Kings discover a defensive toughness on three-game road trip

Down 71-53 at halftime to the Atlanta Hawks, the Sacramento Kings had some serious reflecting to do. A few days prior they experienced a beating at the hands of a 14th place Portland Trailblazers team. The lackluster performance in that first game of a three-game road trip had seemed to follow them to Atlanta.

In the locker room, the players opened up, speaking more than they normally do, according to Malik Monk. They spoke of hitting the Hawks in the mouth in the second half. This is the type of communication head coach Mike Brown has been calling for in recent weeks to help the team pull out of slumps, not just relying on him or the other coaches to create that spark. Instead, he wants it to come from within.

“I don’t think you can ever become a great team in this league until the locker room takes ownership in the process,” said Brown, who also mentioned that the players did a lot of communicating on the bench.

And what we have seen this season is a good team that isn’t at the level yet to be considered “great.” When the team came out onto the floor in the second half, however, what happened was great. The Kings were the aggressors, shutting down the Hawks for only 39 second-half points. Brown leaned heavily on Monk, Trey Lyles, Davion Mitchell and Chris Duarte. Duarte took what would have normally been Kevin Huerter’s minutes, as Huerter left the game due to a left hand strain. The Kings relied on De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Monk and Lyles for scoring. Duarte, Mitchell and Len provided a defensive toughness to round things out. This combination propelled the Kings to a 117-110 victory on the second game of the trip.

On Sunday, the Kings visited Memphis for a matchup with the newly inspired Grizzlies with Ja Morant back.

Brown inserted Duarte into the starting lineup.

The result was what Brown called the “best defensive performance” he has seen out of his team since arriving in Sacramento. The Grizzlies scored 92 points, the lowest for an opponent this season, and only the second time the Kings have held an opponent under 100 points in the 2023-24 campaign. The Grizzlies finished with only 1 offensive rebound.

The scoring came at the hands of Fox, Sabonis, Keegan Murray, Monk, Lyles and Harrison Barnes. The defense was again sparked by Duarte, Mitchell and Len. Huerter even ended up scoring 9 off the bench and was +16. Barnes dropped in 11 points with the starting unit.

“Duarte was big starting for us. Two nights in a row that he had a tough assignment, one night he had Trey Young, tonight he has Ja Morant. You aren’t stopping those guys from scoring; you just want to make them work as hard as you can, and Duarte did a phenomenal job doing it,” said Brown, who also complimented Davion Mitchell and Alex Len.

Small sample size, but swapping Duarte for Huerter, who has seen his overall shooting efficiency decline this season, has been a success so far. Especially for a team trying to figure out how to not solely rely on three-point shooting and outscoring opponents.

The advanced stats show the distinct differences in these starting lineups.

The lineup of Fox, Duarte, Murray, Barnes and Sabonis has a +11.8 differential, according to Cleaning The Glass, and:

• On offense: 113.7 points per 100 possessions, 54.2% effective field goal %, 16.7% turnover percentage, 26.4% offensive rebound%, and a 15.8 free throw rate.
• On defense: 101.9 points allowed per 100 possessions (89th percentile), opponent effective fg% of 54.9%, turnover% of 16.2% (82nd percentile), offensive rebound% 18.4% (92nd percentile), free throw rate of 20.7.

The lineup of Fox, Huerter, Murray, Barnes, and Sabonis has a +11.8 differential and:

• On offense: 122.7 points per 100 possessions, effective fg% of 57.8%, turnover% of 8.4% (96th percentile), offensive rebound % of 20.5%, free throw rate of 16.1.
• On defense: opponent points per 100 possessions are 110.9, opponent effective field goal percentage is 55.3%, turnover% is 14.8%, offensive rebound % is 24.7%, free throw rate is 12.3 (82nd percentile)

It is interesting that both lineups have a +11.8 differential, but that is where the similarities end. On the offensive end, the lineup with Fox, Duarte, Murray, Barnes, and Sabonis has a higher offensive rebound percentage, suggesting they are better at getting second-chance points. On the defensive end, the lineup allows fewer offensive rebounds to their opponents, which is a strong defensive attribute. Not to mention the opponent points per 100 possessions for this lineup is in the 89th percentile.

The lineup with Fox, Duarte, Murray, Barnes, and Sabonis provides a more balanced approach with strong defensive metrics, while the lineup with Fox, Huerter, Murray, Barnes, and Sabonis offers a higher offensive output with a slight compromise on defense. (With Huerter, the offense is scoring 9 more points per 100 possessions played.)

Brown shared his thoughts on Duarte following the win over the Hawks: “He’s a strong young man. … He’s got some toughness to him, mental toughness and physical toughness, which bodes well for a guy who has a chance to be a pretty good defender.” He followed this up with explaining that he is looking for all of his guys to “control the controllables.”

“They’ve got to communicate out there. If you don’t communicate defensively in this league, you’re going to be dead in the water, trust me on that. They’ve got to play physical without fouling. They’ve got to show their hands and lead with their chest. And if their man scores or somebody scores because we went vertical or whatever, hey so be it. But those two things, plus this third thing we have 100% control over, and the last one is to give multiple efforts: don’t give one effort and quit, or die on the play. You’ve got to give multiple efforts. And then going back to the physicality, hit somebody before you can go get that ball,” said Brown, who saw this in the second half in Atlanta when he went to the bench in Duarte, Davion Mitchell, Lyles and Alex Len.

In the win over the Grizzlies Duarte was a +11, Mitchell was a +11, Len was a +10. And Huerter still scored 9 points off the bench and was a +16.

“We’re going to miss some threes, but those are the nights that you’ve got to have something defensively to give yourself a chance,” Brown said.

Who knows how long Duarte will retain a starting spot, but regardless, it will be important for the players and coaches to continue to learn from this road trip because it could be a key milestone in this team’s evolution. Hopefully, we see more of it starting Tuesday at home against the Charlotte Hornets.