That one hurt. There is no other way to say it. The Sacramento Kings lost by 1 point on the road in a game that any NBA fan would consider highly entertaining. For Kings fans though, that dream scenario of going up 3-1 on the defending champs is gone. Even though we all know the Kings are playing with house money right now and weren’t even supposed to be here, it doesn’t provide a lot of relief from losses like that.
However, moving forward the Kings just have to take care of home court in a best of 3 series.
Very doable, but won’t be easy.
Outside of the immediate games ahead, we still must continue to remind ourselves that this is only the beginning of the Beam Team’s rise, and this series is exciting in that regard because you couldn’t ask for a better matchup to learn from. Not to mention the growth and learning opportunities from players like Keegan Murray and Davion Mitchell.
Following the game, Kings head coach Mike Brown shared some very specific learning opportunities from this hard-fought game.
Knowing what not to do on defense
One of the main things Brown pointed out was how late in the fourth quarter, the Kings gapped on Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, and they made them pay for it. To shoot the gap is to avoid an off-ball screen all together and try to recoup before the shot goes up.
“We made some timely mistakes, especially in the fourth quarter. We gapped. And this is where our playoff and experience comes into play because you can’t rest out there or you can’t think that you can play something a certain way and the champions aren’t going to make you pay the price. But one time we gapped versus Steph, and he hit a three, which was huge. Another time we gapped versus Klay, and he hit a three, which is huge,” Brown said.
“And you might think, it’s just one possession. Well, those six points right there, not doing what we’re supposed to do, again, that shows our playoff inexperience, because you have to take pride in playing a certain way for 48 minutes. And it isn’t going to be easy. And at the end of the day, if we can’t do it, it’s going to be tough on us,” Brown said.
The Kings would recover from these mistakes to be able to give themselves a chance to win at the buzzer, but maybe they would have won if they had fought through the screens instead of gapped on these plays. This is all theoretical, but it’s a great opportunity to share with the team on film.
Expecting calls on drives
This has been happening a lot throughout this series and it was good for Brown to call this out.
“We want to play fast, and we’re going to keep playing fast, but all of our guys are driving into two, sometimes three guys in transition and begging for a call,” Brown said. “It’s a great learning experience for our guys to be able to see because we wasted a ton of possessions in transition, driving and just throwing up some crazy stuff. And space the floor, stop and spray the ball. And if we miss a wide open three, that is way better than driving and throwing up some crazy stuff,” Brown said.
“You’re going to have to knock these guys out. You can’t rely on the referee because if I’m a referee, the shots that we’re taking at the rim and transition, I’m not calling either because you’re begging for a foul. You can’t drive to the rim and beg for a foul every single possession. And then they run it back at us because they have a numbers advantage. We got to play the right way. And when we’re playing fast and we didn’t do a good job of that, especially in the second half. We had a lot of guys shoot some tough, tough, tough shots begging for fouls at the rim and transition,” Brown said.
In the clips above, Malik Monk and Domantas Sabonis both drive into a double team, though this specific example from Sabonis is in the half court. The Kings still seem to be learning how to leverage pace consistently in a smart way. That is easier said than done in big moments like this, of course, but again this is how this playoff series is going to be extremely beneficial for this squad moving forward.
Learning how to feed off other things than momentum
Game 3 is more of an example than this than Game 4, but Brown brought up an interesting point when asked about momentum.
“I think for those guys [Warriors], a lot of things happen for those guys to get them going, but not just momentum. I believe that they have it when they feed off of made shots, and defensive stops and Draymond’s energy. But so do a lot of other teams. They just have more experience with it,” Brown said.
The Kings have generally been pretty resilient this season and in this series aside from Game 3 when they got punched in the mouth and never recovered. Being able to fall back on something like what Brown mentioned is something that is likely developed with playoff experience. At home, the Kings have the home crowd. On the road, the Kings have De’Aaron Fox (well, the did…..). Another step in their maturation will be gaining momentum internally from things like made shots and defensive stops.
Even if they don’t end up moving on, this series is going to pay good dividends for this team over the next couple of seasons as they continue to build.
I feel bad that your excellent article is being eclipsed by other news that’s become known. What a rip.
Blake’s article is “Raging Bull” to the “Ordinary People” Fox news.
what other news- ? the injury?? the NBA 2 minute report??
The off-ball screening is an excellent point here. I would think the Kings could do this as well. I would love to see K-Von, Keegan and Monk come off a screen near the base of the key to have an open three from the side. If the defense switches, then you likely have a mismatch with the screener.
Really great article and andy said it best.
But I’m going to ask for someone to educate me anyways. The alternative to shooting the gap is fighting through the screen? Correct me if I’m wrong, then you have to worry about the player getting around the screen and open which is also happening when the screen is good. That’s when the defenders sometimes switch and Domas ends up guarding Steph?
I understand Brown’s comments and they are correct but the term “lessons” could be construed as a give up term.
NBA admitted that they blew a call on draymoron on Fox with 38 seconds to go which would have sent him to the line for 2 shots. Great. again.
I was certain that I saw Bavetta out there.
Badge Legend