The Oklahoma City Thunder dispatched the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, to a final score of 121-105. The Kings trailed by as many as 23 points in the first half, and it looked like the Thunder would cruise to an easy victory. The Kings came out with a renewed spirit in the third quarter, led by a barrage of threes from Keegan Murray and Zach LaVine, closing the gap to just 6 points near the end of the third. But the Thunder re-gained the upper hand in the fourth and cruised to what was ultimately an easy victory. On a back to back, facing the Celtics the night before, the Kings simply couldn’t sustain their level of play against the best team in the NBA. It was a fourth straight loss for the Kings, who are now tied in record with the Phoenix Suns and just a half game ahead of the Dallas Mavericks (who also lost on Tuesday).
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
The Good
Keegan Murray: Keegan had himself a GAME. 28 points on 15 shots, 9/13 from three, 6 rebounds, a steal, and 3 “get that shit out of here” blocks. It was a fun reminder of just how good Keegan can be on both ends of the floor. He needs to do this more consistently, and we can debate about whether he’s held back by his own temperament or by his role on the team, but games like this are why I still believe in Keegan Murray as a crucial piece of this team’s future.
Jake LaRavia, causing chaos: I just love watching LaRavia scrap on defense. He finished this one with 11 points, 3 steals, 2 assists, and 2 rebounds. He’s the ultimate “better than the box score” player.
A more aggressive LaVine: Zach LaVine had 19 points, 7 assists, and 2 rebounds in this one. He was more aggressive looking for his shots, taking 11 threes in this game, but making just 4. LaVine is clearly struggling lately, but it was good seeing him play a little more aggressive, even as it feels like he’s capable of more.
The Bad
No Answers for the Thunder: OKC pretty much got whatever they wanted in this one. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 32 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Chet Holmgren had 18 points, 10 rebounds, and gave Domantas Sabonis fits inside all night. The Thunder were the better team, executed their game plan, utilized their depth, and truly showed just how far away this Kings squad is from being any sort of real threat in this league.
Delusion: In his postgame presser Doug Christie said he reminded his team at halftime that the Thunder are who the Kings would need to play in a playoff series. Hearing this had me going full Jim Mora. This team does not look like a team that can get out of the Play-In, if they can even hold onto their position and stay in the Play-In.
The Ugly
Three Point Defense: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. An opponent would drive past Sacramento’s weak perimeter defense, the defense would all collapse into the paint, and the ball would be kicked out for an easy, open three pointer. It’s been the simply playbook against the Kings for the past 2+ years, and the Thunder ran it over and over again. The Kings never adjusted. The Thunder made 19 of 32 threes. 59.4%. Embarrassing. The Kings held their own from three in this game (23/47, 48.9%), so this wasn’t necessarily why the Kings lost the game, but it was painfully obvious how easily teams can exploit the Kings defense.
King of Kings
Keegan Murray.
Up Next
The Kings host the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday, March 27th.
Forgot to mention in my recap, but I also love when Doug McDermott goes full flamethrower in garbage time. Made three 3s in 4 minutes of game time. Just catch and immediately launch. Hilarious and fun.
I trust his 3 way more than that other guy we traded for.
I don’t disagree but this feels unfair to Jonas Valanciunas
Indeed. My sincere apologies to JV!
Smells bad like we’ll get a “players only meeting” news update today. Hopefully we start getting some harrumphs out of Keegan.
I’d be surprised. Plenty of excuses to fall back on for the OKC loss. No Monk, second game of a B2B, etc.
Not saying those are valid excuses, but things that the players/coaches could point to and feel like things aren’t completely broken.
The rebuttal to the players/coaches would be that OKC was without J. Williams, Aaron Wiggins, and Cason Wallace. Doug says he isn’t about excuses, but he brings them up each game.
Agree, losing to Boston and OKC back to back is partly depressing as fans, because it’s clear we are nowhere near their level and it’s hard to see a path to this franchise catching them without hitting an absolute home run (e.g., drafting the next Jokic in the 2nd round or another Rockets get Harden type of trade).
But for the team, I think losing to arguably the two best teams in the league is sort of understandable. Now if we lose to Portland again tomorrow, we enter players-only meeting territory.
As tough as it is to lose in the final moments again, I think what fans need to understand is that the Kings are still young, still learning how to execute crunch time plays, especially against a seasoned playoff tested team like the OKC Thunder, who are actually in first place……ok. I tried to do my best inner Kayte but I have not had any coffee yet.
One good thing: It looks like Keegan is done deferring to vets & doing all the dirty work to still lose. I don’t really care what happens the rest of the season as long as Keegan explores the full parameters of his game. Those three’s he hit last night looked like his rookie season makes, I love that he is driving more, trying to find that shoulder bump fadeaway, and the joy he gets from swatting shots is exciting. Get this young man his touches and have him fully embraces is Jamal Wilkes 2.0-ishness.
One bad thing: Domas looks l-o-s-t. I know he has good bball iq, but the last two months he has made some of the dumbest plays I have seen him make, and I have been a fan since his rookie year. The amount of times he tries to force a bounce pass thru multiple defenders, the insistence of giving the ball to small gaurds under the basket instead of shooting himself, the frustration fouls. I think Domas can be a hub for a PG-less team, and it is probably the best role for him, but that is not what the Kings are running. There needs to be a PG or Domas needs to be a hub. The Kings are doing neither, and while it is easy to pile on as them being weak defensively, one of the main reasons they are is because they have so many just bad offensive possessions. So many bad shots, long rebounds from rushed three’s, and turnovers, the defense doesn’t have much of a chance. The team needs to pick a lane this summer, there is no use paying Domas 40m/year if they are just going to use him like he is Zubac or Poeltl. Personally, I would love to see him run the offense and surround him with shooters. I think Zach would work well with him if there was at least a nominal point guard who was a good catch and shoot player. Having Domas play with multiple ball pounders is just neutering his unique talents.
I want to see a DC, Keon, Jake, Keegan, Domas lineup get some burn. The Bust Their Asses lineup. JV and Lyles first off the bench.
Other players can earn minutes by bringing it on both ends of the floor when they see time.
Sub Lyles for Isaac Jones and I’m 100% onboard.
Works for me.
With Dame out the Suns might pass us tonight.
Suns play Boston tonight.
Tatum doubtful so still may pass us tonight.
Boston will also be without Dame, though. So HHB isn’t wrong.
Greg on a sarcasm roll this morning!
It’s a thing of beauty.
Shout out to you Greg. I needed that laugh.
I meant Tatum but I just read Dame’s DVT diagnosis so I had him on my mind. Caught slippin. Lol
10 games to go. Need to win 6 to finish at .500
POR, @ORL, @IND, @WAS, @CHA, @CLE, @DET(Segababa), DEN, LAC, PHO
How many we win? 3? 4?
7-3 absolute best-case, playing out of our minds scenario.
Still hope we catch some sort of fire and make the play-in/playoffs, but for Fox sake just don’t finish bottom 12 so we can FINALLY get rid of the Huerter pick protections from the ATL trade.
Absolute best-case scenario is 0-10.
Washington and Charlotte. Portland gives the Kings a tough time, and the other teams are all better than the Kings, imo.
Agreed. 2 wins and 8 losses.
Here are the Suns final games:
BOS, @MIN, HOU, @MIL, @BOS, @NY, GS, OKC, SAN, @SAC
It may come down to the final game a @SAC. I’d give the Suns the edge there.
Here are the final Mavs games:
@ORL, @CHI, BKL, ATL, @Clips, @Clips, LAL, TOR, @MEM
IF AD is playing and they start to click, they may pass both the Suns and the Kings, but Kings do own the tie breaker over them.
Agreed, the only two wins I see are Washington and Charlotte. Everybody else (including Detroit) will probably mop the floor with the Kings.
F*ck it…10-0
Just keep losing, just keep losing…
The offense is discombobulated. This is where Malik excels, and his presence was missed the last two nights. No initiation, no off-ball screens and cuts. The handful of times this was done, including one late in the game from Sabonis to Lavine, were nicely executed. The high DHO gets old and predictable. If the drive doesn’t work, throw it out to past the top of the key and start over, or go to DeMar for 1 on 1 back down. At times, letting Demar go 1 on 1 is very effective and usually he converts on a high percentage of mid-range shots, but not as the go-to play.
Defense: well characterized in this article. Kings defenders allow opponents to beat them off the dribble and easily get into the paint, where they either drive successfully, kick out to a wide open 3, or–most commonly–get fouled and get 2 points at the charity stripe.
It’s tough watching a team with 4 of our 6 or 7 best players being basically SGs. Lots of talent, but desperately missing a guard that is a facilitator first.
Some observations from the last couple of weeks..
-I may be naive, but I haven’t given up on LaVine just yet, even though he has been uninspiring the last 4-5 games. He definitely looks disengaged when DDR is on the floor with him. And I keep remembering how my performance suffered when I had newborns in the house….as many have said here, we’re kinda stuck with him the next two years, so..let’s build an offense around him and Domas, get a real nba point guard…and go from there.
-I still don’t like watching DDR play basketball. To my eyes, he gets his scoring by taking shots from the rest of the team. Trading him, even for a bag of chips, should be the priority next year. Orlando? They need a bucket guy…right? Right?
-Keegan is a really good all around basketball player. He’s literally the last guy I’d trade. I love watching his movement when off the ball on both defense and offense.
-Some on the board seem to want to try to manifest a Domas trade. If he leaves I’ll cancel my cable subscription. He’s in the top 3 all time Kings players, and he works his butt off every night. DDR on the floor just seems to hurt his game (but he’s not alone in this)
-lots of talk on this board recently about Vivek really not wanting to win. Gosh, really? He didn’t succeed in business by being a total idiot, and even an idiot would know that winning increases the value of the basketball team. Simplest explanation is he’s just not very good at this. Slightly less simple is that the ownership structure is the core problem. Both too many cooks and not enough money to do things the right way. Not excusing him here, just saying he most likely really does want to win…
-“Nice arena though” I’d like to just point out that it is a pretty nice arena. Can’t imagine downtown at all surviving the pandemic without it. As a born and raised Sacramento guy I’m thankful we have it.
-The Kings broadcast team has gotten its fair share of abuse on the board recently. To be clear, I don’t love them, but after watching the game on TNT last night, the Kings team seemed better. My pet peeve is the over use of the phrase “of late”. Jeez people, there actual English words that were made specifically for this use case! Like…lately, or…recently…God, take a whisky shot for every time they use “of late” and you’d be a dead human by half time!
-and one on the broadcast team…for me, I’m pretty sure anybody I listen to over a season would get annoying, but Mark Jones has reached a level of unprecedented pain for me, and he doesn’t even call all the games! “Hotter than fish grease”. Jeez.
-ever the optimist…I can squint and still see the possibility of a really good team here. Dump DDR, find a mid level point guard that can get Keegan, Domas and LaVine the ball in the right spots, and get Keon on the floor consistently. Oh, and run an offense…I’d like to see what this team could do. And all those things seem perfectly doable to do in the off season.
I’ve been thinking DDR or the Magic for a while now. It will depend on how ORL does in the postseason, but they do need scoring. I wouldn’t even count them out in possibly desiring LaVine. His massive contract would become an expiring deal the year Paolo’s massive extension would kick in. Orlando could also makeup for LaVine’s lack of defense.
LaVine for KCP, Cole Anthony and Gary Harris works as a draft day trade, plus Gary Harris has a TO deadline on 6/29…4 days after the draft. Kings could start Anthony at PG, Keon at SG, and bring KCP off the bench.
Feels like it would matter a lot who the GM is. Can’t imagine that the current FO would want to swing LaVine for a bunch of odd parts after losing out on assets to get him and trumpeting him as a Fox replacement.
Whereas, if Vivek does replace the FO, a new GM would have no stake in the current roster and would have a much easier time moving on.
That said, I am kind of debating if the trade would even make us better. The Magic would have to exercise Harris’ team option for next season. So we’d be on the hook for the same salary next season and just KCP’s $21M the third season, so we would save about $28M in 2027. Unless we want to keep Anthony, then we could exercise his 2027 team option for $13M, but would only save $15M.
However, KCP and Harris have both become borderline unplayable and would be 32 and 31 next season.
Anthony isn’t my favorite, but he is at least a serviceable PG and only 24. But as bad as LaVine has been and as hard as I have been on him… part of this issue is the current roster construction. He is a talented scorer and is not this bad. Unless we are getting some other assets back, I am not that even two years from now Anthony + KCP + $15M is better than LaVine.
We are kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. I know on this board, we are fine with a tear down and rebuild. So maybe this trade makes sense. Save future money and see if Anthony can develop. But it almost certainly makes us worse, especially as DDR ages.
If we assume for a minute the goal is to win, you almost have to trade DDR and bring in more pieces who fit around LaVine. Which also isn’t a great solution.
Loved the TNT broadcast . Greg Anthony a favorite . Focused on game action . Different strokes on that but enjoyed your overall viewpoints and in 90% agreement .
This fight to make the play-in has me on the edge of my seat, can you feel the intensity? It’s a Kangz thang, hopefully you don’t understand…
It’s Meh-tastic!
Presented by CGI, definitely a computer-generated fantasy
The Kings beat Cleveland and Memphis and that was a surprise. Good things were said about this team. They lost to the Bulls. Bad things were said about this team (deservedly so). Then they lose to Boston and OKC on back-to-back nights and bad things are said about them again. They didn’t play well for 48 minutes in either game. Against Boston it looked like the Celtics were playing with them until it was time to put the Kings away and, last night, despite a spirited 3rd quarter, they were never going to beat the team that is beating just about everyone. One could say they won two games that wouldn’t have been shocking had they lost, lost a game they should have won on paper, and lost two more to teams they had no business beating (despite beating the Celts on their home floor earlier in the season).
The Kings are losing to teams they should likely be losing to. I think the main complaint from everyone is how they’re losing, and there is a point to be made for that. Even when playing good defense in spurts, it’s often for 22 second before they give up a late 3. Or an assignment is missed. Or, as in the case last two nights, they just don’t have the size to compete. On offense, it’s been a season-long problem of ISO and dribbling the air out of the ball for 20 seconds of the shot clock. No movement at all, especially compared to what we saw from OKC. I don’t know if these are correctable problems. Mike Brown didn’t do it. It seems beyond Doug’s current ability. I’m not even sure if Thibs could force such changes. Monte/Wes/Vivek got schooled in the Fox trade, but did well to pick up JV, LaRavia, and even Fultz. It’s a deeper team than it was before the deadline but with the same spacing problems and having too many shooting guards with a natural 3 playing the 4. It’s a .500 team doing .500 team things. The time to build on this team was two years ago when they showed so much promise but they ran it back instead. Now the team is older, out of sync, joyless, no wiggle room for trades or picking up a gem through the draft. Just a middling team doing middling things and we should no longer be shocked or angry that it continues to happen.
This has been one of the most trying teams in recent Kings history.
True. Even during the drought years, we knew the Kings were never very good and often young that we’d hope would become something…Shock and Hawes!
This team however is old, overpriced, and underperforming. They are just so disappointing and unwatchable.
The fact that this is happening just two years after we had that high of the 2022-23 Beam Team makes it hurt even more. I thought we were finally heading in the right direction after that year, but of course…Kangz.
This is applicable to the Kings in so many ways it makes you want to cry.
Lavine was “good”? He had a -31 with nobody else even close. On average Lavine is -2.14 per game for third worse on the team (LaRavia being the worst), and with no other starter even coming close. All other current starters and Keon and Fox this year have a positive average +/-
I am aware of the flaws of +/- but when you consistently have games were you are -20 or worse when no other player with meaningful minutes having those sorts of aberrations and the eye test also pointing to a lack of effort and cohesion, there must be something to it.
Just in time for the home stretch!
Quick, someone buy puke guy a court side seat with all the perks!
I heard he goes by the Duke of Puke
Light the Beam!
I’m ready to start a defensive unit, with Fultz, LaRavia, and JV. You can’t win a game in the 1st quarter, and the starters are gassed by the 4th. Rope-a-Dope ’em! It’s no coincidence Domas keeps getting hurt in the first. That’s the formula for success against this team. Come out playing rough and physical, and force the refs to make calls, which they don’t. Let the goon squad take the brunt of the initial assault. Instead of playing the starters with a quick hook, play the roughnecks, so when you pull them, you only get better, and the starters aren’t facing a fresh opponent. I realize it’s unconventional, but what the hell, Vivek loves unconventional! Anyone remember 4 on 5? The starters are too soft anyway. Stop trying to out-score teams from the start, and beat opponents up in the first. You need the scorers fresh in the 4th.
Then the pecking order becomes much more clear with LaVine the star scorer, Murray #2, Jake #3, and then JV and Fultz. Bring scoring off the bench as needed, and let DeRozan close games with whoever else brings the hot hand. Bring Domas in when JV gasses, or fails to score. Bring Keon behind Zack when/if he goes cold, or insert him behind Jake and move LaVine over if Zack is rolling. Monk becomes the spark again whenever the offense bogs down, and closes the game if he isn’t hurting the team.
Also, I think Fox’s jersey gets retired, if for no other reason because they will want a reason to make an event. He has the numbers, and he had his own era in Sac. If they don’t do it, when will they get a chance to raise another jersey? Domas? He also only has 1 All-Star appearance (so far), and hasn’t contributed to a lot of winning either. As for comparisons, Vlade and Mitch weren’t drafted here. They played here during their prime years, mostly on better teams, and Richmond wasn’t forced out of Sac either. He ran out of here. Fox shouldn’t get snubbed in Sac (IMO) because he was snubbed from a couple, maybe a few, All-Star games. Just because no one takes Sac seriously shouldn’t mean we hold it against our own.
I love Carter’s game, but he isn’t ready to run the offense yet. He’ll have his chance soon enough. For now, let him in games where he fits, and when games don’t hinge on his mistakes, and missed free-throws.
Mason Jones and Crawford. They are rested.
I believe a defensive starting lineup can set the team up in the 1st to win games in the fourth. It doesn’t need to be that exact lineup, but I feel like they should first protect their own goal, and then worry about outscoring their opponent late in games. I’m not sure what their playoff chances are now regardless, but I’m tired of seeing the current starters out-performed, unable to defend, and often beaten up due to a lack of physicality, and synergy. Start a team with the size, physicality, and defensive energy to compete even when they aren’t shooting well.
Especially if they are going to use a “quick hook” with the starters, which they have, why not “quick hook” the lineup that isn’t going to play down the stretch. Let the scorers do their thing in the 4th, with fresh legs, against a worn down opponent. It’s said that it matters less who starts than who finishes. Test that theory in real live action, and I suspect it may prove to be true, especially with this squad.
Also it balances the rotations with the offense focused on LaVine to start, and DeRozan/Monk to finish. They always talk about wanting to innovate. Stop talking about it and use a new approach instead of following the same tired, old, predictable strategy. Play guys according to merit, and how they fit together, instead of how their paid, and how they’re valued. In other words, take control of the roster, instead of letting players, their agents, and their reputations run the asylum!
I see minimal value in getting the 9 or 10 slot. If Kings get 10, they lose on the road. If get 9, they probably lose at home unless it is Mavs and then they lose the next 7/8 match up on road.
What does that accomplish? I thought they could jell and make a run. But no.
Whereas if they get 11, then they get the Huerter pick back and lose 2 second rounders in the future. If the plan is anything close to a rebuild then that makes sense. Don’t draft a guard.
Badge Legend