For what feels like the 10th time this season, the Kings played the Lakers tonight for another opportunity to burst some eardrums in Golden 1 Center. If there’s one thing that will always be true about Sacramento, it’s that this city will show out for the collective cause of destroying the Los Angeles Lakers. The best way to fully understand the depth of hatred of the Lakers that fills the soul of every true Kings fan is to read Will’s preview piece for tonight’s game. He took the raging hate I feel in my heart and put it all to words perfectly. The only outcome to keep myself from perishing in the flames of my own hatred would be a Kings victory tonight. So, for the sake of my life, let’s see how they did:
Quick Stats
Outcome: Kings lose, 134-136
Sacramento Kings: 134 pts, 52.3% fg, 43.8% 3 pt, 81.1% ft, 25 ast, 34 reb, 14 to
Los Angeles Lakers: 136 pts, 61.0% fg, 42.9% 3 pt, 81.8% ft, 26 ast, 38 reb, 17 to
My body is already 95% ash and only my hands remain to write these words as I am being engulfed by hot flames of rage. Prepare for a short and salty recap as I get this out before I am completely disintegrated into dust.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The Good
- Getting to the Line: In a game that had numerous lead changes, with the largest difference being nine points, this game felt like an eternity. Combined, there were 70 free throws shot tonight, as both teams decided that defense is for nerds. The Kings won this contest, shooting 37 of these and converting them into 30 points. De’Aaron Fox led by getting to the line 14 times, followed closely by Harrison Barnes getting 10 chances himself.
- Clutch Fox: De’Aaron Fox had yet another brilliant 4th quarter performance where he scored 17 of his 34 points. He was undeniable in getting to the rim and free throw line, and hit nothing but net on two incredibly tough midrange jumpers. He also had nine assists to go along with his dominant scoring. While not enough to overcome the Kings’ lack of defense, Fox’s clutch scoring was brilliantly showcased tonight.
- Record Breaker: Domantas Sabonis fouled out in the final minute of play after recording his 16th consecutive double double (25 points & 12 rebounds). Sabonis now holds the record for most consecutive double doubles in franchise history.
The Bad
- Paint Protection: Defense was nowhere to be found in the city of Sacramento tonight. The Kings benefitted from this as they had six players score in double digits. The Lakers equally benefitted from this by having four players score more than 20 points, led by LeBron James’ 37 points. Thomas Bryant secured a double double with 29 points and 14 rebounds, while Russell Westbrook got one of his own with 23 points and 15 assists. The Kings looked bad in all defensive settings, but the most glaring came in the paint. The Lakers scored 70 points in the paint tonight. In a game where holding the Los Angeles Lakers to 133 points would get you a win, I am sick at the realization that the Kings could not achieve this tonight.
The Ugly
- My Face: I will be scowling for at least the next 24 hours because: 1. I hate losing, 2. I hate the Lakers, and 3. I absolutely, positively, more than anything in the world HATE losing to the Lakers.
The King of Kings
I’ve been wanting to give Trey Lyles some flowers for a few games now, and tonight he did everything worthy of being crowned the King of Kings. In just 13 minutes, Lyles had 11 points and five rebounds and did everything in his power to help lift his team. Lyles has become a fan favorite for his recent fit in the rotation as the gritty guy off the bench who does all the little things the Kings need. Tonight, he grabbed offensive boards (four of them to be exact), and fought on every possession to give his team extra chances to be successful.
Operation: MCNAIR – Season 2 Watch
Tonight’s chosen charity is Next Move Homeless Services. Be sure to notify Will via Twitter (@WillofThaPeople) or e-mail (donations@kingsherald.com) so he can continue to keep track of donation totals.
Up Next
Monday, January 9th vs. Orlando Magic – 7:00 P.M. (PT)
This team is pathetic on defense.
Goodnight.
The defence was bad, but at least it wasn’t a blowout. We haven’t seen a blowout for a while, which is good
Wait what?! The lakers are without AD, Austin Reaves, and Lonnie Walker III and ur just happy we didn’t get blown out?! I hope ur trolling. Also funny how we lose to Charlotte and Atlanta on our home floor and then when those two teams travel to LA their next game LA blows them out.
I understand that people are clamoring for a rim protector, but it starts with paint protection.
Our guys at the perimeter constantly open the floodgates towards the rim and we believe that a Dutch boy’s finger will stem the flow?
I just reviewed; most of Thomas Bryant’s points were assisted and came as a result from Domas playing help defense. A few others came in transition.
Bryant had one score of a offensive rebound over Domas and one when he slipped in under the rim during a miscommunication between Fox and Domas while playing zone D and got the pass.
But it is not as if Bryant took Domas to task in the paint. He waited patiently for the penetration and the defense to collapse, for Domas to commit and then be available for a shot.
I doubt that Dikembe Motumbo could fix this mess.
toam just about to call it quits. The Kings scored 134 points and lose. That is truly pathetic. You can’t allow so many straight line drives to the basket and win.A great goal is to get to the playoffs. Right now I don’t see it. They play down to the competition every time. How many times this year have they won a game with more than 15 points or even 10. They will never do this. Each time they get up by 5 or 7 they fold and can never build on that lead. No defense. You can never count on one player to constantly try to win games. Basketball is a team game. You need to rely on the 5 out there to produce. The only time I have seen this is when Fox kicked it out to Metu and he won the game.One more thought. The last out of bounds play everyone in the arena including the Lakers knew where the ball was going. The worst out of bounds play was this. When you take the ball out of bounds under your basket or anywhere you never throw the all towards the other teams basket period. Look what happened turnover.You need a play or two to set this up not throw the ball towards the other teams basket. Enough said.
PS We have never won or lost because of the commentary. Quit complaining about this and start complaining about the teams defense.
There it is.
.500 teams don’t play down to anybody, instead they’re random-ass mofos who are hard to figure out on any given night.
I have an idea.
The current state of game commentary is bad. Actually Kyle Draper is neither good nor bad, but the others are not very good.
Could The Kings Herald writers provide their own in game commentary? Even if just for the home games, this would be good.
I don’t know how it would work – a link on this website to their live commentary? We’d need to have it sync up the visual broadcast too. Also, I am not from USA so don’t know if there are any legal problems with this.
Please comment as to the goodness and badness of my idea.
The badness of your idea reaches the same level of badness of the Kings’ broadcast team.
To provide good commentary to a game is a craft. It’s not easy. Not sure if the TKH staff will do better than the current crew, but could be a fun experiment.
Actually put it on mute in the third quarter and didn’t turn the sound back on until the last two minutes. First time I have reached that point. I like Kayte. I think her basketball knowledge is great and she is good in that role. The problem is that she is sitting next to total shit. Pair her with someone half way capable and then she will not be forced to interact with the garbage she is dealing with now. As it is now she is forced to say too much or dumb shit in order to deal with the clown next to her.
Kayte has solid knowledge but talks, talks, and talks while an exciting game is happening .
She definitely does talk too much. I think she does it because she doesn’t want to hear the person sitting next to her.
And the whole “hey, listen…” Thing she does every 30 seconds is so fudging grating
That’s just as bad as “What the fans don’t understand” IMO.
I’m glad I heard the Lakers feed with Bill McDonald and Stu Lentz. I know people hate them cuz ‘always hate all things Lakers and all’ but I felt like I get more honesty from opposing broadcasts than the Kings. But it’s not just the commentary, it’s the camera angles as well. The broadcasts aren’t really showing the same game other teams are.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I nominate drunk Greg to do a solo broadcast.
All the talk about a rim protector is garbage.
Go get a defensive focused center that will take minutes from Sabonis? KAngZ!
How about getting some guards that will defend at the perimeter?
Maybe Sabonis is pretty good defensively but the constant layup line allowed by the guards is too much for any single player to deal with?
I think the talk is about finding someone who is not a net negative to fill in for Sabonis when he has to sit. FWIW, Sabonis was a +4 last night, while his backup, Holmes, was a -5.
The Kings need a system center not a rim protector.
I agree with your general point but single game individual plus/minus is rarely a decent indicator.
It’s been that way in damn near every game for which Holmes is backing up Sabonis. The Kings crater when Sabonis sits.
“I agree with your general point”.
Six minutes of a defensive center is not going to offset an entire game of the guards not playing defense. This is a stupid excuse that is one of many to justify almost two decades of a failed culture.
The team Defense is now at Luke Walton level . Was better in October than January and getting worse .
That was a regression game – and why they aren’t Kangz, but aren’t Kings. They remain Kingz for the time being.
Every game is a chance to critically review the team – the loses amplify the weaknesses.
We are seeing loses lately as the rest of the League writes the playbook on how to attack the Sac. It’s drive and dish.
Hat tip to Thomas Bryant who played his butt of and had a heck of a game.
On the negative, guy is only human, but Red Velvet was unclutch tonight. His open looks were off – he can’t make’em all, of course, but he was just ok tonight, and he’s raised our expectations to better.
The bench? Other than Lyles, did they even play?
Holmes came in and was more or less, less. Davion disappeared after his 3/3 on 3s. KZ was a nonfactor.
It’s games like this that gets GMs to make trades.
I hope they stop playing Holmes and start playing Metu again. Ever since Holmes was reintegrated things have not been as smooth sailing
Thankful League Pass chose to show me the result before watching. I’ll be staying away from this one. Enjoy your Sunday, friends!
How many times have we lost to teams on a SEGABABA?
This while we automatically accept a loss when it’s us on a SEGABABA…
Crazy, right? And not just a SEGABABA but hosting the team at home on a SEGABABA. I can think of 3 just in the past month.
Those 3 losses are the only time it’s happened all season.
Dennis fucking Schroeder or however u spell his name scored 27 points!!!!!!
Schroeder and Westbrook and many times James are all back court players. What’s that tell you?
That we’re giving up a lot of straight line drives to the rim and our weak side d is bad
I’ve been noticing a trend. Fox has been getting his points for sure, but so have his backcourt opponents.
That trend is Fox’s entire career in basketball.
Yes, he’s simply a very bad defender, and will very likely never be anything but.
But every game I keep being told by Kings’Propaganda Czar Mark Jones just how great Fox has been on BOTH ends of the court. In fact, “Anyone who’s been watching the Kings should see that”.
I guess my eyes have been lying to me. I’ve watched every game. Oh, but I guess Mark Jones hasn’t.
Shrug..
He cashes his check and repeats the same shit ever time he opens his mouth.
Jones tries so hard to be hip and cool and fails badly !
If he could simply stick to basketball he would at least be logical.
Man, did anyone’s power go out last night from the winds hitting NorCal? I’m at my folks’ place this weekend in Sac and we lost it last night around 12:30 am.
We didn’t lose power in Rocklin, but we did lose some fencing & a concrete roof tile.
It won’t matter how many triple-doubles Sabonis gets or how awesome Fox’s 4th quarter heroics are on his way to 30+ points, if you can’t stop the other team from scoring.
https://twitter.com/will_zimmerle/status/1611967932304875522
Yikesss
Boy are you right. Offense will get you some games but defense will get you into the playoffs. Right now we aren’t going to the playoff. In fact we are going nowhere in particular.
For sure. It seems like the kings and Fox are kind of sliding back to old ways.
I appreciate foxes clutch fourth-quarter runs but it’s too much one on one to sustain and nobody else is getting the ball so the offense is kind of to one dimensional.
And Fox is expending a lot of energy taking on teams by himself. So I think this impacts his defense as well.
and while I think Fox dominating in the fourth at the end of the game is a good thing for some games, they need to continue running the O until or unless he hast to take over.
I can’t remember the last time I saw Fox drive and kick it out for three. isn’t that part of the offense?
Fox doesn’t seem to be putting out the effort on defense he did before. So it looks great but they’re not winning
Fox is without a doubt one dimensional and not a leader.
I really dislike this excuse. Does Tatum expend too much energy on offense? Is Davion excused from good offense because he works so hard on D?
Unfortunately, D is the only thing Davion brings to the table. It sure would be nice if he were at least slightly competent in scoring and/or PG duties.
Fox scores and does nothing else. Davion defends and does nothing else. These players are the best guards on this team.
Wonder if this is a problem?
Don’t worry Spurs, we’re coming fast to bump you into 29th.
What do you guys make of Fox complaining about the refs after the game? The refs clearly blew that play on Westbrook where he burnt dpoy hopeful KZ to the hoop and should of had the and 1, but they said there was no continuation. That was such a bad call lol and then that pass by Lyles that Dennis Schroeder stole from the out of bounds was just a bad pass. Idk, the refs suck, but it seemed to not be insanely one sided when it mattered the most and the refs didn’t let Thomas Freaking Bryant put up a near 30 and 15 on you lol
The officiating almost always impacts the enjoyment of watching the game, but almost never determines the outcome.
Hard to grind on the refs when you’ve just gifted 136 to an injured Lakers team.
…on the road, on a SEGABABA.
If that’s you complaining about the refs all the time then we are lost.More importantly the last out of bounds play was terrible. You never throw the ball towards the other teams basket in that situation. If Fox doesn’t understand this or the coaches called that play then we deserve to lose. Set up a play that gets you to your half court and get all 5 players involved not just Fox. Better chance to win.I always had one or two plays set up to defeat the other team. It’s a must.
The other team thinks the refs are garbage too.
Then the refs really do suck. And need to be better for both teams.
The other team also won. Refs didn’t decide the game last night. Two defensive stops would have done it. Instead they chose not to play defense.
Refs are a weak excuse.
I didn’t use the refs as an excuse for the loss.
Only said they suck. They can suck for both teams. And it takes away from enjoyment of the game when their mistakes become a part of the game.
The players ultimately decide the game. That took the enjoyment out of the game for me.
Sometimes the refs do the same but last night it was all about shit effort on defense.
Westbrook didn’t touch him.
The game was very competitive, fun to watch and that’s all you can ask of the upstart beam team Kings. With every loss there are lessons learned. Sabonis is playing at such a high level it seems hard for the rest of the squad to mimic his dominance with the exception of Fox. Go Kings!
I’m not going to hit the panic button until we slide below .500, though that’s not far off. This blog seems to attract a lot of whiny crybabys, what a boring way to fan. Enjoying the run so far, teams have ups and downs.
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