If I told you that the Kings would lose to the Charlotte Hornets tonight, you probably wouldn't be shocked. If I told you that the Kings would allow a Hornets player to put up 42 points on their asses, you probably wouldn't be shocked. If I told you that the Kings were up by 8 points with just over a minute remaining, you probably wouldn't be shocked. If I told you that the Kings gave up 42 points to PJ Washington, surrendered an 8-point lead with just over a minute remaining, and ended up losing the game off of an and-one layup with 1.4 seconds on the clock, well, you probably watched the game tonight.
The first quarter started out extremely well for Sacramento. Buddy Hield looked like Dave Joerger was on the sidelines screaming at him to run, as he scored 11 of the team's first 13 points, finishing the period with 17 points on 6/8 shooting from the floor, including five triples. Marvin Bagley was also productive for the Kings, recording 8 points and 5 boards, but Sacramento's inability to give a damn on defense eventually caught up to them, as always. After running out to a 24-10 lead behind Hield's scoring binge, the Kings allowed the Hornets to score 19 points in just four minutes, eventually ending the quarter with a three-point lead. LaMelo Ball led the way in the first for Charlotte, with the rookie guard weaving his way through the paint for 12 points and 5 assists.
Offense, offense, and more offense was once again the dominating theme of the second quarter. PJ Washington, yes that PJ Washington whose name you vaguely recognize as an NBA player, torched the Kings and worked his way up to 22 points on 15 shots in the half, while LaMelo Ball was also once again effective for the Hornets, as he ended up taking more free throws (8) than the entire Kings squad (6). Although Charlotte seemed to control the rhythm throughout most of the period, Sacramento walked into the locker rooms with a one-point lead behind a Harrison Barnes three-ball with less than a second left on the clock.
In a twist more surprising than finding out that Malcolm was dead the entire time in The Sixth Sense (Hey, my brothers spoiled the ending for me, so now I'm taking my revenge on the entire Sacramento community 20 years later), the Kings actually held the Hornets to just 22 points in the third quarter. Some of that success had to do with Charlotte simply missing shots, but there were flashes of effort on the defensive end of the floor for Luke Walton's squad as well. PJ Washinton, yes, still that PJ Washinton, was once again the man of the hour for the Hornets in the third, as he upped his total to 30 points by the end of the period, three more than his previous career-high.
Wait for iiiiiiit. You guessed it. PJ Washinton. PJ "Michael Jordan" Washington put up another 12 points in the fourth quarter, including a clutch three-pointer, but let's focus on this collapse more than individual stats. With 1:13 remaining in the game, Harrison Barnes seemed to wrap things up with a vicious dunk, putting the Kings up 123-115. On the following play, Terry Rozier threw the ball away and De'Aaron Fox broke out for an open-court layup. LaMelo Ball tried to prevent a layup and was called for a Flagrant-1 foul upon official review. Fox missed the first free throw. Fox missed the second free throw. Marvin Bagley was blocked at the rim. Oops, Oops, and more oops. 3.6 seconds later, Rozier knocked down a three-pointer to pull the Hornets within five points. Six seconds later, the Hornets intentionally fouled Marvin Bagley. Bagley missed the first free throw. Bagley missed the second free throw. Are you sensing a theme yet?
Nine seconds later, the very same Terry Rozier pulled up for another three-pointer and was fouled by Harrison Barnes. Rozier, in a very un-Kingslike fashion, made all three of his shots from the charity stripe. The Hornets were within a possession with just over 30 seconds left on the clock. Thankfully, De'Aaron Fox found an opening and scored a little floater from eight feet out with 23.8 seconds remaining - a four-point lead with less than a shot clock's worth of time should have been enough. Of course, this is the Kings we're talking about. Six seconds later, PJ "Kings Killer" Washington knocked down his seven millionth three-pointer of the evening, cutting Sacramento's lead to just one point. Buddy Hield was fouled on the following possession, and surprise, surprise, missed one of his free throw attempts. With 1.4 seconds left and trailing by two, Malik Monk blew by Cory Joseph and was fouled by Richaun Holmes while making a layup. Guess what? Monk made his free throw. Game. Blouses.
The Kings are now tied for the fourth pick in the 2021 NBA draft.
Tyrese, did you really want to play for the Kings?
Beautiful loss all while gaining equity on our soon to be traded assets Buddy needs to show out this next 3 weeks and Barnes value is at an all time high time to buckle up the tank race we gotta be in the bottom 3 baby!! This is the perfect draft to do it in the top 7 are all studs clean the sheets also. Trade Fox if we get a haul also and give the keys to Hali
Were those Murder Hornets…
Or did they just assist in a suicide?
This is brilliant.
Kings max PG at the FT line
This loss is great for the tank!!
But if I wanted to win this game, I’d be pissed at every single fucker in that locker room.
HB: You can’t foul a jump shooter that late in the game!
De’Aaron, Bags: Make your fucking FTs!
CoJo: play basketball for fucks sake!
Everyone: Any G-League team will probably score 120 on your heads! The defense is fucking atrocious!
All things Luke should be saying to them.
Also Luke: We, uh, just gotta watch the tape.
Best part of the game was my sound didn’t work. No Doug and whatever other lameo.
That plus a shot at Kuminga. Dude looks awesome. But unless Vivek allows McNair to do his thing none of it matters.
blob:https://kingsherald.com/1139b5c1-f971-415f-b8f7-5ecd23c765a8
Well, it looks like I found a new TKH photo meme…
Photoshop opportunity
Marty what app is this? Amazing 🙂
Dude that’s Superimpose on iPhone, but this one isn’t my best, really rushed. You can do amazing things with that app.
Chokeramento
Or Suckramento, for those Jim Rome fans out there.
Given the FT shooting,
Shaqramento.
Now wait, think of all the things he’s done as part-owner!
Fuck it, I’m done for the season. I was often more on the optimistic side but fuck it, let’s tank. Here are some thoughts from a Kings fan for 20 years from across the globe:
1) All on this team should be tradable except for Hali and Fox (for his big contract), the rest we have are low bball IQ guys maybe except for HB and Beli.
I was a big fan of Fox during his streak, I even thought he would be an all-star but I began to dislike him on the court as we began the 9 game slide. Aside from his bad FT shooting, he makes crappy bball decisions. Imagine you got a steal and you’re up by 8 with a minute remaining, you hold the ball and run the clock man. Even us on rec leagues do it. He should be a 2nd and 3rd option on a team (like Conley I think). I don’t get it why he sucks on free throws but as a guy who plays a bit I can see that his routine is rushed. I don’t know if he shoots good on practice, but imagine you have an 8-5 job in the past 4 years and you couldn’t improve the fundamentals of your job, that just sucks.
2) Fire Luke, he doesn’t deserve to be even coaching in the NBA. And even in a full rebuild I wouldn’t trust Cade, Kuminga, or Green under Luke’s “tutelage”. They may end up like Bags 2.0 or some failed top 5 draft picks. I wouldn’t mind letting Gentry take over the helm from here if they tank. Don’t even get me started on Bags, he’s one of the most selfish players I’ve seen in a while, the dude like has no passing instincts.
3) Yeah we’re not built to win, but most people in the media see us competing at least for a spot on the playoffs or even the play-in tournament. The roster is similar from last year, with Hali replacing Bogi and Whiteside and Metu replacing Len and Giles, and that roster is at 9th spot before COVID happened. So some of us fans are still be optimistic about the team competing for an 8th or 9th seed at least.
4) This has to be the worst Kings club since 17-65 season in my opinion. Back then we were young, supposed to fail and develop. We can say anything about Cuz but the man has a lot of passion and he wants to win. I don’t see that fire with these guys maybe except for Hali. During the last decade we were bad but we compete, we were bad on D but not on a historical level.
5) I hope the Kings management cares about this but we fans deserve a better team! It sucks rooting for a losing team for the past 15 seasons, we’re maybe here because of proximity to Sacramento, sports fans, love for the game of basketball, optimism, etc. but we deserve a competing team. This team makes money from us (tickets, merchandise, social media and more). I even flew to Sac a couple of times during my trips in the US just to watch the Kings live. Heck, I even know someone who passed away just wishes to see the Kings in playoffs again. Hopefully Monte can turn this franchise around.
In the words of Beli, “Fuck it, we deserve
this win,a better team”What if that’s the plan?
What if that’s the plan?
Let’s hope not!
Let’s hope so!
Let’s hope they have the necessary courage
I hope so. My apologies for the long read man.
Where are you from, Kui?
We really should keep high IQ players.
On this team, only Tyrese and Bjelica have high BBIQ.
Maybe Barnes too, because of his experience, and Kyle Guy (thru eye test)
The thing that pisses me off is the Kings’ scouting dept. Why do they continue adding players like Cory Joseph, Justin James, Robinson, Parker, Whiteside? (and too many more to count under Vlade’s kangzmanship) when it’s clearer than daylight that they will never move the needle nor make the playoff roster – if and when it happens.
I would be happy if they stopped playing the players I mentioned above and just spread their minutes to Woodard, Ramsey & Guy.
Have a thumb for Kangzmanship. With your permission, I’d like to use that word going forward … like, Bagley showed great Kangzmanship by playing such bad defense that he was benched for the entire fourth quarter.
Feel free!
To be fair, most of those guys were the work of the previous FO. The two that aren’t are deep bench, one-year, minimum contracts. Not guys that were scouted to be key parts of the team’s future. The guys this FO made any move on with the intention of keeping around to some degree are Fox, Hali, Woodard, Ramsey, Jeffries, & Metu. And I’d say those last 3 are seen as easily cut-able.
yeah, this team is still shackled by the disease of the Vlade regime and it’s going to at least take until next year to improve drastically. I just saw that Cojo’s contract is guaranteed until 2022 and he makes 12m next year…I mean those are the types of moves a bad franchise can’t make if they want to climb out of the gutter
Buddy’s contract is pretty bad too. He had a nice breakout game last night but it’s telling that he scored 17 in the first quarter and the kings were up by only 3. I don’t look at the numbers but how many points would he need to score a game in order to make up for his absent defense?
Fox needs to make FT for real 🙁
Only $2.4MM of Cojo’s contract is guaranteed for next season.
oh I see, thanks for the clarification. That at least makes me feel better. I’m all for the tank but watching cojo is not even entertaining
If in reference to basketball smarts, if you throw out, “maybe Barnes,” looking in a mirror might be a good place to start.
I mean, I’ll just give you a thumbs up and leave it at that. Well said!
How can this team have fans from around the globe.
what goes around come in full circle.
Don’t ask me. I’m an idiot.
Good point on Fox.
Why didn’t he run some time off the clock after that steal? The Kings probably could have sealed the deal right then and there.
I feel like this team is just so desperate to make a statement + a mix of bad coaching they go for these flashy plays that end up hurting them. After the big Barnes dunk, Fox probably wanted to send em home. It’s such a detrimental aspect of his game that he can’t shoot FT because he can live at the line
Under pressure
Dum dum dum do do dum dum
I didn’t catch the game, but I did see the score at 123-115 with a minute left, and when I saw that they lost it, I wasn’t even mad….I found at utterly hilarious because it is just so Kangz to do something like that.
It was at that exact moment that Bagley took the ball at the top of the key, with like 15 seconds left on the shot clock and drove to the basket, and (shocker), he had the ball knocked away for an easy transition 3. That exact moment felt like the low BBIQ play + momentum swing that changed things for me.
That’s an “I need my statzz” decision right there!
Free Throws should be renamed Shootit-or-Stoopid
And the Golden Globe for worst collapse in an NBA game this season goes to…
The Sacramento KANGZ!
I am impressed.
I kept thinking, shit. They aren’t going to gack this up.
The Barnes dunk. The Fox floater with Buddy laying on ground. I found myself disappointed that the Kings may pull of the meaningless win.
And yet, the Kings did there thing and I’m all, no way! They did it! They actually found a way to do it!
Impressive!
*their
(you would never from this account know that I write a lot in my career! You would also never know that I tend to have food taste in things, favorite basketball team excluded! ð¬)
The “food taste” should be good taste, perhaps?
No, I would never tell you write a lot in your career.
Are you a good critic? Sorry, food critic?
Holy moly. I am blaming my stupid phone for that abomination of a post. And I was making fun of a typo too! ð¤ª
My wife and I had our first child Friday night. He watched his first Kings game with Dad this evening. Welcome to hell young man.
I legitimately laughed hard when they lost this game. Let the tank roll on and burn this thing down.
Finally, I know Otis believes this team’s defense will get better. We are basically half way through the season and this is not even remotely getting better. We might actually be watching the worst defensive team in NBA history.
Congrats!
Do you want him to follow the Kings or are you going to let him pick his teams? 😉
Congrats, and I’m very impressed things were chill enough on Night 3 that you got to watch the game.
Well chill is relative but he at least slept through the first half.
Just like me!
The 1st half was a lot more enjoyable. Actually, I didn’t mind the game until the last minute. But I’m easily entertained so there is that.
I watched a number of games doing laps around the living room bouncing an overtired baby and singing every song I know to try to find the magic tune. For my first, that magic tune ended up being Friday, I’m in Love. For my second, it was nothing. Ended up taking her outside was the key to calming her down.
GREAT STORY!
I burned a CD of the songs that helped made my son sleep the best, while I was holding him, often dancing. Great memories.
Hey ya by Outkast and Street Spirit by Radiohead were a few of the better ones.
Congrats FKAC! Hopefully you and your son get to enjoy (or suffer through) many Kings games together!
Congratulations, FKaC!
Enjoy the experience. Time flies, especially the early years.
Yep it’s certainly not improving to this point. I still expect we’ll see some stretches of winning basketball, but it’s going to be based strictly on outscoring the opposition.
And congrats! The first part of the post is clearly the most important. 🙂
I remember many nights just sitting on the couch watching the Kings or Giants play with my daughter snoozing in my arms.
You’ve got about a year or so until he’s on the move, and you’ll only be catching bits and pieces of the game as you’re chasing him around. So enjoy for now!
Congrats!! I have a 13 year old and an 11 year old. Neither has been alive to see a Kings playoff game. Let’s hope the same can’t be said for your son.
Idiot. I have two of those things and you should have talked to me first!
Congratulations. Pro tip: A baby sleeping on your chest is a great excuse to sit and watch a game for a couple hours.
Congrats. Toilet train him before you make him a Kangz fan or he will never get it inside the rim.
Congratulations man.
Congratulations!
Very happy for you 🙂
Congrats on the newborn. 🙂
hell yeah dude
Congrats, does that count as child abuse? I bought my daughters Kings merch…
Unfortunately, I’m a mandated reporter. So expect a call from the authorities.
Congrats! Get some sleep, pops. You’re going to need it!
Lamelo won the game. He smacked Fox on the head and no one stood up for him. Kings are soft pups. Zero dogs.
That was pretty disheartening seeing the lack of reaction from the Kings after that smack down of Fox.
That move by Lamelo could have been career ending for our starting point guard, yet there was no push back from his teammates.
That was the first time I’ve openly rooted for them to collapse and lose.
That was too close Monty, do something soon please.
Is Monty even allowed to do his thing or are Joe and the Dope undercutting him?
Do we know what Monte’s thing is ? We do know about the other two ? Not encouraging to me on any level !
KANGZ LIVE! LONG LIVE THE KANGZ!
Who is the worst player we can draft with the fourth pick? Evan Mobley or Jalen Green?
Don’t know if there are any “worse” player to draft in what looks like a really good draft but to answer your question it’s probably Jalen Green for me. He is currently #5 on my personal big board.
1. Cunningham, 2. Kuminga, 3. Mobley, 4. Suggs, 5. Green
Do people have Kuminga higher than the other 3 because he’s not a guard?
It’s the impression I get. But i haven’t seen enough of all of them to form an opinion. Cunningham does look like a stud, though.
For the people that have him there (there are plenty of people that have Mobley above him), I think it’s a combination of:
If you were to rank those 5 by a number of attributes and skills (size, athleticism, ballhandling, shooting, rebounding, defensive ability, etc.), Kuminga would probably in the top 2-3 for all of them.
Don’t know about the others but for me even before the season started I already have him as my #2 guy behind Cade.
After watching him play on the G-league, I still have him rank 2nd just above Mobley, Suggs and Green.
I think any of Green, Kuminga, Mobley or Suggs could be there at 4. It’s hard to make any real guesses until we know the draft order.
If they promise to make their free throws, will you guys promise to list the winning team’s score first like all other sports outlets on earth?
Watch ESPN … read a newspaper … check out every other SB Nation site.
Like this – Hornets 127, Kings 126
Only soccer moms say their team’s score first regardless of the outcome … they won us 2-4 but everyone tried hard and got a trophy.
Good Lord our NBA team is minor league enough, can you make this one small adjustment to look and sound more professional?
As for the game … LOL, Kangz.
Exactly WITF else does Luke have to do to get canned?
Do you copy and paste that every game?
Game score sequence, Marvin Bagley hate…to-may-to, to-mah-to.
Well played sir
Lame.
u don’t get it.
the score where Kangz appear first enphasizes the choke job.
erratum – emphasizes
There’s a lot going on in this comment for what’s essentially an extremely minor formatting complaint
I think showing the Kings score first is a good reflection about this team’s priorities. We are only interested in scoring as much as possible ourselves. We don’t care how much the other team scores. Defense? As (HongKong)fan favorite Jabari Parker famously said: “They don’t pay players to play defense.”
So why care about the score of the other team? It’s Sacramento first. Scaramento first.
Pretty sure the home team is listed first…
Kings haven’t made the playoffs in 15 years, BUT GODDAMMIT, FIX YOUR FORMATTING!
The score is formatted correctly for TKH patrons. It’s a nice little perk tbh.
Nights like tonight make me question why in the fuck I root for this team at all
Good news tho is that I gave up watching this season early, started watching more to see Hali but after 2 games into the streak I never turned the channel back on. Glad I did.
If it hadn’t been for TKH and this community of commenters, I’m not sure I’d be following the Kings much at all these past couple years.
I watch because of Tyrese (and tonite, just to see Lamelo)
I use buffstream and always on mute. Can’t stand Christie’s antics.
So you just stopped by to comment on a game that you didn’t watch? Would you at least tell us what you were doing instead of watching the game? I mean, throw us a frickin bone, here.