let’s welcome to the game 33-year-old Doug McDermott!!! JFC. Way to empty the bench and give the young guys experience.
LOL. They look happy. Is Vivek actually. bigger human than Perry? That would explain a lot.
Vivek: Where’s Westbrook?
Perry: “i heard he’s having second thoughts after what he has seen.”
Kayte is “absolutely shocked” by the depth on the Clips’ roster?
So, how does the 2026 draft class look?
Kayte is in mid-season form. Niq and Max already have a great deal of chemistry? What the heck? Lol…
But at the same time tells us, “it’s gonna take time to implement Doug’s system.” Shill gonna shill.
I heard she said that the guys are “tired.” My God.
9-42 from deep.
Tired legs from picking up from 94 feet every possession. Right?
Ha, I don’t think I saw them pick up 94 ft one time. They might have done some fake 3/4 pressing, but it was mainly for show.
Dont mind losing, but havent even been competative until bench clearing time. Its going to be a long season.
Kangz culture..
Lavine is playing like someone that is trying to get traded. Showing that he can still score, and now is hustling on defense more. He sees how much a dumpster fire Sac is and wants to play his way out of here.
Good!
Wow… John Collins looked decent… just imagine had we swung a deal for JC vs DDR. I think we would have still had Fox. The line up could have been Fox, Ellis (or Huerter) Murray , Collins and Sabonis. Monk and Ware or Dasilva (instead of drafting Carter) probably wouldn’t have been able to draft Nique but that would have been a playoff roster last year… hell had we kept Barnes we would have probably made playoffs last year.. but that would have been a roster we could have worked with and was plausible last year. Now we have a dumpster fire
100%
Also, Vivek wanted a big name player to show off when he goes to parties and attends game. He doesn’t want to win basketball games. He see named guys as being his ticket to relevance and bringing in fans. Kings fans will show up with no named guys that try hard, put out effort, and win games. Vivek is so out of touch with the fan base.
If they retained Barnes and traded Huerter + Protected 1st rd pick for Collins, they could of had a lineup of Fox/Ellis/Barnes/Murray/Domas and a bench of Monk/Collins/Lyles/Da Silva. That roster would be full of shooters with size and length.
But no, we now have no size, no depth, no direction.
That’s even better…
Sigh…
Why wait until the deadline!!!
That’s my take. Why wait? Startn now and start working for the future and not looking back at the past.
Trade season “unofficially” begins Dec. 15th when 95% of the league is tradable. I don’t expect much happening until then.
Blood in the water.
woof. I hate this team
Clippers: OLD but GOLD
Kings: OLD but MOLD
Nique Clifford is cool! The rest of this team is a smoldering dumpster fire and I plan on watching none of it.
My girlfriend enjoyed going to a game last year. I told her that games could get quite cheap this year, so we can go to quite a few if we’d like!
After further contemplation, I realize that all is not lost as I am well-versed in rooting for a god awful franchise. Will believe that Scott Perry has a 2 year plan to tank, get rid of Doug and then rebuild, since it is my duty as a Kings fan to clap regardless of how they mistreat their fans
Why do so many Kings fans see different value in Keon than the coaching staff? He got 8 minutes in this blowout game and it seemed that when he played, he didn’t know if he was the point guard or playing the 3. They didn’t extend him, they don’t play him, and they don’t appear to believe he’s worthy of more minutes in a blowout loss. Would love an explanation.
It is rather odd to me as I see Keon as the type of player this team needs more of. He shoots the 3 well, plays great defense, and fits within an offense by not having a high usage rate.
He does struggle with ball handling and distributing, and guarding bigger players. But a good coaching staff puts their players in the best possible position to succeed. It seems that the coaching staff wants him to be someone that he isn’t, much like Carter, and doesn’t allow Keon to shine in the areas he is really good at.
Keon is really good 3-and-D guard and the coaching staff is working based on vivek’s insistence that the big names, of whom Keon is not, get the bulk of the minutes. There is an obvious role that Keon fills and can excel at, as we’ve briefly seen.
But this is the KANGZ
Then trade him now. IMO we could get Tari Eason for Keon maybe a protected first. He is better than Kuminga especially on the defensive side.
the 6’8 Froward that can guard multiple positions, or the 6’5 guard that can that? I would think the taller guy would have more value to nearly every team. I don’t see why the Rockets would make that deal. Maybe they don’t have much faith in their guards?
Do the Rockets even have any guards?
They’re starting: Adams(6-11), Sengun(6-11), Smith Jr.(6-11), Durant(6-11) and Amen Thompson(6-7)
Reed Sheppard and Aaron Holiday did get minutes off the bench.
If anything, they seem to need a guard that run the offense, handle the ball, etc. Not what Keon is good at. Adamsite mentioned that Russ would have made sense for them.
Unless there is something going on with Keon behind the scene, I don’t get it either. It’s not like we here on TKH live in some kind of echo chamber either. Other team’s blogs have high praise for him. The Warriors wanted Keon and/or Keegan as part of a Kuminga deal. Our beloved Jerry Reynolds thinks he should be getting 30 minutes a night!
Keon is an elite backcourt defender who can hit threes that good teams desire and the fact that the Kings don’t is all too telling that decisions come from the top. In the Vivek era, defensive non-highlight players have not been prioritized. It’s all bout offense and nothing else.
Countless coaches have come in and preached defense, but it won’t matter when ownership is smitten with guys like Stauskas, Buddy Hield, DDR, Zach LaVine, etc. Hell, a new GM even brought back Doug McDermott!!! How does he fit in with a new “defensive identity?” It’s all bullshit because the owner is enamored with points and highlights.
Can’t play him when he refuses to date Anjali
This front office did sign Westbrook, but can’t see the merits of Ellis
I know its a different front office but when the Kings passed on Luka, if they were smart they could have made that offer to Dallas to get draft capital and then draft Bagley with a later pick, or were they convinced that Atlanta would have picked him next
I just think Perry is the latest Kings GM who he will find in time to have been promoted to a position comically out of his depth
Spencer Dinwiddie just got waived. Let’s all welcome our new backup Center! At 32.5 years old, he is a bit young for the roster, but his size fits very well with the rest of the roster.
We can just waive Maxime to open a roster spot and offset the hits to our average age and height!
Badge Legend