With just five games left in the regular season, your playoff-bound Beam Team looked to get their 48th victory against the San Antonio Spurs. (I still can’t believe all the words in that sentence are real.) The Kings came in with their shiny 3rd seed and having won their last two, while the Spurs came in at the 14th seed and having lost their last seven. Who said trap game?! Silence that person immediately! We’re in the Beam era now. Let’s see how they did:
Quick Stats
Outcome: Kings lose, 134-142
Sacramento Kings: 134 pts, 47.6% fg, 25.0% 3 pt, 78.1% ft, 24 ast, 43 reb, 15 to
San Antonio Spurs: 142 pts, 53.1% fg, 38.2% 3 pt, 86.2% ft, 31 ast, 52 reb, 18 to
Trap game, indeed. My apologies to all silenced parties. In a very underwhelming four quarters against a very depleted Spurs team, the Kings managed to climb back to send this one into overtime. But names like Doug McDermott, Julian Champagnie, and Tre Jones were too much for the Kings to handle.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The Good
- 4th Quarter Fox: The Kings trailed for most of the game and desperately needed some 4th quarter heroics from De’Aaron Fox. As the most clutch player in the game does, Fox showed up for his team and scored 16 of his 28 points in the 4th quarter to push his team into overtime and give them a chance at winning a very underwhelming game. With the help of some very solid screens from Alex Len, Fox got to his spots with ease and knocked down midrange jumpers or found easy layups at the rim. No matter what, I never want to take for granted the incredible clutch shotmaking of De’Aaron Fox.
the Bad
- Defense: What the Spurs lack in big name talent, you can be sure Gregg Popovich’s team will make up for in fundamentals and effort. This is what led to Doug McDermott’s 30-point performance and a new career-high of 26 points for Julian Champagnie. Early on, the Kings got caught sleeping on the defensive end and paid for it in embarrassing wide open back door cuts by the Spurs. The Kings also gave up 14 offensive boards to the Spurs, showing their lack of focus on finishing out defensive possessions.
- Conversion Trouble: When the Kings were locked in on defense, they were able to disrupt the Spurs and ultimately forced them into 18 turnovers. However, the Kings failed to convert on these opportunities a handful of times, only scoring 20 points from all of those chances.
The Ugly
- 1st Half: The 1st half was not only ugly, but also weird. The Kings looked disjointed and disconnected on both sides of the floor. They committed 11 turnovers from sloppy passes and miscommunicated executions on offense. The defense was exposed for its worst habits. Although he ultimately finished with 26 points and eight rebounds, Domantas Sabonis finished the 1st half with just four points and four rebounds, a rare and weird stat for the dominant center. De’Aaron Fox finished the half with just seven points. Meanwhile, Julian Champagnie had far surpassed his previous career-high of 12 points by scoring 22 points in the 1st half. The Kings showed their bad habit of coming out slow and letting their opponent dominate for a major portion of the game.
The King of Kings
Alex Len gave the Kings 13 great minutes tonight. Len took advantage of every second he got on the floor by being active on both sides, getting offensive boards and causing deflections and turnovers on defense. Len finished with six points, seven rebounds, and two blocks.
Operation: MCNAIR – Season 2 Watch
Today’s chosen charity is the Wildlife Care Association. Donate if you are able to and be sure to notify Will via Twitter (@WillofThaPeople) or e-mail ([email protected]) so he can continue to track donation totals.
Up Next
Tuesday, April 4th @ New Orleans Pelicans – 5:00 P.M. (PT)
KANGZ still here. My God, that was an ugly loss and at home too.
Heh, maybe we shouldn’t have home court advantage in the playoffs. We seem to play great on the road. 😛
What to take away from a game like this? Very little. Memphis lost today to Chicago in Chicago and lost by completely falling flat in the 4th qtr (Stacey King repeatedly said they looked rattled and it’s hard to disagree with that either). Minnesota lost a tight game to the Blazers in rather inexplicable fashion. These games happen, regardless of where you are in the standings.
Short of winning by, what, 30 points, what would have the Kings achieved today? And what would have that achieved exactly?
The Kings played badly all day, they didn’t touch the paint or play inside/out nearly often enough, couldn’t hit 3’s at a high enough rate, got outshot and outrebounded by the Spurs, and managed to take this game to OT. De’Aaron Fox went from 0-8 from 3, Kevin Huerter went 2-12 from 3. These things happen….but my question is why shoot so many? I don’t think they really were paying all that much attention to those details, honestly, and I think the coaching staff didn’t stop them.
What exactly about any of that last paragraph is preparation for the playoffs? When you get outshoot and outrebounded, you lose by 40 to a playoff team. That’s the problem.
The Kings need to figure out a way to harness the energy of GoldenOne to their advantage and they have fallen flat (and shot badly) twice in a row. That’s not an accident. They are probably trying too hard, and mentally didn’t really look engaged early. By the time they did, McDermott, Jones and Champagnie had gotten going. They fucked around with their food and found out. These guys are NBA players, you can lose to any team at any time in this league.
The Kings need to be reminded that while being home is nice, they have to make it their advantage. At times they’ve done so this season, at times they have not. Today they did not. They will clinch the Pacific (although Phoenix will beat OKC so it won’t be today), they probably won’t catch Memphis for the 2 seed (although I don’t care much about that since I don’t see Memphis or Sacramento being anything near a lock to advance past the 1st round), and Minnesota lost to Portland at home for some reason. Denver might clinch the #1 seed Wednesday night (they play Phoenix in Phoenix on a rest disadvantage SEGABABA for Phx).
At the end of the day, this is what matters: Nobody got hurt. It would have been nice if the Kings had clinched today against the Spurs, and this team has to learn how to play in these moments. More of them are coming. It didn’t happen today, but learning how to beat teams in these moments is, forgive the cliche, a process. Part of the process is falling flat on your face when you should by all accounts really win.
And so it goes.
if Suns win out and Kings lose next 4, can Suns move into the 3rd slot?
we’re 2-2 against the Suns. Not sure what the next tiebreaker is.
I believe the next tiebreaker comes down to the number of Keegan Murrays each team has.
Yes. So I’ll lay out the schedule for both the Kings (47-31) and Suns (43-35) since you asked.
Sac (47-31):
4/4 @New Orleans
4/5 @Dallas (rest disadvantage SEGABABA for Sac)
4/7 Golden State
4/9 @Denver (rest disadvantage SEGABABA for Denver)
Phoenix (43-35):
4/4 San Antonio
4/5 Denver (rest disadvantage SEGABABA for Phx)
4/7 @LA Lakers
4/9 LA Clippers (rest disadvantage SEGABABA for LAC)
And I’ll just lay out everyone else.
Denver (51-36): Tonight vs GSW (they are leading as of now)
4/4 @Houston
4/6 @Phoenix
4/8 @Utah
4/9 Sac
Memphis (49-29):
4/4 Portland
4/5 @New Orleans
4/7 @Milwaukee
4/9 @Oklahoma City
LA Clippers (41-38):
4/5 LA Lakers (rest disadvantage SEGABABA for Lakers)
4/8 Portland
4/9 @Phoenix
Golden State (41-37):
Today: Losing to Denver
4/4 Oklahoma City
4/7 @Sac
4/9 @Portland (rest disadvantage SEGABABA for PDX)
LA Lakers (40-38): They beat the Rockets in Houston today.
4/4 @Utah
4/5 @LA Clippers
4/7 Phoenix
4/9 Utah
New Orleans (40-38) they beat the Clippers yesterday:
4/4 Sacramento
4/5 Memphis
4/7 New York
4/9 @Minnesota
Minnesota (39-40) they lost to the Blazers today:
4/4 @Brooklyn
4/8 @San Antonio
4/9 New Orleans (rest disadvantage for Wolves)
Oklahoma City (38-41) they lost to Phoenix today:
4/4 @Golden State
4/6 @Utah
4/9 Memphis
Hope this helps. Here’s the tiebreakers:
But #3 seems applicable here. Right now the Kings are 9-6 in the Pacific, Phoenix is 9-5. Basically, if the Kings win even once this is all moot. That’s why I’m not worried about the 3 seed.
Basically 8 shots to clinch. Still, I’d have preferred it was settled today. Then we could be thinking about resting players. Phx has won 5 in a row. I could see them winning out and the Kings’ sphincters getting tighter and tighter as the week goes on.
Of course you prefer it to be settled today. So would I. But…I don’t think it matters much. At least they are healthy still…as far as we know.
Don’t know about Monk.
I’m assuming that’s minor.
These losses against bad teams at home has been a trend all season now. It’s very concerning. Only 23-17 at home this season and we’re gonna have home court in the playoffs
Outside of seeding purposes, what does losing to a bad team have to do with you being competitive in the playoffs?
Outside of seeding purposes, what does losing to a bad team have to do with you being competitive in the playoffs?
Had to rec this.
Every team loses to bad teams. We have the 3rd sees locked.
It’s more about how they loss, by giving up 142, let me say that again 142!!! against the third worst team in the NBA who also happened to miss their “best” players plus Collins in OT
Our D sucks really bad. That’s not going to change and that’s also why we may get booted in the first round as a 3 seed. It’s just the reality.
MM had a chance to add defensive minded players at the deadline but he chose continuity. Odds are he’ll be adding at least two defensive stalwarts this offseason to balance the offensive minded players on the roster.
So let me get this straight, earlier in the game thread u said Grizzlies looked bad today against a better Chicago team and questioned if they could get out of the first round, but kings lose to a much worse Spurs team and that doesn’t really matter?
The Grizzlies did look bad against Chicago and particularly in the 2nd half. It was also a road game so it’s hardly the end of the world. But they haven’t looked good for awhile and they aren’t an automatic lock to win any 1st rd matchup. Neither is Sac.
The only team in the West that I’d favor in every matchup is Denver. Everyone else would need the right path in matchups to make it out, IMO. Yes, Phoenix too.
How much these losses matter is up to the individual. What this loss to SA did for the Kings was all but tie up the 2 seed for Memphis and the 3 seed for Sac. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But if you’re asking me, no, I don’t think this loss matters much. You don’t play bad teams in the playoffs, there are no automatic wins regardless, this team will have to figure out how to make their offense work in a 7 game playoff series which playing the Spurs wouldn’t prepare you for to begin with. So other than the optics of not looking good, and not meeting increased expectations of fans, what exactly did the Kings lose against the Spurs? What issues were exposed that we didn’t already know about? What issues were yout gonna solve by beating San Antonio?
Either way I’m not really sure what to expect in the playoffs. It’s a different animal than the regular season, it’s been a century since we’ve been there and other teams will be at their A game. To your defense Kings have shown up against the best teams. All I know is I will be attending game 1 or 2 in the first round.
Which “awhile” are we talking about?
They are 14-7 since the AS break, that is a .667 record. Their overall record is .628, so they have played better since the AS break, and that is with players missing plenty of games.
I think they look pretty damn good, actually. Their depth is an underrated strength.
Since the 1st of the year really. I know they won games recently, but missing Adams and Clarke is not something they can easiliy replace. They’ve played Dallas and Houston 6 times and won all 6. To their credit, they’ve also beaten those guys.
I’m not saying they shouldn’t be at 49 W’s or a playoff team, I’m just saying I don’t think they are a lock to make it into the 2nd round at this point. Or anything near it.
They were 31-13 after their 11 game W streak and are 18-16 since. I didn’t say Sacramento was clearly better than them (they just aren’t missing two valuable pieces like Adams and Clarke) but I did say I don’t think I would necessarily make them the favorite in a 1st rd matchup. I’ll stand by that. Every time I watch them play, I don’t see the daunting dominant team others seem to see when Steven Adams is around..oh whoops, he isn’t!
And that’s really the issue here. Going back to Jan 1, the Grizzlies are 27-16….and the Kings are 28-16. In a lot of ways, their performances mirror each other yet nobody is talking about the Grizzlies like they might screw up their 1st rd matchup. They are a better defensive team, no doubt, but their offense is far worse, too. This is not a team I would pick to score 100 points in a playoff matchup against the Clippers or Lakers, for instance. They are a league average’ish offensive team and a top 6(?) maybe 8 defensive team? At worst they are a top 10 defensive team. But….the lower you slide down that scale, the more you open yourself up. You could argue the Lakers and Clippers are better defensive squads than the Grizzlies.
Post trade deadline, the Lakers are 15-7 and have the #1 DRtg in the NBA. (Orlando is surprisingly #5 in this same timeframe.) Memphis at 16-8 is #6 in DRtg at 2 points worse than the Lakers (Lakers are at 110.3, Memphis is at 112.3 DRtg respectively).
Memphis could catch any number of teams and get it in the 1st round. So could Sacramento. That was my point.
And how many games have they missed of key rotation players duringt that stretch?
In principle, any team can lose in the 1st round, including Denver.
I still don’t see why the Grizzlies look worse or have done worse in the second half of the season than others. On the contrary.
And you haven’t explained why you think they are better other than to say they are missing key pieces which they won’t have in the playoffs.
I’ll wait. I’m patient.
Their record since the AS break.
That’s what I figured.
No defense was and has been exposed. If you don’t think losing to the Spurs has most of our players having that in the back of their minds then they aren’t human. It hurts and shows us where we are defensively.
If you can’t beat a bad team how are you going to beat a really good team?
By beating a really good team? What’s a really good team anyway? Who are they in the West?
So glad we won’t be playing any bad teams at home in the playoffs.
I should not but will make some comments about last night. I an truly an optomist and love the Kings as much as any fan but I am also a realist. What I saw last night brought the realist ot. If you can’t stop a bench team and let them score 142 points how are you to stop in the first round a playoff team who would be one of the best team in the NBA. You can’t and won’t. Yes offense will win a couple of games but its defense that will get you past the first round and even farther. The coaches have been preaching defense the whole year and we have not figured it out yet. In the game last night I watched back doors again after again. I watched drive after drive and layups after layups. I watched McDermot shoot 3,s after 3’s with nobody contesting his shot or even moving him off the 3 point line. I watched us letting them get offense rebounds after offensive rebounds. If this keeps up we have nothing if we can’t shoot. This is going to be hard to swallow. Popovich out coached us last night. One case in point. 14 seconds left in the game, score tied. Fox brings the ball up the court slowly and everyone in that arena knows what’t going to happen. Popovich at the right time sends a player deep on the baseline to double team Fox and time is running out. Fox has to pass the ball as he is trapped and throws it to Huerter who is at that time 2 for 11. Missed shit. We go into overtime Fox doesn,t score again. Game over. One other thing. Has not the coaching staff sat Sabonis down and explained to him you can’t keep shoving players in the back ALL THE TIME. I don’t know the stats but I think half his fouls are those types. I would rather see him blocking some shots than pushes. He needs to be more physical on that part of his game. Len plays 13 minutes and has twice as many blocks.Enough said. Offense will win you some games but defense will get you farther into the playoffs. Just a little more defense. GO KINGS!!!
Pretty cool that you’re an optometrist. I was just thinking about getting my eyes checked.
Sorry about the spelling. I think you know what I wanted to say.
My only complaint was that you didn’t use paragraphs.
This loss is on the coaching staff for not having their starters ready to rock. Time to shake up the starting 5 to change the energy from the get-go. Starters need to be told their role is on the like Pop would so. This team had been coddled too long.
This loss sucked hard because it would’ve given them 48 wins with 4 to go. Gotten to within 1 Memphis. Would’ve kept their momentum up. Wouldn’t have reminded every pundit outside of Sac that we are not to be taken seriously. I kept waiting for them to turn it on and get that 10 point lead and cruise. Never happened.
Didn’t watch this one, but I’m not the least bit surprised by the result.
I watched and I’m not surprised either.
Yes, Sabonis is a stud but DAMN that interior defense is not good.
Monk didn’t play. Why?
If this team doesn’t play way better defense than they did today then they probably won’t last long in the playoffs.
I think Barnes should call a players only meeting. This defensive trend can only lead to playoff heartbreak and why wait until your on the edge of elimination.
Also thought that coaches should have used some zone defense at strategic times, which confuses young teams on occasion.
Four way tie in the loss (38) column for the fifth and sixth seeds between LAC, GS, NOP and LAL.
Really hoping NOP lands at 6, I think we’d take care of business easily against them.
GS and the two LA teams I think would be toss up series. We may be better than those three teams in a vacuum but our D is atrcious and those teams have a crap ton of playoff experience.
Kings didn’t win, didn’t clinch Pacific Division just yet.
How tough is the Pacific Division?
Here are today’s Western Conference standings
3- Sacramento
4- Phoenix
5 – LA Clippers
6- Golden State
7- LA Lakers
In other news – Dallas gets Kyrie and goes on to poop the bed, losing again today and Irving is a RFA after all this. This has got to be a frustrating situation for Cuban’s crew.
Yeah – Sac loses every category and got beat. Keegan looked good though and Fox is something (though no points in OT).
Mavs don’t have any way to get better given their lack of draft assets and bare roster. I think Luka demands a trade by next season’s end. They’ve put nothing but trash around him.
Kyrie definitely gonna be Laker next season, book it. Don’t really know who they would get back in a sign and trade
Agreed, such a dumb, shortsighted trade, Kyrie will be with AD and Lbj for sure.
The Mavs are doing to Luka what they did to Dirk. Just not putting talent or a sidekick around them. Funny thing is, the package they’d receive in a Luka trade is basically the Gobert package as you can only trade so many picks and swaps. Minny really f’kd over the whole league with that goofy trade.
Honestly fuck Kyrie, he’s so toxic everywhere he goes and always tries to make everything about him. His only option at this point is to join a team with stars
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?
I don’t think Brown is thinking about this game, but rather how to avoid these losses to to get better seeding. Seeding is where these losses hurt, nothing more.
That said, it’s part of the job description to be ticked off about these losses. Brown has gotten alot out of these guys, but he wants championships. He’s not willing to settle and if I were him I wouldn’t either.
Love this, probably the highlight of the game.
https://twitter.com/DeuceMason/status/1642659202324910080?s=20
Too bad the kings couldn’t provide him the win.
Do you think he would like to call a playoff game? If so the Kings should definitely give him the opportunity. After all the shit the dude had to wade through, I would just love to have him on the crew one last time for such an occasion.
Only if we win that game. Otherwise I’d just feel extra bad for him.
Local broadcasts no longer call the games. He’d have to do that on radio with Gary Gerould. He’s done that before plenty of times.
yes please
My point is he just might at G1C along with Jason Ross.
Can someone who was there enlighten what the reason was behind the Jerry tribute? I figured he lives in town and probably attends games every now and then, wondering why this was a big deal?
That game sucked shit. And Jones was in rare form with his (presumably) OCD synonym-fest.
“Mark? How would you describe a bad thing?”
“Odious. And bilious. Ruinous! Calamitous! DISASTROUS!”
“Hey, that’s great. Can we get Draper, or say, anyone else in here to call games now that we’ve shot Jones full of tranquilizer darts?”
And don’t even get me started on his Stuart Scott-inspired list of catchphrases the he runs through during every broadcast.
Seems he uses Kings games to try out catchphrases for his main job on ESPN . Only a few used during those games .
While I won’t say the Kings will lose their 1st round series, I can almost guarantee they’ll lose Game 1 of the series in front of the most boisterous crowd any of these players have ever seen. Time after time after time, as good as the team is, they sh*t the bed at home. Good thing they’re a good road team because they DO NOT play for these fans.
They’re 23-17, but admittedly, it would be nice if they’d not tripped over their own dicks in some of those very winnable losses.
Badge Legend