The Sacramento Kings lost their fourth game in a row against the Oklahoma City Thunder Monday in front of the Golden 1 Center home crowd. The return of Malik Monk wasn’t enough to slow down the now first-place Thunder and its star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
During the first half the game remained tight with neither team able to get much separation. The game was physical, but that didn’t disrupt the offense much for either squad as both teams shot well in the first half. The Thunder held a 63-62 lead at the half thanks to three-point shooting and a high-pace attack. DeMar DeRozan dropped 19 in the first half and Domantas Sabonis collected 13 points and 7 rebounds. Gilgeous-Alexander had 18 in the first half.
In the second half the game remained close through much of the third quarter. Around the 3:21 mark in the third, however, the Thunder began to pull away 85-78. The Thunder continued to attack the paint, control the pace and knock down threes with little resistance from the Kings. They forced the Kings into turnovers and converted them into points. It only got worse to start the fourth as the Thunder expanded the lead to 15. Oklahoma City capitalized on second-chance points and all the Kings could do was trade baskets from that point on as frustration with the physicality and the refs boiled over. DeRozan did what he could with 30 points, but there was too much Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 37 points and 11 assists. Jalen Williams added 28 points.
The Thunder are really good, and this was them without Chet Holmgren and Alex Caruso.
Monk returned to the Kings lineup after missing seven games and Sacramento got to experience its full roster for a bit in the first half before Trey Lyles exited the game with a right calf injury. Mike Brown tried starting Keon Ellis over Kevin Huerter to change things up in this one.
The Kings are now in 12th place with an 8-10 record. It’s an excuse that doesn’t help, but the Western Conference is better than the Eastern Conference, and 8-10 would be good for 7th in the East.
The Good
- DeRozan – Deebo finished with 30 points (13-21), 6 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal.
- Domantas Sabonis – Domas finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds and battled intensely with Isaiah Hartenstein in the middle all game.
- Keegan Murray’s intensity – Keegan played an aggressive 38 minutes that matched the tone of this game. He finished with a double-double (14 points and 10 rebounds to go along with 2 steals and a block).
The Bad
- Rebounding – the Thunder won the total rebound battle 44-31 and when the game began to slip away from the Kings in the fourth, they couldn’t prevent the Thunder from picking up timely second-chance opportunities.
- Points Off Turnovers – The Kings only had 12 total turnovers but conceded 21 points to the Thunder off them.
The Ugly
- Three-Point Problems – The Kings could not make threes (25% on 8-32) or stop the Thunder from making them (45% on 14-31). The Kings are 29th in opponent three-point percentage. They are 26th in three-point percentage.
- Points In The Paint – The Thunder repeatedly attacked the paint and won that battle 56-42.
King of Kings
This one has to go to DeRozan for his 30 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds and 0 turnovers.
Up Next
This team is struggling with consistency on offense/three-point shooting, and its defensive problems, specifically defending the three, will need to be shored up before this roster as currently constructed can make any real noise in the West.
The Kings will take on the Timberwolves Wednesday in Minnesota at 5 p.m.
The first half looked better, at least they weren’t down 20 in 5 minutes. In the first half they were attacking the paint more, taking less 3s, and hunting ISO for DDR and it was working. They went away from that in the 3rd and started shooting (and missing) too many 3s (again!) and the game got away from them.
Personally I want to see some of the young guys get some real minutes and see what they can do. I know as constructed, in the West, this team is not going anywhere.
The problem with that is Fox is probably gone. Maybe it is time to at least consider trading him?
Who are the young guys? Colby Jones and Devin Carter are the youngest on the roster and both with be 23 this spring.
I want to see more of the Jones’, Robinson and even get Keon a more extended run. I feel like we know what we have and what we are going to get with the vets on this team.
Just my opinion they aren’t going anywhere this year so might as well see what those guys can do. I’m a believer that players have to have a chance in the real deal before you can really judge them. You never know who might step up.
That’s fair, but I feel that’s scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit. None of those guys are going to be stars. They are one fringe starter and role players at best. I don’t think any of those guys moves the needle all that much if given more minutes.
I’d say play those type of guys at the end of lost season to see if they are worth bringing back, but that’s about it.
I would argue the Kings need more solid role players, they have a couple stars. Maybe one or two of those guys can be that.
And IMO it is already feeling like a lost season. It’s very close to being too big of a hole to dig out of.
I guess I’m not ready to throw the towel in yet. I’m of the belief that if you hit 10 games above .500, then you are a playoff team. If you hit hit 10 games below .500, the season is over…see Philly (but they have a chance since they play in the East).
The Kings aren’t that bad yet, but very well could be by the end of the calendar year. Currently I see them around 5 games below .500 come the new year. Monte may have to make a course/career altering decision by the deadline.
I hear ya. Just in my gut they have been trending worse not better. They seem to have the injury bug this year. And the West is brutal.
Maybe they can turn it around but I’m not feeling it.
I gotta disagree there, if their record is 13-18 come Jan, the season is definitely cooked. Would have to go 33-18 the rest of the way to equal last year’s above average record. I don’t see this team winning almost twice as many games as they lose, a .647 winning percentage.
I agree, if they lose another 2-3 in a row or lose 4 of 6, 5 of 7 in this stretch coming up…it will be close to over, barring a miraculous run. West is too tough to come back from that, especially when having the hardest remaining sched.
SGA and Jalen Williams are what we wish Fox and Keegan could be.
SGA to Fox – ‘anything you can do, I can do better’
Copied these from the end of the previous thread, late to the comments, I watch the games the next morning, its in my name I’m OLD
I made the same comment as this without seeing this, I also thought exact same about Keegan. It’s a world of difference when the organization develops players and evolves at the fast pace of the league.
100% While watching this game I was thinking back to 2 years ago when I saw them play OKC in person, the Kings smacked them around and I remember thinking at the time, OKC is building something, they are going to be very good at some point.
The two teams seemed matched well until that 3rd Q collapse, spurred by some difficult officiating which changed the whole pace of the game. They seemed to target Domas for some reason. Who knows why. Not the reason they lost – they got outplayed at this crucial junction – and couldn’t find a foothold to climb back in.
A lot of the usual: Domas, 4turnovers. Huerter only played ten minutes but had another O-fer. Keegan’s three point shooting; 2/8 for 25 3FG%. Fox had an off night, surprising as he tends to shine on the national stage at 5/15 FG and 1/6 3FG. Bench played garbage minutes (3:04) and other than Isaac Jones, no one else scored in that stretch, not McDermott, McLaughlin, Len or Colby Jones. Just garbage time, but it says something.
I will add – I still think more better than worse for this squad ahead. There is enough talent to make noise yet they mumble and get tongue tied. I keep waiting for the click to happen. Give me points for fandom, and pity for the same.
Next.
As I wrote in the other thread, part of me thinks that they can’t keep shooting this bad and will progress to the mean. They are generating open looks, it seems to me.
But I still don’t see how they fix their defense. OKC hung 130 on them, without even trying that hard, it seemed.
OKC 4th quarter was so effortless. Great job Sam Presti.
It felt like OKC was going through the motions in the first half with no real need to press things. In the second half they had enough with toying with the Kings.
Good teams know how to put their foot on the throat of bad teams.
OKC is a very good team, while the Kings are not.
It was 63 mostly effortless points in the 1st half for the Thunder. Their defense also seemed to be on cruise control, too.
3rd quarter they showed why they are a title contender.
Progressing to the mean, seems that is what MB is hoping for too. I’m not sure, seems the farther we get away from that first good year, it is feeling like the outlier and fools gold.
The defense is a mess. IMO, the genesis of the defensive problems is no rim protection on this team.
I agree that defense is their biggest challenge. And it has been throughout the Mike Brown campaign. Steals and individual numbers are decently good – but they mean little in light of team deficiency.
And maybe that’s the key explanation: individuals are doing well – Domas, De’Aaron and DeMar – but team numbers and results are lacking. A conundrum, rolled into an enigma wrapped in a mystery. They keep driving off the road to success.
I can’t believe that this team is a contending team – far from that – but better than their record, as the saying goes. A playoff team, but a lesser one, is where I believe they ultimately belong. What we used to call 6-8 before the play-in. Doubtfully a 4-6 team and I can’t see a Top 3 West Conf. team.
A lot of season left to go. Wholesale changes – big trades – I don’t see that happening, nor IMO, should that happen this soon.
I read somewhere on social media (I believe it was Akis) that Sacramento has to go 38-26 (that is .594) to match last season’s record (which may or may not land us a play-in spot). And their remaining schedule is one of the hardest in the NBA…
I’m curious, what examples can you give that makes you feel this team is better than their record?
gut feeling?
A more direct answer, is paper talent. And that’s a funny thing. Boston has great paper talent – All-NBA, All-Star, Pundit approved individuals who get a high rating, and they now where a ring. Miami? OKC? and closer to home – LAC and LAL. Not a lot of proven paper talent. I think of it this way: if you take the stars out of it, would you trade the rest of the squad?
The Bucks are like the Kings this season. On paper, underperforming. On paper – Cleveland is overperforming.
As you often point out – it’s the roster mix and balance. This season puts proof to that pudding. As RikSmits often highlights: coaching.
I will again point to paper: Coaching is not Pop or Spo level, but a unanimous CoY and recent ExoY, at least tells me that there should be air in the tires. Would Ty Lue, or Joe Mozulla, or Ime Idoka, or Kenny Atlkinson or Steve Kerr or Mark Daigneault have this squad at 12-4? No frikkin’ idea.
But as I have recently exclaimed – Mike Brown is not going anywhere, any time soon. So you play the hand you’re dealt. Rearrange the hand, discard a card if you can, but not much else is going to change.
I don’t have to, but want to expect more and think it is not unreasonable to have this hope.
wear not where
another positive I would add to that list: Keon Ellis in the starting lineup. It was a one-point game well into the third when Keon was subbed out and the Thunder went on a run. the starting five is way more balanced with Keon in it.
Weird how it’s taken Brown 20% of the season to figure out that Ellis should be starting when a whole lot of us armchair GMs stated that since the end of last season.
I think almost everyone on this site has said that. I would go a step further and lean towards Keon in the closing 5 also, depending on how the game goes.
Definitely. I go back to early last year, Huerter is struggling with his shot and playing awful defense and game after game MB is talking about the team needing to play better defense. And he has Keon sitting there on the bench and it took Huerter getting hurt to give him a real chance.
We don’t see practices but MB does, wouldn’t (shouldn’t) there have been an indication that Keon could play some defense and at least try it?
That has been a growing concern with MB for me, he seems oddly stubborn on some things and very slow to react.
I’ve met many a folk who won’t change what’s broken because it’s an admission of a mistake on their own part. Could Brown be that kind of person?
Lost In a World of Being Right, an indicator of one’s emotional maturity.
The other possible reason I can think of for starting Huerter at the beginning of the season is to establish the way the team wants to play on offense. With some new players integrating into the system, there are benefits to showing them different plays, actions, cuts, etc. they can do with Sabonis.
I’m also feeling that could be the case. As a coach I always listened to my assistants and a lot of times they were right. I didn’t have a problem with that.
Weird that when Keon shoots the ball he gets minutes.
Sabonis was also taken out at the end of the third quarter.
SGA is who Fox and some of y’all glazers think he is. Love Foxy and my Kings but theres a difference between All-Stars and superstar MVP players which you need to win chips.
I see a difference between SGA and a Curry. SGA isn’t a showoff just plays the game of basketball with all the confidence in the world. Curry is cocky and has to prove to the world what kind of player he is. Confidence vs cocky. I’ll take SGA any day.
Another difference: 4 rings and 6 trips to the finals.
Curry was 27 when he won his 1st ring. SGA is 26 right now. I’d much rather have SGA if I was building a team today, but I’ll take Curry if we’re talking accomplishments and legacy.
The talent doesn’t fit together. The offensive and defensive systems don’t fit the talent. The flotsam at the end of the bench (the Jones crew, Len, O-Rob, McDermott) didn’t contribute a thing. We’re out a conditional 1st this year and an unprotected swap. We are in the bottom 5 in attendance.
A forward-thinking organization would be making contingency plans for the deadline and the upcoming offseason. What are the odds this organization would really consider a reboot? Pretty low I’d reckon.
I like Fox and Sabonis and Murray. I’m not necessarily in the camp that you can’t build around them. But Monte and Mike have failed, full stop. We are sliding backwards. The Rockets and Spurs were 22-60 in the 22-23 season. Both will finish above the Kings this season, as will most other West teams. This is a 10-11 seed.
The lone playoff year of 22-23 for the Kings is looking like an anomaly. They hit 48 wins and got the 3 seed in a year that the West was hit very hard with injuries. 48 wins very rarely gets you the 3 seed.
A year later they 46 wins, which was only good enough for the 9th seed. That’s more the normal.
This year it looks like they are gonna struggle to sniff .500. Could it be that the core of this team has never really been all that good?
If you build around a core and max out players whose ceiling is 48 wins, are you really doing good at your job?
To me the core of Fox/Sabonis/Murray/Monk with an average coach and an average bench, in an average year, is somewhere between a 46-50 win team. Spo or Ty Lue hits the high end, a crap coach hits the low end. If I think about the roster (GM) as costing me 2-3 wins below that and the coach as costing me 2-3 wins below that, that’s a 40-42 win team, which is what this is.
Actually, historically you’re wrong about this.
The data since 2004 gives the following info about average wins per seed:
West
1 – 62±4.7
2- 58±3.4
3- 54±2.8
4- 52±2.7
5- 50±3.4
6- 48±2.8
7-
47±2.98- 45±3.2
9- 42±3.2
10- 38±3.3
11- 35±3.3
12- 32±3.8
13- 29±3.7
14- 5±3.8
15- 20±3.2
East
1 – 60±4.3
2- 56±3.4
3- 52±3
4- 49±1.9
5- 46±2.3
6-44±2.4
7-42±1.7
8-40±2.4
9-38±3.4
10-36±3.5
11-32±2.9
12-30±3.4
13-27±3.5
14-24±3.8
15-18±4.8
48 wins was more like 5-8 range but 46 should have put us in the 6-8 range. We lost a heart breaker, but twice now we’ve been what historically would be a lower seed in the playoffs. The question is how much we can move up from here, and what that looks like if we do. If we can’t be a top 4 seed this year, we probably need to look to rebuild. The question is who gets the most assets back and if we build around Fox or Sabonis.
Again I agree with you but where I disagree is the bench. Your comments say even if we say trade some of our bench with the assets we have we are no better off. It has shown this year we do not( exception Monk) have a reliable bench. Just like the other night 44 to 9 just doesn’t cut it. IMO we have a good starting 5 and one sixth but beyond that we suck. Monty can fix it.
Welcome back to basketball hell.
The team played decent through 3 quarters. Our guys played well, but they looked exhausted, especially Fox. The limited breadth of the roster was on display.
Kings number one problematic issue right now :
The timidity and scarcity with which the roster is shooting 3’s – especially in the 4th quarter – illustrates some type of systemic psychological disfunction. The coaching staff has not demonstrated they can work with the players to overcome this.
The Kings need to consider hiring an outside consultant to weigh their assets and liabilities at this point, as they collectively don’t seem to have the ability to take a look at their strengths and weaknesses through a clear lens. Consequently, things need to change if this team is going to make the playoffs. We have the shallowest bench in the NBA, and roster moves need to be made. It’s been several seasons now that this team has traded away much of its future promise and player prospects for a present that is slowly getting worse. There is not enough young prospective talent (think rookies) on this team getting experience to help the team grow for the future, and better yet, give the fans something to invest their hope into. We fans sit here with the (confirmed) worst owner in sports unable to put together a solid front office or competent coaching staff. Perhaps the current staff was qualified to lead this organization a couple of years ago, but the evidence now shows things are not working. Necessary adjustments to conditioning, coaching, and roster composition are not being properly addressed. Can’t just sit here and hope things get better after 20 years without a playoff win when things aren’t going good. Fortune favors the bold.
Outside consultant, you say? I’ll be your huckleberry.
He’s not outside anymore! He’s IN THE BUILDING!!!
Count me in too.
Worst owner in sports? You’d rather have John Fisher, Jerry Jones, Dean Spanos, Arte Moreno (Angels), Mark Davis, or David Tepper (Panther)? Vivek has issues as an owner, but it could be so much worse. I don’t think the issues with the team today have much to do with Vivek.
Maybe not, but an unfortunate constant for Kings fans has been comparing the Kings to the lowest common denominator.
“I’d much rather have Vivek as owner than Hitler!”
The beauty of San Antonio has always been, in part, that no one really ever sees or hears from the owner. Similar situation in OKC, really. And yes, if I owned the Kings, I would sit at halfcourt, though I probably would rather bring second deckers down to sit next to me instead of the parade of B-list celebrities.
Since they are now labelled as Governors and not team owners, I would sit in a special chair at half court (maybe with little lion paws on the armrests) and have everyone address me as Governor.
Evenin’ Guv’nah
How’s the world treatin’ you, Guv’nah?
What a bunch of bollocks, Guv’nah
UpgradedToQuestionable – Governor of Kings!
Maybe have Pukey Guy sit there when I am unavailable.
There is an article about it here on this website posted on December 17, 2020. It was referenced from The Athletic.
Four game losing streaks suck. Watching fans be right about things that the front office didn’t address sucks. However.
The kings are currently 11th in Ortg and 16th in Drtg. We’re in November. We’re less than 25% of the way through the season, and we’ve had average injury luck missing key players. Fox and Sabonis aside, the Kings are all playing some of their worst basketball from all players.
DDR is a game changer. The whole flow is messed up right now because — unsurprisingly — the dynamics on both sides of the ball have shifted. Keegan isn’t doing well in the HB role and Huerter seems to have lost his mojo entirely. I hope it comes back, but he might need a change of scenery to find it.
But, Brown made a fix that we wanted. He moved Ellis up, and overall, I think it was the right call and will continue to be going forward. I think Huerter will be better off the bench with Monk than he is as the fifth option on offense.
I also think that the next tweak Mike Brown makes is pushing Keegan to score early in the game and having him fed lots of looks. Fox and DDR are going to do the most damage in the second half, and they’ll always get theirs in the first half. But Keegan needs to get into a rhythm. I’d love to see us spend from 7 minutes left in the first through the end of the 2nd quarter trying to feed Keegan, Ellis and the Bench as much as possible. I would make Ellis my first sub and DDR my second so that those guys can get rest and minutes can stagger better. Then you ride the hot hands in the third and go to your crunch lineup in the 4th.
Right now, the team is relying heavily on the big 3 to score early and often, and to close games. Doing that with huge minute loads is exhausting and not sustainable. We still have a really strong first 8 guys when they’re playing at a good level. We don’t have center depth, and if K’Von never returns, I hope we make a trade.
I still think we should go after Brandon Ingram. He’s hitting 3s at 36% and has only been below 35% twice since his rookie year. I’d give up K’Von and two firsts to rent BI for the year and see if we can make magic.
Either way, this isn’t last year with depressing ass kickings happening every week or two. We’ve lost 3 total games by more than 10 points, and two of those were in the last week as we’re reintegrating guys who probably aren’t fully healthy. I’m guessing that we’re going to like the way this team plays quite a bit going into the playoffs. I’m guessing we’re the 4/5 seed by the end of the year.
Feel free to share this with me again in April.
Would it be overstepping to ask if we can give DeMar Darnell DeRozan a new “Kings” nickname? What about King DeDaDe?
Every now and then Sabonis just looks like he doesn’t belong in today’s NBA, last night (for me) was one of those nights.
This franchise doesn’t have the courage to tank so we should just stop suggesting it. To be honest, as a Sixers fan I’m not sure I’d tank either after all is said and done.
After enduring “The Process,” I see your point, but at least the Sixers have the luxury of playing in the East.
Embiid, Okafor, Simmons, Tatum for Fultz. The payoff just wasn’t there.
The odds are so poor anymore. Not only are your chances now watered down on an annual basis, generational talent does not arrive every year. We call this the “Pistons Principle.”
When the Kings traded Hali for Sabonis, we noted that the path was much narrower, but it was one that the front office had a better chance of surviving. And this bore out to be true. However, the front office has done little to push the rock forward since. It has given away draft picks to sell off bad contract. It upgraded the roster with DDR for Barnes, but did not address any of the glaring and obvious holes on the roster. This team did not get one iota better at backup center, at backup power forward, or at backup small forward. The fact that the roster is flawed is not breaking news – it has been this way for a while.
Begin rant:
And I have never seen a group of players as deferential as this group (excluding Fox, DDR and Monk). Sabonis plays hard every night, and I think that his approach is to support the overall effort in whatever way he can, so I don’t sweat his shot volume being down, but the rest of this group is just so passive (including Murray, Ellis, Huerter, Lyles and Len – the supposed bench core rotation).
End rant:
Small market front offices have to get a lot more right than wrong to excel (see Oklahoma City). They have to get a little lucky (see San Antonio). The Kings are neither. And here we are.
And 1 – Marty, this was not so much a response to you as it was a place to chime in. I agree 100% with your assessment as it pertains to the Sixers and tanking in general.
It’s depressing as hell, but just because the franchise doesn’t have the courage to (draft Luka/fire Vlade/trade Cousins/draft for upside/etc. etc. etc.) doesn’t mean it’s not worth pointing out.
This morning’s what if: what if Orlando had let 2024-25 All Star Franz Wagner fall to us in the 2021 draft?
IMO Sabonis got outplayed by Hartenstein last night. He must of had upteen floaters made and Sabonis never defended one. He also hit the class especially on the offensive side.
Pitchers and catchers report in 78 days!
LOL, you are good for this comment every year, but I can’t recall seeing it before the Kings hit the 20 game mark.
Brown had an in-game interview with Dennis Scott on NBA TV after the 3rd quarter:
“When the switch comes, our guys need to get in their defensive stance and have some pride.”
That is probably something to talk about in the huddle only, coach. No need to mention that during an in-game interview to the viewers. I think Brown is a low-key arse hole, disguised with a smile and some southern charm. Bless his heart.
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