Go Kings!
Feb 1, 2023; San Antonio, Texas, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Malik Monk (0) dribbles past San Antonio Spurs forward Stanley Johnson (34) in the second half at the AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports
The Kings Herald Newsletter
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Grizzlies blow a 15 point halftime lead. Kings win tonight gets them to 1 back with 4 to go.
Wolves just lost to the Blazers as well. They are 39-40.
No Keldon Johnson, no Jeremy Sochan and no Devin Vassell for the Spurs. The Kings should win this one going away….but….I’m expecting the worst. I don’t expect the Kings to be expending much energy to beat this Spurs team.
Keegan is looking so much more confident than he did at the beginning of the season or even before ASB
What a sloppy horrible game. And I’m not shocked about any of it.
I thought you predicted it
It’s just a matter of whether they decide to show up.
And just like per usual they decided to show up at the end of the 1st qtr
My favorite thing about this game….is TD is leading the Kings with 10 points…and he’s missed a lot of shots already. TD being TD, in otherwords.
And I don’t mind it a bit!
Kessler Edwards And1 is a good start!!!!
TD not taking advantage of Monk being out with his minutes so far. Missing everything and a bad pass for a turnover leading to a dunk
Why is Monk out?
Lower leg soreness. Probably a combination of them having a playoff spot clinched + facing a bad team so they decided to just be smart with it and give him a rest. Expecting to see a few other guys getting a game or 2 off next week too
I’m shocked Domas & De’Aaron didn’t sit Friday night. Still am, actually.
Cool thing just happened on the Spurs broadcast: They just showed Jerry Reynolds sitting in the stands and gave him a big shoutout. Classy moment by them.
Rim protection!
In case you’re wondering, this is why Adam (in particular) wanted Zach Collins. Guy is a natural playmaker from the high post.
Just to make a point, but Collins has played 650 less minutes than Keldon Johnson on the season….and has 6 less assists on the season (179 assists for Johnson, 173 for Collins).
You mean instead of Justin Jackson and Harry Giles?!!
Umm, no.
I was referring to kings trading the 10 pick (Collins) for 15 and 20
I know that.
Domas is not having a Domas-like game. And I’m not disturbed by any of it.
Thats right Kings, get all that cold 3PT shooting out of your system these last few games.
Raise your hand if you had some reserve named Champagnie going for 22 in the first half. And can the Kings execute a fast break without turning it over?
No on the first, waiting to see on the second.
The Kings have 11 Break points to the Spurs 4 in the 1st half. But then again, you don’t typically see Harrison Barnes leading the break for a reason….
Sean Elliott is stressing that if the Spurs continue ball movement as they have up until this point, they’ll be in the game.
He’s not wrong. The ball movement has been excellent today for San Antonio.
Domas is so chill
LOL @ Pop picking up a tech.
Malaki Branham has got a chance to make it in the league. He’s been having a decent rookie year under the radar.
Just thinking that I would be perfectly content to lock in the standings as they are right this moment:
4 Phoenix Suns
5 Golden State Warriors
6 LA Clippers
7 New Orleans Pelicans
8 Los Angeles Lakers
9 Minnesota Timberwolves
10 Oklahoma City Thunder
Even better if the Pelicans move up to #6. I’d consider us to be actual favorites against either of those, which I’m not sure would be true about any of 4, 5, 8, or 9.
But first let’s win this game and clinch the division!
Even for the Kings this defense is brutal today
They aren’t likely to get up playing against the Spurs.
They can clinch the division with a win today. You’d think that would get them up to do that in front of their fans
They gonna clinch either way bro. That’s just the reality of it. Plus it’s a 3pm start time, sometimes it’s hard to get up for these games mentally. It’s been a week of both low’s and high’s for this team. I think it’s tougher for this group to play at home than on the road due to the expectation they play great at Golden One Center.
I don’t know what the answer is to get them to loosen up, but they have to find that before G1 of the playoffs.
Next week will be nice with 4 games vs playoff teams in the West…well 3 I guess since the Mavs don’t look like a serious threat anymore
This is where we disagree. There’s no guarantee games in the NBA because these are NBA players….look no further than this Spurs team sitting 3 of their 4 most talented players today and they are up 5 heading to the 4th. They lost the other day to GSW in a similar fashion when Curry and Thompson ignited to beat them.
This had all the makings of a let down game for Sac…but I think they will beat the Spurs just due to being more talented and the Kings haven’t really had that explosive run yet today.
Besides, the Kings play the Pels (that’s going to be the most important game) Tuesday, Mavs Wednesday, Warriors Friday (that might be important) and Denver Sunday (that won’t be important to either team I suspect).
Some dude named Julian Champagnie has as many points as Fox/Domas combined
This is pathetic.
Spurs are going to cough up the game if you bring any type of effort against them. They just aren’t any good of course.
But they wont’ hand it over to you either. Nor should they.
Yes this game is plug ugly but Kessler Edwards has been a very good pickup and this game isn’t far enough down the tubes to think we can’t come back
I’ve been impressed with Edwards’ energy level as well. It’s great to see.
Does it even matter at this point if we get the 2 or 3 seed? We’re gonna have to play one of GS or the 2 LA teams
I mean, if you want to look ahead, potentially having HCA vs the Grizzlies vs not having it is definitely preferred
But yes, as it stands, 3 seed seems to be where they’ll end up
Are we assuming the Grizz will get out of the 1st rd? They didn’t look good at all down the stretch in Chicago today….
The only thing we should assume is that none of us actually KNOW how this is going to play out. I assume we want the Kings at minimum get out of the first round but if they don’t I won’t be all that disappointed. This season has been so remarkable that in the end I will be satisfied with the 3rd seed if that’s all we take out of it…..and that could be dangerous because I’m ASSUMING we are going to be better next season regardless how this season concludes
Bottom line is that are no teams that end up in the top 8 that won’t be a challenge. I was just thinking about that. My thought is that there are a bunch of our starters that could use a break even with the 5 day break they get through the Play Ins
Great breakdown by Sean Elliott illustrating why De’Aaron Fox was beaten to the rim by Blake Wesley (bad footwork by De’Aaron basically).
Kings make a layup challenge
Two things I love about these De’Aaron FT’s. One he called for the ball from TD…and then he forced McDermott to defend him and got to the line.
Great pass to Len by Fox to make sure that Len was the only guy who could catch the ball there. Best sequence all day from Fox by a large margin.
Gonna go out on a limb: the Kings will lose a vast majority of games where they shoot sub 30% from 3. The look like the got a shot tonight, but my guess is they lose 90% of games where they shoot like this.
How many teams that are as bad as the Spurs make the playoffs?
Cmon, now. I’m just saying the team shhots this badly, they’re gonna lose. They only have a chance because the Spurs are awful.
Of course they’re gonna lose, you aren’t beating playoff teams shooting poorly.
These guys flop so hard
Good D by Fox but not enough. McDermott shout not be the player who beats you
Come on Fox! A 15 foot chuck? That’s it?
i Was gonna agree with this but then next possession he buries a similar shot, little closer to the rim
Good call on Collins. Absolute loose ball foul. Big break for Sac there. I’ll take it.
Foxey comes up bit
was a bit but big is better
There’s the stop they needed. Now it’s on Fox to win it
Overtime shit
Teams gonna be doing that a lot on Fox in the playoffs
And the Kings players had better be prepared for it.
smart Move by Pop, Huerter ice cold
Fox waited too long to make a move.
Kings played with their food for too long, screwed around and found out. You gotta play 48 minutes in this league to win. And they did not do that. If the Spurs weren’t such a bad team, they wouldn’t even be headed to OT with this type of performance.
Exactly the kind of game they needed to prepare for the playoffs IMO. They need a disappointing W to remind themselves of how much work they have left to do.
And this is assuming the Kings pull out the W…..that’s clearly not even a guarantee at this point.
layup drills for the Spurs to start OT
Spurs in the penaty. Kings are trying to take advantage. Love how Fox made that play to Barnes to try and get him to the line after the side out foul call on Fox.
Ouch. Kings actually look good on that defensive possession and the Spurs still hit a contested midrange
I like Malaki Branham. Dude can play.
That wasn’;t a good look
Dude Doug Mcjordan is unconscious
Kings earned that loss. Another no show from them defensively for majority of the game.
There’s a technical term for this….we’re fucked
Easily the worst loss of the season. I’ve never seen more lay ups in my life.
I think if we collectively put our minds together we could come up with worse games in many prior seasons but I’d say this was the worst loss of the season
This isn’t even a top 5 loss on the season IMO. It’s just bad because people see the #2 seed and they are greedy as opposed to being happy for being a playoff team and a #3 seed. These guys weren’t mentally ready all game, and by the time they were San Antonio was rolling.
No doubt you’re right but here’s the reason I thought it was among their worst. This afternoon they came in with the ability to make up a half game on Memphis and lock down the number 3 in the conference and number 1 in the division and they came out flat, not engaged looking sloppy and not appreciating the position they were in today.
Of course. But that’s not necessarily how they see it. That’s a fan and media narrative, not an organization one. Huerter was a 2-12 from the 3 pt line. They didn’t work hard enough to get into the paint, IMO, early enough and by the time they did it was too late. The ball movement that we typically see was not there. They had 24 assists on 49 made FG’s, that’s way too low a ratio for Mike Brown.
But here’s the flip side of all this. You don’t prove you’re a top defensive team beating the Spurs at home. You don’t prove you’re a top 3 team in the West by beating the Spurs at home. When you beat them, there’s a shrug. When you lose, people want to cry that World War III is coming. You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.
There was nothing to be proven, nothing to be lost. But I think this team is struggling with the mentality of being hunted as opposed to being the hunter hunting teams ahead of them in the standings. They are scuffling a bit under brighter lights and more attention and they needed a loss today to remind them of where they really are in the basketball hierarchy.
Well for sure you don’t convince anyone you’re a good defensive team by beating the Spurs. This was an inflection point. There were reasons why this wasn’t just any game. Sure they have the playoffs locked in, they probably have the Conference spot locked in but there were things to play for today. The only reason I see this as a bad loss is that there are going to be spots in the playoffs where they have to pull it together about better teams and at those points they will dig down and prevail or not. While not any way as important this game concerns me just because they had an opportunity to pull out a win with some things on the line and they didn’t.
Nah the home loss to the Hornets and whatever that game was @Pelicans without all their main players easily tops this one
I think Brown was wanting to lose this game. The Kings didn’t bring energy at home, they played tight, he didn’t call timeouts at certain times, missed a ton of shots, kept letting McDermott and Jones getting to their spots, a lot of poor defensive fundamentals, and so forth.
Forget this being a bad W, this is just a bad, bad loss. It’s not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but these guys have to learn how to play these games at home. All year they’ve fallen flat on their face and today is just yet another example.
Why would he want to lose this game
To get his guys attention. To make them understand the lack of attention to detail, effort, energy all those types of things. This game isn’t that meaningful in the grand scheme of things.
May be a bit extreme to say he wanted to lose but he may be purposely doing some things to let them figure it out on themselves
I was watching the Spurs telecast today as that was my stream was showing. But there were several instances where Sean Elliott pointed out that the Kings poor fundamentals on defense would absolutely hurt them badly in the playoffs.
And Sean Elliott was in no way shape or form wrong there. The Kings are going to be picked against in every matchup because they don’t seem like a dynamic dominant team. They stunk the joint up today, and I think part of it was they didn’t have Malik Monk today. But I think part of it was they just didn’t have the mental energy to deal with a young team who saw them as their playoff series. The Spurs got up to play the Kings today and they weren’t ready for the challenge.
Losing isn’t the worst thing ever.
It’s amazing how this team is worse at home than on the road
Other than the shit defense, Huerter can’t play like he’s Klay Thompson. Too many off balance threes
So many stupid possessions this game. Chucking up 3 after 3, missing, letting guys jog straight into the lane to get easy points. I wish the Kings traded for Bamba. They need a guy that can defend the paint and shoot the 3. He would have done both.
Perfect example of why people on the outside don’t see us as a threat
Yep, should’ve been an easy 20 point win with starters sitting in the 4th. Sabonis missed a late FT, Fox getting trapped.
In the biggers scheme of things, this loss doesn’t seem to matter much.
But Brown clearly wanted this win (could have brought us near the 2nd seed), and we played Barnes, Fox and Sabonis 37 minutes or more. He can’t be pleased.
So another clunker at home is disappointing, and you may have to wonder if our inabllity to harness the home court advantage is gonna affect our players’ minds goinmg forward.
I think it is also important to go into the play-offs in a positive flow, specifically if you are still playing your starters 20-plus minutes.
Finally, I’d expected that at this point, Brown would shift his focus to D and urge his players to give a concerted defensive effort for the majority, which isn’t happening. You can win in the playoffs with so-so D, but with defense this bad?
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