In a last ditch effort to increases their chances at Victor Wembanyama, and with no thought toward pushing the Golden State Warriors into the fifth seed and out of their playoff pathway, the Sacramento Kings sat several key players Friday night, and their shorthanded crew couldn’t hang with the defending champions. Trey Lyles and Chimezie Metu led the way for the Kings, combining for 30 points and 17 rebounds, while Steph Curry and Klay Thompson submitted their best impressions of Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk, putting up a total of 54 points on just 33 field goal attempts.
The Good, The Better, & The Best
THE GOOD
No Back Down from the Bench: With the Warriors in need of a win to secure their position inside the top-6 and the Kings not exactly gunning for a win, it would have been easy for the backups to mail in a performance and head home, but they fought hard all game. Throughout the night, the Kings shouldered their way back into the game despite being down double-digits, forcing Golden State’s three key players to each play well over 30 minutes. There wasn’t much of a hope of victory tonight, but Sacramento’s rotation of mostly backups refused to buy into that belief.
THE BAD
Guard Production: With De’Aaron Fox, Kevin Huerter, and Malik Monk out of commission for the Kings, Davion Mitchell, Terence Davis, and PJ Dozier needed to step as scorers, but they very much weren’t up to the task. The three primary guards combined to score fewer points than De’Aaron Fox on an average night, as they totaled 22 points on 39 shots in 70 minutes of play.
THE UGLY
Putting the Ball in the Bucket: It’s quite hard, and some might even say it’s impossible, to score in the NBA without putting the ball in the bucket, and the Kings very much struggled to accomplish that task on Friday evening. They shot 38/98 (38%) from the floor, 11/39 (28%) from deep, and 10/18 (55%) from the free throw line.
The King of Kings
Any fans who watched this game without the obligation of writing a recap deserve a gold medal. Congrats, random fan(s) with nothing better to do!
Up Next
Sunday, April 9th @ Denver Nuggets – 12:30 P.M. (PT)
Thank God the Kings didn’t draft Doncic
I get not liking Doncic to an extent, but what he accomplished in only 5 years in the league at age 24 (barely) without a strong supporting staff and an allegedly bad coach (not to mention GM) is pretty amazing.
If leading a team to the WCF (almost singlehandedly) isn’t impressive, what does that say about the Kings?
With all due respect to our 3rd place finish (and I love it!), we haven’t achieved jack shit (yet), and yet are talking smack like all these fans of franchises we despise.
Just last year, the Mavs were 52-30, better than the Kings this year. Let’s see how we fare next year. If one thing is clear in the NBA, it’s that sustained succes is not a given.
“Without a strong supporting staff” lol
???
He did not have as good a roster as current Kings so 52-30 and West finals looks good to me . Hope Kings can do as well .
Just last year?
Yes, only a season ago, the Mavs went 52-30.
Luka is a top 5 player. Neither Fox or Sabonis are top 15. Yet some Kings fans are trying to talk big just because we’ve had one season of success. I find that strange.
Funny how quickly people forget how good Luka is. Just look at the Mavs roster, it’s trash. The Mavs are doing to Luka what they did to Dirk, not putting talent around him, let alone a second star player. Yet he still dragged his team to the WCF less than a year ago, but now all of a sudden he’s not elite lol.
If Luka demands a trade and you’re Monte you listen. Simple as that.
You can listen but you don’t bit.
Kyrie Irving is trash? Christian Wood is trash? They are a solid team. I was duly impressed when I saw them live at last Kings-Mavs OT game.
This is silly. Doncic did not lead the Mavs singlehandledly to the WCF. There were multiple reasons he got there. One was the play of the others there (Brunson, Finney-Smith, Dinwiddie), one was the fact that Phoenix completely and totally shit the bed in that series, and one was the fact that when Luka is right (not always the case) he’s spectacular at least from a boxscore perspective.
But this notion that the Kings would be better off automatically with Luka because he’s an automatic 1st ballot HoF (which he’s not yet IMO) is not necessarily true. I wouldn’t swap Luka for Fox right now, and I’m fairly confident Monte McNair wouldn’t either.
Luka’s getting a lot of deserved heat for bad attitude, being out of shape, and the precipitous fall down the standings. Meanwhile, Jalen Brunson is in the playoffs, Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith are also in the playoffs, and chances are Luka’s is going to be on his 3rd set of GM/HC in the process this time next year.
That does not scream stability and this guy ain’t LeBron James. Let’s not get it twisted.
This is also silly.
Which LBJ are we talking about?
The LBJ quit on the Cavs in a play-off series against the Celtics, spurned on national TV with The Decision and then formed a Superteam that would get not 3, not 4, not 5 championships… and only won his first one his 9th year in the league with said Superteam.
Luka just finished his 5th season in the league. Let’s not close the book yet.
Your silly is better than my silly? Umm kay, sure. Whatever floats your boat fake Dutchman.
I wouldn’t swap Luka for Fox right now, and I’m fairly confident Monte McNair wouldn’t either.
This is laughable. MM would in a heartbeat just as every GM would.
Here’s The Ringer’s player rankings, Luka is at 5 and Fox at 27.
https://nbarankings.theringer.com/
I know what the Ringer’s rankings are, I’ve read them a few times.
But that doesn’t address my point in any way. And you conveniently ignored Sabonis also being higher than Fox on that list, too, and I would be willing to bet a lot of money (that I don’t have so the issue is ultimately moot) Sabonis would not want to play with Doncic more than Fox.
But that said, your opinion is just that: It’s an opinion. I don’t think the Kings want Doncic for a bunch of reasons. Let’s start with the fact that Doncic is a ball stopper who wants the ball in his hands at all times and this is a team that thrives on both player and ball movement. It does not stick in a singular players hands as often as you are going to attempt to claim it does with Fox (which is generally true later in games, not so earlier in games). When has that ever been Luka Doncic’s strength? Does he make you better defensively?
You wanna be a Luka Doncic ball licker, go forth. I don’t give a shit. But I don’t like watching James Harden Jr and I’m not sure this team as constructed would do anything but implode if they had to concede their principles to implement Luka and everything that he does. He has to be the alpha and omega of your universe, and as I said to the fake Marist grad already, LeBron James Luka Doncic ain’t. (I’m not a fan of LeBron either.) Put another way, and more bluntly, Luka ain’t good enough to build your entire universe around. The longer his career goes on, especially on the current path, the more it’s looking like the WCF might really be an aberration.
Hey Rick did you send that message to Vlade since he totally fkd us out of a great player?
Short memory and selective history . Luka likely to be a first ballot HOF’er . He has already played in a lot of playoff games . Do not care for his whining but he is an all time talent .
agood for Luka. I still would’t want him on the Kings. A whiner and complainer would simply destroy the image and culture the Kings along with Browm and McNair are trying hard to achieve, IMO he just would’t fit as he would always want the ball and isn’t a team player like Harrison Barnes. By the way Barnes gets a technical for the other while Doncic should get one every night if you want to make comparisons. The refs are a total joke when it comes to given out technical fouls. Another comparison look at Green.
Yes let’s not want a generational talent because he whines on the court a lot. Makes sense.
And what comparison is there to be made between Luka and HB? Random.
You can compare the two when you talk about how they impact a team other than hogging the ball or being a complainer and whiner. Harrison Barnes is professional basketball player in more ways than Doncic ever could and in that respect helps his team more than Doncic could ever do.
You know what popped in my head while I was watching the final game of the season. Usually the last game of the year where I can root for my team until the lottery.
Who of the Kings players within the last 16 years do you wish had the chance to make the Playoffs in a Kings uniform?
I would say Donte Greene.
Jason Thompson
he complained a lot about leaving the kings..
Yup.
Ironman, a good guy, never caused trouble, always worked hard.
Played the most games of any King during the drought, I am quite sure.
Jason Thompson is of course the correct answer
Lol, literally my least favorite King of all time. The whiniest, clumsiest player I can remember. Just nothing but whining all game long because he was bad at basketball. And we endured YEARS of him starting on this team. The moment players like Thompson (and Greene for that matter) left here they were end of the bench on other teams and then out of the league.
You rang??
Isaiah Thomas
No love for Cash Considerations?
umm, if the Kings play the dubs first round, we might need some more cowbell .,,
is the cowbell embarrassing a bit?
And you are?
eddie41 is asking for more cowbell
haha. just putting the idea out there. In one of the recent podcasts, Jerry Reynolds was asked which team he would not want to face in the first round and he said the Warriors, partly because of the number of Warriors fans who would buy up tickets.
The thought was more pushing the Lakers back than the Warriors to 5th, but both could work
Ideally:
Duds at 5 and Clips or NOP at 6.
As long as Lakers are in the play-in I’m good. I don’t see them beating DEN or MEM in round 1.
I have a question for any or all of you. As I understand it if the Clippers and Warriors tie then the Clippers own the tie breaker. Can they then decide to play at the sixth spot and move the Warriors up to number 5 or do they have no choice and automatically move up to #5? If they did I would think they would rather play the Kings than the Suns. Please comment.
The tiebreakers are done by the NBA. Teams in advance are aware how the NBA rules (the team that owns the tiebreaker gets the higher seed).
At this point, what the Warriors and Clippers want is to not be in the play-in. The Nuggets-Jazz game tips off in SLC at 1230 Pacific, the Clippers-Blazers game tips off in LA at 1 Pacific and the Wolves-Spurs tips off in SA at 1 Pacific as well.
If the Clippers win their game, they have the inside track to the 5 seed due to tiebreakers. What they do not want is to be the 7 seed. They’d much rather play Phoenix or Sac in part because they’d get rest and would avoid a play-in like last season.
As of now, the Clippers own both tiebreakers against the Dubs and Lakers.
Here’s a tiebreaker scenario for you as well from the NBA.
https://twitter.com/NBAPR/status/1644761679404605440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
OT: does anyone know if the playoff games are going to be televised locally on NBC Sports?
No. It’ll be on ABC/ESPN, TNT, and NBATV. It’s all nationally televised games at that point.
but the Kings are playing, so I dunno
.
I think that it will be the Kings match up opponent who will be nationally televised and the Kings are a throw-in.
(gotta keep the Disrespect attitude fresh and active- it’s part of the Kings fan persona)
Goddamn right.
much appreciated. sounds like a 1 month Sling account is in order!
I am incredibly confused as to why Harrison Barnes played so many minutes. That’s my thought. Otherwise, it’s ‘eh, whatever.’
my butt pulled guess –
HB40 has played every game this season (81) and probably wanted to log in for this and the last game. Since he was in (and playing his colleagues at GSW) he likely wanted to stay in for a bit.
Barnes joins NBA minutes played leader Mikal Bridges (2,963 – I doubt he plays 37 or more against Philly to reach 3K, though Nets are only one game > Heat for 6 spot. But maybe).
Jordan Poole is another 81 game player in the Top 25 for minutes this season.
For Sacramento- Domas (he of the fractured phalanx fame) has 2,717 minutes played thus far to lead Harrison at 2,644.
Health and durability is a skill – a most valuable one!
The whole East bracket is set. Milwaukee is 1, Boston 2, Philly 3, Cleveland 4, New York 5, Brooklyn 6, Miami 7, Atlanta 8, Toronto 9 and Chicago 10. It got solidified last night.
Yeah. I’m hoping he only plays 5 minutes against Denver tomorrow. If that. Keegan too. They played enough minutes against GSW last night. (I’m thinking that was done on purpose to see what those lineup’s looked like…..maybe?) Maybe that was just HB’s version of a light workout? I dunno….
De’Aaron, Domas & Kevin won’t play tomorrow. HB & Keegan will barely play (I’m hoping.) Malik will likely get another ‘DNP-CD.’ Then again he might play if they want to get him some minutes to get his legs under him. And will barely play if he does.
This is going to be another end of the bench game for both the Kings and Nuggets. I’d be shocked if we’d see any of Caldwell-Pope, Jokic, Murray, Porter, Fox, Sabonis or Huerter. Bruce Brown might be another guy who sits, as well.
And as usual – you are correct, Sir.
Tuesday April 11 (TNT)
Hawks @ Heat
Western 8 @ Western 7
Wednesday April 12 (ESPN)
Bulls @ Raptors
Thunder @ Western 9
Thursday April 13 – Off/Travel Day
Friday April 14
Fight for Eastern 8th (TNT)
Fight for Western 8th (ESPN)
Saturday – Playoffs start
I’m not that smart, I’m just on Twitter.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Clippers intentionally lose a game to avoid playing the Suns. They own the tiebreaker vs the Lakers, so they can afford to. Nobody wants to play the Suns with a healthy and rested Durant. Keeping my fingers crossed
They play Blazers today, Phoenix on tomorrow.
Risky business –
Do you win today securing no play in and try and lose against PHX bench – then Warriors play Portland and can control the position.
Lakers have tiebreaker over Golden State. Lakers play Jazz at Staples tomorrow with Utah tanking.
Fun time of the year especially looking from the outside in.
Thunder and Minny are very likely fighting at the 9-10 spot. NOP/Lakers/GSW/LAC are a jumble. Warriors can be lower than 8 as they have 43 wins.
Tomorrow will be fun. And they all play at the same start time, 12:30.
Yes – The Warriors are in the squeeze:
If the Lakers win and Golden State loses – they drop to Play-In 7th
If the Clippers lose and Golden State wins – they move to 5th and play Phoenix
If the Clippers win and Golden St. wins then LAC v. Suns, GSW v. Kings, LAL in the Play-In Tuesday.
btw – If Lakers lose and NOP wins and MIN wins, then they drop 9.
https://twitter.com/JDJohnDickinson/status/1644827259201806336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Here’s a great synopsis of what needs to happen for the Warriors to finish where. CBS Sports has all the breakdowns you need period for all the teams.
I actually love the Dubs as a matchup though, for the Kings. Take away the optics, the front of the jersey and the last decade of success, and I think this matchup is very favorable for the Kings. Who is going to defend Fox for the Dubs? Wiggins? GPII? Great! Who are they going to take off the floor to do that?
When the Kings finished facing the Dubs for the 3rd time this season on Nov 13th, their ORtg was 114.4. In between then, games 13 to 80, the Kings ORtg has been 120 on the nose. My point here is that despite the Kings seeing the Dubs, they haven’t seen them in a game that’s mattered much in the grand scheme of things….ever.
How do they defend Sabonis inside when he goes down there? Can Klay defend anyone on this group? How are the Dubs going to get away playing both Looney and Green together offensively? How will the Dubs attack Sabonis defensively given that they don’t particularly attack the cup frequently or consistently?
Can Murray and/or Barnes take advantage of their matchup’s on offense? Will Kessler Edwards have an impact this series? Do the Kings use Metu against the Dubs since he’s done well against them? Will Lyles get it going against the Dubs in the playoffs? What kind of impact does Davion Mitchell going to have? Jordan Poole and Steph Curry are exactly right in Davion’s wheelhouse in terms of defensive coverage. I haven’t mentioned Monk or Huerter and I expect to see a number of lineup’s with those two in the playoffs. The Warriors can’t get bigger than Sac and going smaller might be a real advantage for Sac, too.
So many questions here, but I don’t really think the Warriors have as many counters here as one might think. Their offense is jump shooting and Curry (to a lesser extent Thompson and Poole) dependent. They need Looney and Green for their defense (not to mention Wiggins and GPII). I think the answers and counters for them aren’t as plentiful as people think, and the Kings have some counters of their own the Dubs aren’t used to seeing. They have some similar strengths and weaknesses but I think the chief difference between the Kings and Warriors is that their offense is truly elite and the Warriors aren’t necessarily elite on either end of the court. Even when you factor the absences of their players, I’m not sure they are an elite defensive team. Even when you factor they have the 3rd highest offensive eFG% of a team in the NBA, they have a middling ORtg due to a horrible turnover rate (2nd worst), the worst FT drawing team in the NBA and they offset this somehow by being a middle of the pack offensive rebounding team. Defensively, they don’t force as many turnovers as they give up, and they are an okay defensive rebounding team but not a great one. The Kings have been top 5 or near top 5 all season in that department, the Warriors are not. Other than history, and Steph being able to maybe give the Dubs a W on his own, I’m not sure what this team truly does that is elite.
I can see this being a 5 game series with all the deep playoff runs, last years playoff run, the Wiggins off-court issue, their off-court drama hitting from every angle, and everything else. While it’s too early to say for certain the Warriors demise is here, it’s feeling like this is the beginning of the end of that era to me. There’s a number of real cracks there, the mystique is gone (I’ve never seen them lose a game where Curry went off for 50 like they did in LA 3 weeks or so ago; the loss in Denver without Jokic playing was another red flag) and it feels like they are primed for an early exit despite their reputation suggesting otherwise. As always the proof is in the pudding, but there’s a reason I want the Warriors: I think they are the best matchup for the Kings to advance into the 2nd round.
Terrence Davis can shoot you into a game or out of one in about 3 minutes. Unfortunately last night it was the latter.
Don’t let the Warriors record fool you. They are a top-tier team that knows how to win. If Kings match up against them in Round 1 it will be very tough.
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