We are officially on the backend of the 2021-2022 NBA season. Are you doing daily calculations of the Kings’ chances of making the play-in, or are you counting down the games until this season is over? Either way, time marches on, basketball is played, and here we all are, against our will and better judgment. There was a basketball game played in Portland tonight that I’m not sure if League Pass even remembered to stream. Four Trail Blazers out. Three Kings out. Two underachieving teams. One former Pizza Guy. Zero time from Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum. If you didn’t watch, I don’t blame you. Here’s a look at how the Kings did:
Quick Stats
Outcome: Kings lose, 103-88
Sacramento Kings: 88 pts, 33.8% fg, 22.6% 3 pt, 71.4% ft, 20 ast, 46 reb, 12 to
Portland Trail Blazers: 103 pts, 42.0% fg, 42.5% 3 pt, 80.0% ft, 26b ast, 48 reb, 17 to
The Sacramento Kings lost their fourth game in a row and I feel… nothing. I am not surprised. I am not angry. I am not even disappointed. This team has shown us day in and day out who they are and I think I’ve finally accepted it. This is a bad NBA basketball team. And bad NBA basketball teams don’t win basketball games, even ones against other bad NBA basketball teams.
The Good, The Bad, & The Downright Sad
The Good
- My Morals: I respect you all too much to try to bullshit you. There was nothing good about this game. Also, I’m not a good enough writer to even attempt to spin something good out of that performance.
The Bad
- 3-Point Shooting: It was made apparent very early that it was not a hot shooting night for the Kings. In the first quarter, the Kings shot just 1-8 from deep. Trying to shake off the bad juju, they got 11 more attempts up in the second quarter, but only connected on two of them, finishing the half 3-19 (15.8%). The Kings tried to find more success at the free throw line to start the second half and attempted just two 3-pointers in the third quarter, but ultimately went back to the long looks in attempts to close the perpetual 15-point gap that the Trail Blazers held over them. It didn’t work out well. The Kings finished the game shooting 7-31 (22.6%) from deep. To compound on this, Portland got 40 3-point attempts and connected on 17 of them.
The downright sad
- The New Normal: This is who the Sacramento Kings are. The Sacramento Kings scored 88 points against the worst defensive team in the league. The Portland Trail Blazers allow an average of 113 points per game, and the Kings scored 25 fewer points than that. Tonight, whenever Jusuf Nurkic took his breaks from grabbing one of his 16 boards, the Sacramento Kings allowed the Trail Blazers to INCREASE their lead over them by letting Cody Zeller get dunks and back up point guard Anfernee Simons cook them for 31 points. Against another team without their star players, the Sacramento Kings got outworked, outplayed, and outexecuted. This is the new normal.
The King of Kings
Tyrese Haliburton led the Kings tonight with 17 points and nine assists.
Up Next
Monday, January 10th vs. Cleveland Cavaliers @ 7:00 P.M. (PT)
Delusional Dumbass
https://giphy.com/gifs/bveGseLMco1Zrk2WSc
That is beautiful. T-shirt worthy.
T-Shirt, hell – I want that bad boy on the electronic billboards around MetroSac.
Can we get another #herewebillboard???
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say not one player on the team wants to be in Sacramento.
Wild thought, I know.
Maybe they should all try Stockton on. Terrible shooters, meet terrible shooters.
Goes both ways. Sacramento doesn’t want these losers either. Nobody on the team can win us games against depleted teams? What an embarrassment. They actually probably could’ve made the playoffs this year due to covid and the west being weaker but they choose to be a loser team with a loser mindset. If they want to lose some more to force their way out then good riddance, I sure won’t miss any of these losers!
No one NOT on the team wants to be in Sacramento either.
The new normal seems worse than that. The new normal seems to be that the front office has no plans or intentions of doing anything about this crappy basketball.
The only thing they can do is get rid of the vets and tank
Hali is too good to be traded
Fox’s value too low to be traded.
Giving up a pic platter for a vet like Siakam would be stupid
Clown ranadiv needs to get out of the way yest3rday and allow this rebuild
No one on board has any experience in a successful rebuild !
Ok start by getting rid of Buddy and then Barnes. Do Something.
That’s really the most concerning thing. The apathy from the front office and lack of communication is maddening as a fan.
Vivek doesn’t care, he’s busy selling the free real estate he got for millions
My handle for this site is aptly named.
I’d suggest simply create 40 more copies of this writeup, do a search/replace to update the opponent name and schedule them to automatically post 2 hours and 15 min after the scheduled start time. Sure you might miss here and there but you’ll be mostly right on and you’ll save yourself a lot of time (with added bonus you wouldn’t even have to pretend to watch the game and make up a write up based on the box score).
not saying that you make up the write-ups! i do appreciate that you sacrifice and take one for the TKH audience by actually suffering thru the excuse-for-basketball that the team puts on the floor so we don’t have to
The only thing good about following the Kings is TKH ! Team and TV Broadcast are a clown show !
Klay Thompson, who hasn’t played a game since before the iPhone 11 was released, arguably just had a better game than any Kings player tonight.
Do your job, Monte.
If by “do your job” you mean sit on your ass, then he has that down to a T!
Monte was hired to carry out ownership’s instructions.
What we’re seeing IS Monte doing his job.
Exactly. I don’t understand people in McNairs face when we know he is in a ridiculous bind with little power.
Vivek won’t let go.
McNair took the job, his name is on the door and he said he has the resources he needs, he’s in a fantastic place as far as the roster goes, that both coaches were the ones to lead the Kings to the playoffs and that he should be held accountable for the results.
I agree that Vivek is the real problem. But McNair was hired to make the team better, and he’s done nothing outside the draft to make that happen. And as much as I like Halliburton, he and Mitchell have not added any wins. If McNair’s actual role with the Kings is to trade a paycheck for being yet another Vivek fall guy, we as fans should still hold him to account, while also staying focused on the bigger issue.
Until he actually does something to improve the team, I’m going to keep calling out McNair’s apathy/fear/ownership constraints/laziness/incompetence (whatever it is). I’ll also be in line to contribute to a #HEREWESELL billboard when McNair gets fired and the next fall guy replaces him.
While I very much disagree with you, at least you are clear on where you stand.
My source of disagreement mainly stems from not having an opportunity to do so. You can’t make happen what isn’t available. And I think 2 years is too little time to fix this roster if you can’t do it this deadline.
To answer a logical follow up, I’d give McNair another year beyond this one. There’s alot of messes to clean up.
What’s the worst that can happen to McNair? He gets fired? The way things are going he’s going to get canned anyways at least go out guns blazing and show the world what really happens behind kings closed doors
We already have a pretty good idea. Also, sometimes some things are better off not known.
Watching Klay tonight, so excited to be back, while our losers continue to cash a paycheck is disgusting.
They aren’t losers They make millions of dollars and are secure for life, We are the losers.
And, of course, they are among the, what, let’s say top 750 people or so in the world at their craft.
KangZ shot 33% from the field?!??? Sure glad I wasn’t watching the game.
It is a good thing that Monte has the green light ! Just don’t tell him that it changes from green to red with no caution ! Vitina has to point blame in different directions !
Is it too late to send the team to Seattle?
We’ll take an expansion slot in 2025 after we heal.
If my choice was a Vivek free Kings in 2025 if the team goes away now…….I’m pretty sure I’d take that. .
This team should be publicly embarrassed by the coaches and front office. Somebody needs to call them out for what they are.
Problem is the front office cannot replace any players so they have to be nice. Coaches are trying but this team has quit,
This team is already publicly embarrassing.
Gentry is the only one willing to be honest about it.
Gentry is the one with the least to lose.
He is likely the first (only?) one who will be held accountable and feel the consequences. The lack of accountability withing this org is showing.
McNair’s seat seems like it’s getting pretty hot, but I can’t say that’s actual accountability, since he’s a problem, but not the problem.
I barely watched. I would have, but the game was entirely down double digits.
Problem is, Vivek is not embarrassed. I don’t think he feels he’s done anything incorrectly. He’s seemingly incapable of embarrassment.
His ego and embarrassment are mutually exclusive.
After all, he’s the smartest guy in the room…..world….universe.
Eff this team. They quit weeks ago.
I, too, feel nothing. I also didn’t watch hardly at all.
Honestly would be happy if Vivek moved this team India. They do not belong in the NBA or on the same continent as any NBA team.
That segment shows actually that you are a good writer.
Kudo’s to you and the whole TKH staff to keep performing at a high level when the team is not.
If not for TKH staff putting out the quality of content they did and the commenters making me laugh because we all make fun of how bad this team is, I would’ve checked out of following the Kings long ago.
Gallo agrees, Klam.
Thanks for staying around.
https://twitter.com/James_HamNBA/status/1480401242538921984?s=20
LOL.
Remember May 2021, Fox had the following gem: “if you cut those nine-game losing streaks into 3-6, or hell, even 2-7, you know we’re in an entirely different position .”
De’Aaron, shut the F up. Loser.
Same piece of shit, just different days.
Yeah, if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle.
Can she play SF?
He is a huge part of the problem. We can’t even count on our max guy to get a stop or a bucket when the team needs it. Fox is turning into another Reggie Theus for us. A lot of empty offensive stats, no defense, doesn’t make his teammates better, etc. This squad is so broken, it would take three Ben Simmons’ to fix it. Break it up Monte!
Addition by suckstraction!
“If we didn’t suck, then we wouldn’t suck anymore!”
These a-holes must think we are idiots. I’m getting sick of this crap. Hope the arena gets emptier and emptier
Stages of grief: denial (past that), anger (past that), bargaining (past that). Now at acceptance. Or expectance- I expect them to lose.
I’m asking myself “why the fuck am I going to tomorrow night’s game?”
Stay home. Embarrass Vivek.
How is your puke game?
Projectiles baby!
Go the ol’ time New Orleans Saints route and wear a bag on your head. Maybe the FO will get the hint that the product they’re putting out isn’t worth our hard earned $$.
I actually was thinking about doing that. I’d probably be escorted out.
But then they get your money anyway, unless you are a season ticket holder, then they screwed you a long time ago!!!
As a Kangz fan, it should be a plastic bag.
A better question would be, “How much did you pay for your ticket, and how much money will you give to them?”
I went last week, free ticket. I took the train so they didn’t get my parking money, had a big dinner at home before leaving, so I bought one bottled water in the building and that was it. It was nice to see an old friend so I’m not too upset.
I’ll say one thing though, when you’ve seen the same in-game entertainment 1000x it does wear you down a bit.
At least you did not have to watch the Broadcast TV cringy talk fest !
Bagley –
the streak of ball being stripped in every game continues.
When backing a shorter defender, he airball his shot
He goes to double team Nurkic (who being guarded by Len already), then Bagley left his man wide open for a easy 3.
Again, Bagley will not help this team to win any games, he just sucks.
He gets a free pass by this forum and site. Except from you and I. It is not a coincidence the team is playing their worst basketball after he was inexplicably elevated by the Old Man.
There’s a reason I called him No Way Marvin. It is 4 on 5 with him offensively and hes the worst defender on the floor. And yet this coach promotes him?! It is a disgrace!
They run motion offense where Marvin comes from the corner, catches the ball, hands it back to the guard to start play sets. All this does is waste time and allow the opponent rest.
There’s NO forward progress when Marvin is strong side, NO probing or threat of pentration because he cannot make an interior pass and can only straight line drive into teeth of the D.
This is what passes as strategy? It is pointless. The weird thing is I check the box score and it will say Marvin played 20 minutes when it feels like he’s out there for an eternity.
Why is Alex Len, who has not had a good year, looking more potent than Marvin?!
It is ridiculous and sad how much regression this guy has showed, no growth or raw talent, probably the worst draft pick in Kings history, which says a lot saying we picked Stauskas and Jimmer!
Setting aside the horrid stats, you have to factor the intangilbes. When you are in the “fox hole” with this guy, you can’t feel too good about your chances. You are going to war with a guy with no weaponry in his possession. Marvin drags down the collective confidence mojo and swagger, as opposed to having TD on the floor or DC on sidelines, which I suspect raises it.
Take a simple play like the corner three by TD it was swirling around the rim and looked like it was going to go in. He could not resist but touch the ball when it was in the cylinder.
He costs you three points there then came down and allowed an easy two. That’s a 5 point swing that inhibits any attempt at closing the deficit.
As bad as Buddy’s discernment is, I think Marvin’s is worse.
He let a 35 year old Jeff Green posterize him two plays in a row. Green had not even played for two weeks and he is looking like Dominque Wilkiins in his prime.
When Marvin is in pick and roll, he’s always stuck in no mans land. Always! Hes not taking away passing angles or harassing. With Metu you get a little to a lot more anticipation and interference.
The (hungover?) coach is very stubborn and stupid too, rivaling if not surpassing the former coach. TD and Metu are thrown into the game for sparse run in the 2nd, treated as scrubs. They are supposed to get their rhythm this way, as afterthoughts?
Next time they are told to go in the game, they should pull a Marvin, and say “nah I am good, not in the mood, you are not a real coach, you are the subtitute, I will just hang out on the bench until we get a proper coach”. I am only half tongue in cheek on this, like when I asserted teammates should stop passing to Buddy, that’s the depth of despair this team has sunk, where you need to ice out a teammate in lieu of proper coaching.
The coach has no faith or confidence in Metu and TD. This bodes poorly for them to rediscover their groove and best selves. Not only are they unlikely to get opportunity, they will not be trusted with the opportunity granted. Thats not a conducive to achievement.
Gentry needs to resign today. Or he needs to be replaced with Doug. Screw the optics.
I wrote a post a while back about coaching the game vs coaching your plan of the game.
I was comparing Doug vs Fluke, but it applies as well to Doug versus the Old Man. It does not matter how individual players perform per the Old Man. The Old Man is adhering to his plan. That’s not coaching the game, that’s coaching your preconceived notion.
This team is abysmmal and no one reflects this abyss more than Marvin and the decision to name him as starter. Then what does he do when the game is out of reach, as a final ploy to stage a comeback? He moves Marvin to center, to anchor the defense? LOL. Does Marvin have compromising photos of Gentry or what?!
Just to be clear I am not pining all the woes on Marvin, or the coach who is enabling him, but it is a DAMN good place to start!
You singlehandedly owe me a new mouse scroll wheel
LOL.
This is why I love this community.
I really appreciate for all your thoughts.
(and I still don’t understand why no one else in TKH think Bagley is a major problem on this roster)
Playing along with Bagley really hurts you mentally. (Not to mention playing along with Bagley and Hield)
Like you said, he tipped TD’s 3 when the ball is still in cylinder. Getting beaten again and again on defense.
What and how would the teammates think when you know you still need to play with a player who is just dumbness in all aspects.
Don’t tell me he is a good rebounder. I can assure Metu can give you more points, rebounds and much better defense when given same amount of playing time.
I feel pathetic when seeing Tyrese, Barnes, those players with high BBIQ, need to give out extra effort to help or compensate for Bagley’s deficiencies.
He’s just one of many flaws on the roster. Unfortunately, his draft class was one the best in recent years and he was picked #2. The blame is on Vlade. When a team invests a high pick, they usually give them more rope. If he was picked in the later rounds, he wouldn’t get as many opportunities. I think they’re just trying to build up what little value he has for a trade.
Look the Grizzles. D. Banes (a 2nd round pick) got his staring jobs and is one of the reason the Grizzles is so good.
No matter where you got picked, you got your playing time if you plays good enough.
However, this is not the case for Bagley. The FO should cut loss now.
Bench him or trade him.
(We got a better option at 4, either Barnes or Metu), and both of them deserve more playing time than Bagley.
Barnes is averaging 33.4 minutes a night, 3rd on the team behind only Fox and Hali. And if your roster choice behind Barnes is Bagley or Metu, you are burying the lede.
Bane was a 1st round pick, 1st rd 30th overall in 2020 to be exact. You’re thinking of Dillon Brooks who was a 2nd rd pick.
Bagley is an expiring sunk cost at this point. Yeah, he sucks, and yeah, most folks around here have said it at one point or another. Waive him tomorrow, I’m fine with that, but it really fixes nothing. He’ll be gone at the end of the year, and he won’t be the difference between this team winning or losing in between. He is a nothing burger.
I think that almost everyone around here agrees that the drafting of Bagley set this organization back a decade. Thinking that Marvin Bagley was and is a huge mistake is not exactly an exclusive club.
My only wish is that they would have dealt Bagley when he still had some value. That might have been at the end of his first season or before the deadline in his second. As it stands, the Kings got exactly nothing out of that pick.
Yeah that’s the thing Rob, removing Bagley won’t bring two superstars. That’s all I care about at this point, so obviously my optimism is set at zero.
I kind of think Bagley in his entirety might be the dumbest thing in the history of the NBA.
Same thoughts bro. When I watch Bagley play, he’s like the teammate in an AAU team that no one wants to play with but teammates try to smile or pretend to like playing with him because his dad is the coach.
It’s funny, I swear I’ve seen both of your usernames a lot on these boards. But if you think Bagley is given a pass or you’re the only two who have been critical of him, then you MUST be new around here. So, WELCOME!
I? agree on your above post but there is more to blame than Bagley.I watch time and time again as opposing guards make ONE fake and take a straight line to the basket. This is being done on Fox,Hali,Buddy,Mo,Bagley and others.Your two best point defenders are Mitchell and Davis.Bagley,Len,and Thompson miss so many shots inside it is hard to watch. Bagley should just rebound and not shoot threes. He seems to hit one out of ten.Barnes has been non exsistant in the last 10 games. For the whole team NO DEFENSE. When I was coaching there was a saying”Offense wins games,Defense wins championships”I believe this still.
Before the Kings get to the championship stage, they should consider trying to get 45 wins first.
41 wins would be a once in two decade accomplishment with this organization.
I am still baffled at why Doug Christie should be a head coach. What pedigree does he have? This organization loves sentimentality to a fault. Doug Christie has not paid his dues. Meaning he has ZERO. Just about zero experience coaching at any level, let alone NBA players. Hiring Christie would be another stupid decision by this organization. For once this team needs to do an extensive and expansive coaching search in the off season. Let the new coach bring in his guys. If Christie is not part of that, so be it. This team needs a major overhaul:
Coaching, Culture, Players, etc
Without two superstars it doesn’t matter. I’m here for Doug coaching the clown show, why not?
Agree. Stop hiring ex-players from our glory years. Blow this up. Hire someone with a little more experience, establish a system, and get younger guys to grow into it. Who the hell wants to watch a 30-52 team in a play in game?? Are you effing kidding me??
Yes, move on from 2001 nostalgia ! Change the entire basketball operations starting with Vitina ! Hire a proven winner to run this franchise ! If you can pay Fox 30 million you can hire a top guy !
Replace Gentry with a proven winning coach ! No more Vitina hires for nostalgia ! Start the Sluck over !
Name one proven winning coach that willing to come and coach the Kings.
: NONE
Malone and Joerger but we got rid of both of them
Not going to read all that but…
I have been pointing out that Bagley sucks ass perpetually.
Anfernee Simons. Holy cow.
What happened? didn’t care – Ellis5
DO SOMETHING!!
What can I say that hasn’t already been said on this board.
Low point of the season by far.
Every time we think the bar couldn’t get any lower, this team proves otherwise.
Heh, I’m sure that some time in the future there will another “new low point.”
I might actually read these game summaries and previews if the content wasn’t related to the Kings. At this point, I’m just here for the comments anyway. Why not give free reign to the writers and see what they come up with?
You mean like give the writers a green light to do whatever is necessary?
We will have a lot less of such awesome comments if we talk about topics like tv shows and such, I fear.
You would figure that after all this digging down and trying to reach rock bottom the Kangz would eventually come up and see the sunshine at the other end of the earth.
Alas, the digging continues…
I’m not sure it’s possible for your head to be so far up your butt it comes out the other side.
How about a food recap?
Yesterday I had the pork rigatoni with added pork belly from Grassa, a Portland institution known for its fine, handcrafted pastas. A 9/10, only dinged for needing more sauce.
Did you have to dodge some ANTIFA on the way over?
I don’t see anyone trading with the Kings. No team wants to get the reputation among the players of being a team that will send you to the Kings in a trade deal.
It will hurt their free-agent bargaining position.
“Hey at least we aren’t the XXXXX’s they would trade you to the Kings.”
Perhaps the Kings as an organization have decided instead of rebuilding the roster, they will rebuild the fan base. By playing the worst basketball possible and having the most inept ownership and front office, they will most likely accomplish this. What’s next? Only Vivek knows.
I spent more time either watching Klay play or waiting for Klay to play. I don’t give a damn about the dubs but his story is so compelling that I had to watch. Luckily I only watched less than half of the Kings game. I only watched the last 5 minutes of the game to see if Nurk got his triple double. I don’t give a damn about Nurkic but the fact that he only came up one dime short tells you all you need to know about how the Kings played.
I don’t care either
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