What the Kings need to improve going into their second consecutive game against Denver

The reigning league MVP was at Golden 1 Center Thurday night for the Sacramento Kings first game after the All-Star break and the fanbase was reminded of what having a big-man showdown looks like. Domantas Sabonis, in his fifth game wearing royal purple, matched up well with the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, and supplied the evidence needed for anyone looking to argue that Sacramento’s new star was the best player on the floor.

And that’s not a because Nikola Jokic had an off-night. Denver’s superstar ended with 25 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists, four steals, and one block on 9/15 from the field including 2/4 from beyond the arc. It’s just that Sabonis managed to tally 33 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, one block, and one steal on 15/23 from the field and 2/3 from three.

“He makes the game a whole lot easier. Honestly, he’s kind of like Jokic, in a sense, where he can do everything,” Davion Mitchell said. “He can make great passes, he can make shots. I think, if he keeps being aggressive like that, that he can be unstoppable.”

Comparing Sabonis to Jokic, who may be the best basketball player in the world, can come off as ridiculous to some, but it’s their styles that draw warranted parallels. Sacramento’s entire offense ran through Domantas Sabonis when he was on the floor, and it lead to his best performance since joining the Kings.

The following play is a great display of his versatility. That’s a near seven-footer handling it himself on the break, spinning away from small defenders, and hitting a wide-open Donte DiVincenzo for a catch-and-shoot opportunity from beyond the arc. The crowd at Golden 1 Center, understandably, loved to witness this sequence.

Issues arose when Sabonis checked out of the game. De’Aaron Fox came into the matchup with Denver on a tear, averaging 28.2 points and 5.0 assists in his five games prior to the All-Star break. Yet, the fifth-year guard wasn’t able to find a rhythm against Denver’s pesky perimeter defenders.

“I definitely need to be better, and defensively we need to be better,” Fox said post-game. “But, (Sabonis) had a hell of a game tonight and we don’t wanna let those type of games go to waste.”

It feels safe to assume that Fox has experienced that feeling of impressive individual games ending in losses, and it’s encouraging to hear the max-player express his desire to limit the number of times his new running mate goes through that with Sacramento.

But, as Fox said, it’s on him to be the other half of what has the potential to be a nasty one-two punch for years to come. Prior to the most recent game, it seemed as though Fox was the primary initiator when he shared the floor with Sabonis, but the roles were reversed on Thursday.

There were a couple of moments where the Fox and Sabonis empty side pick-and-roll was run to success, but the frequency of that action faded quickly as the game went on. The entire NBA knows that De’Aaron Fox wants to get to the rim, and we’ve seen opposing defenses greatly take that into consideration with their willingness to help off of others. The Kings have a short supply of threatening shooters who can help space the floor, which makes these poor-shooting nights all that much harder to overcome.

Sabonis knocked down his first triple as a member of the Kings and ended the night 2/3 from three. Outside of him, Sacramento converted just 7 of their 26 other attempts from three. Donte DiVincenzo, who was the only other player with multiple conversions from beyond the arc, went 2/6. Justin Holiday shot 37.8 percent from beyond the arc with Indiana this season on 6.9 attempts per night but ended the night just 1/3 from range. 

Davion Mitchell’s offensive emergence was apparent prior to the break, but failed to convert any of his four attempts. Harrison Barnes, who Alvin Gentry has publicly encouraged to shoot at least six triples per game, went just 1/2 against Denver.

“We got guys that I think are good shooters, but if they’re not gonna make them then we’re gonna have to try something else,” Gentry said. “I think the shots that we’re getting are good shots… Sabonis is doing a real good job of creating shots for us and we’re just gonna have to step up and make them.”

So, yes, De’Aaron Fox needs to be better and anyone on a max-contract should be expected to find ways to significantly contribute every single night, but it’s tough to make things happen when constantly running into multiple defenders. DiVincenzo, Holiday, Mitchell, and Barnes have to contribute more from three than a combined 4/11 from distance.

Despite Sacramento’s abysmal 31 percent conversion rate from three, they ended the night an impressive 50 percent from the field. Offensively, their performance should have been enough for a real chance to win most NBA games. It’s just that, defensively, the Kings were an all too familiar train wreck with continued turnover issues.

Live-ball turnovers! We’ve heard Alvin Gentry say those words countless times since being promoted to the interim head coach and it seems like that tally will remain ongoing post-deadline.

“We talked about this in the walkthrough. If you’re running back and you’re even with your guy, Joker feels like you’re beat,” Alvin Gentry said post-game when asked about his team’s poor transition defense. “We just gotta do a better job of, when the ball is coming off the rim, sprinting back, and being able to turn, and being able to then locate our guy.”

The Sacramento Kings struggle mightily to defend in a half-court setting, and I’m really not even sure how to describe just how poor their transition defense has been. 15 turnovers against an elite outlet passing big like Nikola Jokic is just asking for trouble.

“We’re still just getting a feel for each other. I mean, we’ve had three practices, five games,” Fox said post-game. “15 (turnovers) is not horrible, but it’s not where you want to be… most of them were live-ball and they definitely capitalized on that.”

Fox and Sabonis each had four turnovers of their own, DiVincenzo had three, and Barnes added a pair of his own. That’s something that’s got to be cleaned up and emphasized not just going into the Kings’ second consecutive game against the Nuggets, but for the remaining 21 games of the 2021-22 season.

Despite Sacramento’s poor three-point shooting, a few too many turnovers, a lack of aggression from Harrison Barnes, and the absence of Richaun Holmes (due to back soreness) the score remained relatively close for the first three quarters of play.

Head coach Alvin Gentry had previously expressed to the media that he thought it would be best to have one of Domantas Sabonis or De’Aaron Fox on the floor at all times. Yet, with 1:51 remaining in the third quarter, Sabonis was headed to the bench where Fox was already located. Denver head coach Michael Malone was subbing Nikola Jokic out simultaneously.

Harrison Barnes, who is easily the third best player on Sacramento’s roster, was also removed when Sabonis was. That left an on-court lineup of:

Davion Mitchell – Donte DiVincenzo – Jeremy Lamb – Justin Holiday – Damian Jones

Care to guess how those minutes went? None of the Kings’ big-3 returned to action until the 10:11 mark of the fourth quarter. Denver had expanded their two-point lead to a significantly more daunting 11 point margin while their MVP candidate was getting a breather.

Alvin Gentry was asked about his previously stated intention to stagger Fox and Sabonis in postgame. “We are very mindful of that. We wanted to have one of those guys on the floor at all times,” Gentry said. “But, they took Joker out and we just felt like Sabonis had played a lot of minutes… and, I think, if you go back and look we got Fox back in the game right after that…”

Those minutes killed the Kings and led to utlimatley played a massive part in their downfall. If the Kings want to up their chances on their second consecutive game against the Nuggets in Denver this Satuday, they will need to maintain their defensive focus in transition, limit turnovers, not have an atrocious shooting night from three, and ideally have one of their two best players on the floor at all times.

“I feel like, apart from those last minutes in the fourth quarter, we played a solid game. We just gotta eliminate those turnovers,” Domantas Sabonis said. “So, as long as we fix those little mistakes we should be good, we should be able to compete.”