For most good teams, this wasn’t a game to worry about. The Kings, despite their recent play, have not yet proven that they are a good team. So it comes as no surprise to any Kings fan who was watched this team over the last 15 years that they were thoroughly outmatched by an Orlando Magic team missing half its roster and playing on the second night of a back to back.
Yes, the Kings were missing star De’Aaron Fox, who was a late scratch thanks to a knee contusion, and Marvin Bagley III, but they were also coming off of two days rest and in the midst of their best play this entire season. This was a chance to make a statement and say “We aren’t the Kings of old, we’re different, we’re better, we can take care of business”.
Instead it’s same shit, different year.
The Kings started off well but Orlando kept sticking around, and even took a five point lead going into halftime. Sacramento had no answer for Nikola Vucevic, who scored 23 points in the first half on his way to a game high 42 points. Vucevic shot a ridiculous 17 for 22 from the field tonight, and Sacramento continually left him wide open for his favorite shot, the top of the arc three pointer, which he made 6 of 8.
The wheels completely fell off for the Kings in the third quarter, with Michael Carter-Williams getting whatever he wanted against the inept Sacramento defense. Carter-Williams scored 15 of his 21 points in the quarter, and helped push Orlando’s lead to 20 points at one point. It got so bad for the Kings that Luke Walton did a wholesale line change, taking out the entire starting lineup. Sacramento would make a few runs, but the deficit was too much in the end and Sacramento lost 123 to 112.
Sacramento’s starting lineup was particularly putrid tonight. With Fox and Bagley out, Tyrese Haliburton and Glenn Robinson III got their first starts. Every single starter for the Kings had a double-digit negative +/- while every single bench player was in the positive. The Kings as a team also couldn’t take care of the ball at all with 18 turnovers leading to 21 Orlando points. The Magic on the other hand only committed 10 turnovers. It’s a big reason why the Kings lost by double digits despite shooting better from the field than Orlando.
Games like these are why it’s so hard to believe the Kings are ready to take the next step. Winning 7 of 8 games feels more of a fluke when you see performances like these. De’Aaron Fox is incredibly important to this team, but this was still a pathetic performance that the Kings can’t allow to happen again.
The Kings have a chance to bounce back on Sunday when Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies come to town.
Random Observations:
- Glenn Robinson III had a really rough game. He scored just 3 points on 5 shots in 22 minutes and had three turnovers as well. There were multiple fast breaks in the first half that were ruined because Robinson mishandled the ball.
- In Tyrese’s first start, he made more mistakes than usual. 4 turnovers in just 26 minutes, and he also had a couple of defensive possessions where he ended up making bad fouls that led to and-ones or free throw opportunities for the other team.
- Nemanja Bjelica made his first appearance since January 9th and didn’t really miss a beat, doing Nemanja things. He finished with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in 28 minutes. It remains to be seen if he only played because Marvin was out, or if he’ll start to re-enter the team’s rotation going forward.
- Hassan Whiteside was one of the few bright spots for Sacramento tonight, scoring 16 points on a perfect 7 for 7 from the field to go with 7 rebounds in just 16 minutes of action.
- DaQuan Jeffries made his first appearance of the season and finished with 6 points on 3 of 7 shooting in about 17 minutes. He looked a bit rusty at times, missing both of his three point attempts, but it was good to see him out there. It wouldn’t surprise me if he supplants GRIII in the rotation as the season continues.
We’re just not the same team without Bags
LOL! Comment of the night!
Of the decade I’d say. Same level as Look Vlade took Fox that’s why we are where we are today!
Tough loss, but at least we had Doug’s wit and humor to help color the loss!
Even Doug was depressed by the third quarter. Which I found pretty hilarious.
I SEE YOU FORKINGSANDCOUNTRY! TAKING IT OUT AND CHOPPIN IT UPSIDE YA HEAD! I TELL YA!
Haha I’m legitimately laying on my couch laughing so hard my wife just asked what the hell was going on.
all you have to do is combine phrases and then change a few words. Here I’ll do another.
MARVIN WASN’T BUYIN WHAT EMBIID WAS TAKIN! THAT APPLE DIDN’T ROLL TOO FAR FROM THE TREE! I SEE YOU BIG FELLA!
Marty with some hilarious comments getting down voted. Some DC lovers out there.
all votes count!
Well done.
Still a better record year 3 than Luka and Trae in games they’ve been active
This is good!
I thought Vucevic was just a rim runner.
No Marvin no win !
So the guy Walton couldn’t find a role for just posted a 15, 9, 6 at a +10 on/off.
I’m not here to fight, but these are fighting numbers.
Now sit him back down until traded lol. Just gave Philly and Miami a quick peek
Philly should give us korkmaz for him, they likely can’t resign him
Miami tougher for a player trade so have to look at their draft picks, maybe a couple seconds
No clue why if Bjelica was told he was gonna go, why not start him with the original 5 minus Fox?
You start GR3 smh.
I wonder if Walton flat out not picking up McNair’s calls so he can continue to play some useless vets we’ve got
GR3 was so bad tonight it was sort of incredible.
GR3 reminds me of the typical Kings player we’ve had over the last 15 years of futility. Just something nostalgic watching GR3 play.
Small forward version of Jason Thompson !
The terrible fouls, the dribbling the ball off his leg multiple times, the terrible turnovers. It was all on display last night.
It’s almost like he is worth just the vet minimum!
That’s usually a pretty good indicator!
Welcome to the KANGZ Tyrese.
I’m sure everyone will touch on EVERYTHING else in this thread so let me throw some stats to back yall up.
Vuc: 17/22 for 77%, 6/8 for 75%
Magic: 29/69 for 42%, 9/26 for 34%
“Let’s double that guy” – Upside Down Universe Luke Walton
1-4 vs Heat, Rockets, and Magic.The lunchpail teams in the league right now. Still a mentally weak team.
With no Fox, the Kings are simply a very bad team.
Heat are always better than the Kings year over year. Butler and Bam are better than any player on the Kings. The Heat we’re also dealing with a myriad of Injuries, as well. A Healthy Rockets team are without question better than the Kings. Wall, Wood, Oladipo, Tucker, Gordon. The Kings had 2 losses against Houston with Harden still on the team, as well.
if You think a healthy Rockets and Heat team are lunch pail, I don’t think you’re watching the NBA much. No disrespect.
Losing against the Magic is ridiculous.
Let’s really put an asterisk on pretty much every win the Kings had on their winning streak.
Let’s go down the list of players missing on the opposing team: Beverly, George, Smart, Kemba, Pritchard, Redick, Adams, Murray, Bogdanovic, Etc.
Kings are probably wining very few of those games if the other team had their starters and key role players in the lineup.
Only three sure things in life…
1. Death.
2. Taxes.
3. Kangz.
The Kangz never let me down. They always show up right on time.
Real question.
Who truly deserves the blame for the lack of energy after an extra off day? Is it the staff or just the attitude of the players we have? Do we just need different players? Teams like the Knicks show that effort can be taught with a different coach. Or are our players set in their ways?
The 18 turnovers are a chemistry thing, but you could tell what team played harder. The team with 8 role players fighting for their NBA jobs.
Chemistry? At least 10 of them were dribbling off the foot, shitty pass or stupidity. None of those are chemistry.
1st time ever that lineup was even used probably ever in any game not just as a starting 5. No chemistry = stupid play.
And Tyrese passing to where he expects dudes to be and them not being there. Guess that’ll never get better with better chemistry either. Passing is chemistry dude.
No chemistry on offense allows GR3 and Jeffries to force the issue on drives and dribble off their foot.
If you’re talking about that ONE GR3 fast break he flubbed, that’s on him
Chemistry. That’s it. THAT’S THE SOLUTION
I’ll see myself out now…
I don’t known man, good teams lose and bad teams win every night in the NBA. That .430 win percentage has to find a few scrappy wins somewhere.
I get that. Pistons beat Boston tonight as well.
I guess I’m thinking 2 years too early where we hopefully won’t take any team for granted. We’re still new to this winning thing ourselves so it’s understandable. Just wishing for what we don’t have, a team that fights every night.
One of those nights watching the less talented team outwork our team again. Same old story.
I never say game they should have won or team they should beat. Anything can and will happen and I consider that normal.
It is challenging to be on the edge of your seat watching a heavyweight fight like the Sixers/Kings game, and then two days later watch a game like last night which was so meh. It was one of those games that ends and you can’t remember a single play.
I just really want them to be that vs Sixers team and not have to tank, but this is how the disappointment takes hold I guess.
Games like tonight are a main reason why I’m on Team trade Harrison for good value. I’ve seen too many of these when the going gets tough, Harrison just sort of disappears type games from him.
Harrison can disappear for games at a time. The last 3 games, he’s gone for 4, 8, and 13 points, of which 2 are losses.
Another stretch earlier in the season, he went for 11, 14, 7, and 5 of which all 4 games are losses.
Bwahahaha there it is! That’s the pure unfiltered Kangz I love! Best part is I totally called it in the trade thread from earlier today. On the plus side, if Monte had any thoughts this team was ready to compete for anything he was probably like Oh yeah, they aren’t after this one.
This game did highlight a couple things though. First is that the defense is still really bad. Second is that this team barely squeaks by with having only two play makers in Fox and Haliburton so when one of them sits it just looks ugly. They still need at least a couple more play makers if they want to make any noise.
What would have made it better woulda been Frank Mason joining in on the fun carving the Kings non-existent pick and roll defense.
That woulda either made it worse or a helluva lot more fun! Tough break for the kid.
That would have been the ultimate Kangz move you’re right.
I could have watched a better game at a retirement home.
Y’all need to chill:
this was the first game without Fox. The Magic have been without key players all season and they’ve had time to adapt. The Kings have had a ton of shitty losses this season, and this is definitely not the shittiest.
Definitely alot of overreactions but hey that’s Kings Nation for ya.
I’d rather watch the Clippers beatdowns than this again.
Watching no adjustment at all for Vucevic made me scream more than I’ve ever done about the stupidity of this team. Just my opinion.
Overreactions or tired of a flaming dumpster fire?
Both definitely.
They beat Chicago when Fox left after 5 minutes, so there is at least some competency without Fox. Saying this whole team without him is trash is an overreaction imo.
And we can’t get enough of this dumpster that’s why we keep coming back.
I’ve watched every game this year and I thought this one was BY FAR the worst. I expect them to get smashed by good teams like the Clippers or even the Warriors when Curry is cooking. But this Magic team missing 4 starters, on the send night of a B2B on the road is atrocious. Fox or no Fox, I thought this was the worst game I’ve seen so far this year.
Either way, it was definitely one of the worst losses this year. It looked like a complete lack of focus from nearly everyone last night, I put that on the coach for not having them ready to play after a 2 day layoff.
Awful performance. After some decent basketball in the first quarter, the Kings relapsed into taking bad shots without sharing the ball. When they tried to share the ball, they turned it over.
On a positive note: I liked what Bjelica and Jeffries brought off the bench. Belly is just a really skilled player and DaQuan played some terrific on-ball defense. Hope to see more of them (and maybe less CoJo at one point, pls)
Get well soon, Fox and Bags.
Have a great rest of your night, everyone.
Cojo makes my eyes bleed.
Tyrese, no imprint. Thought he had more heart than that..
Joseph is terrible, and shouldn’t be playing. But Kyle Guy is terrible too, and has done zero with his few minutes. The option to go big and just play Tyrese or big I guess can keep them both off the court, but Guy isn’t the answer either
Guy will be playing overseas within a year or two. Has no business being on an NBA roster
Probably correct and exact same thing stated about Seth Curry as a rookie by the experts !
Bagley supporter questioning Tyrese’s heart?
GTFO, you should be thanking your lucky starz that Tyrese has taken the stink off Bagley this year.
It’s just one game (without Fox), albeit a bad one.
Let’s see how they react.
The recent run was nice, let’;s see if they pick it up again or revert to the mean.
I said at the beginning of the season that we should have a view of what this team is by the AS break. And then we’ll also know how the roster will look like for the rest of the season.
It seems (SSSI) that Tyrese can help guide a team, he can’t carry it (yet).
He’d have a heck of a lot better chance of helping carry it WITH Fox. Did you really think he could carry a team on his own right now?
I didn’t, but some commenters appear to have already crowned him as THE franchse player.
Tyrese is a terrific Rookie and if he continues to develop can be a fine 4th or 5th best player on a top team ! Franchise- not a chance !
He is the franchise player already. The only difference between last year’s team and this year’s team is … wait for it … Haliburton.
The record speaks for itself.
There were always going to a few bumps in the road for Tyrese and tonight was definitely one of them. I thought he came out aggressive early and made more mistakes than usual which led him to be less aggressive as the game went on. Efficiency is really important but if he’s got the best chance to score or make a play it doesn’t trump everything else. Sometimes you have to take a bad shot because it’s the best play in that moment. But he’s a rookie and I’m confident he’ll figure this stuff out.
Agreed. It’s a result of knowing Fox was out and putting pressure on himself to make up for it. Notice none of the vets did shit in terms of stepping into the lead role.
I was really surprised to see BJelly got some minutes, I thought there was some personal issue between him and Walton…
I mean, if BJelly did not play this game, then that should be J. Parker’s time, however, Walton chose BJelly over Parker…which really means somthing.
It probably means that you should let go of Jabari Parker, just like 4 NBA franchises and their fans have done.
The reality is, the Kings could cut him today and some other NBA team will pick him up for the vet minimum. I’m thinking McNair just has kept him in hopes of some kind of salary filler for a trade.
Dookie!
Another Duke number 2 pick !
And the tank is back on track, which is a good thing. This team needs a high end talent upgrade via the 2021 draft.
Keep Hali coming off the bench. Let the kid progress into becoming a starter, no point in rushing him and ruining the amazing progress he’s making this season.
Kings obviously missed Fox a ton, Bagley, not so much.
Buddy gonna Buddy.
For all those who don’t want to trade HB, this was a game where he should have stepped up with Fox out and played a primary role. Reality is that’s not who he is. Who he is a solid starter and someone who should be the fourth or fifth best player on your team. If a good trade offer comes up, Monte must pounce.
The announcing continues to suck. Maybe Koz and DC would make a good team. I don’t know. Try something new.
Quick observation –
I know Orlando leads the league in offensive rebounds and I think that’s a directly correlation to how poorly they shoot. A ton of their shots were either coming up short and ricocheting off the front of the rim and into the hand of one of their players rushing toward the basket or clanging off the back iron and flying into someone’s hands near the 3 point line. It was wild to watch.
Their hands were there and Kangz were not ! It was wild but not fun and even a bit sad !
Just when you think your out they keep pulling you back in ! Doldrums that is !
Up until last night, the Kings had enjoyed a huge advantage in regards to their own health and their opponent’s lack of it – the Kings have missed facing a lot of key players early on, and to their credit, they have taken advantage of it. But last night spotlighted the dearth or depth on this roster. This team will find it almost impossible to win without Fox, and it may be hard-pressed to win if they are missing Barnes, Hield or Haliburton (and probably Holmes, too).
The depth issue is real. Plus, when you take into consideration the current outlook for next season. the Kings have roughly $88M tied up Fox, Buddy, Bagley, Barnes and Hali. There is not a lot of room for improvement when it comes to roster construction.
It is basically going to be those 5 guys, this summer’s first rounder, and a bunch of 2nd round picks. Is McNair just going to round out the roster with some more vet minimums?
Vlonty McDivac could have chosen not to extend Bagley and dump $11 million more into a lost cause.
But he did, so here we are.
The broadcast crew continues to shower Buddy with praise, on how much better he is, or how much his game has improved all around.
But on a night when we really needed him to go off for 35 or so, he was absent again. He’s just not the same lights out scorer of the past, where he single handedly brought the Kings back many times.
Some Kings fans have an interesting logic going on. They can justify wins over teams that are missing MULTIPLE star and role players because the Kings have “turned a corner” or are playing good basketball. But when the Kings lose a game without their star player, they can excuse a loss by saying things like, “but we didn’t have Fox.”
Can’t have it both ways, folks.
You would probably have to set the over/under of Fox missing games at around five, especially given how much contract he draws. From the looks of last night, that’s five losses. Barnes and Hield have been ironmen, but you would have to figure that Haliburton is going to hit the rookie wall at some point and regress at least a little.
The odds just don’t favor the Kings when it comes to health and the impact that it will have on this thin roster.
Totally agree. Same goes for Holmes. If he misses a few games to minor bumps and bruises, who is going to eat up his 30 minutes at center on those nights?
It’s more of a product of a very weak and thin bench. If you can’t see it by watching the games with your eyes just take a look at the net ratings when either the starting or finishing lineups are not in the game. So if any of these 6 players (Fox, Buddy, Hali, Barnes, Bagley, Holmes) are out, we are going to have big problems.
Which is why it is a core you cannot build around, especially at their current price tags. There is no money left to build a supportive cast.
The best thing I can say about this game is DaQuan Jefferies looked good! He should be getting all the minutes Robinson gets and more. Jefferies is what we need. He is a dirty work scraper and he is selective in his shots. He wasn’t right in the preseason, but his mobility and agility is back. He can be one of our best perimeter defenders and rim runners. He can defend two positions, maybe three!
Inserting Jefferies into our rotation at the expense of CoJoScrub and GR3 is called synergy, something our coach knows nothing about.
Buddy Yield is a joke. Another futile effort of non-sense, saving his makes for when the game was over. As I have said Buddy is carrying too much weight, too jacked and excess body fat, and it is killing his season and our team especially on nights like last we needed him to be a star. We needed 30-35 points from Buddy w/o Fox, but he is not that player anymore.
This is when Buddy was good, 2018-2019 highlights. —->
Look how much quicker he gets to his spots. He was 10-20 pounds lighter. —–>
Who endorsed Buddy’s weight gain? Our training staff is clueless! Watch the highlights and you will see dozens of plays that Buddy simply can’t make any more.
Buddy made 49% of his 2s in 2018-19. Now he is making a pathetic 38% and this includes layups and dunks. (-11%) . While he is down 5% on his 3s (43% to 38%), these drops are correlated. Because he cannot get free inside the arc , he is settling for more contested 3s.
My prescription is to shed the weight in 2-4 weeks, and maybe he can salvage his nightmare of a season.
Bjelica reminded fans why he is DNP-CD, I do not care what his stat line looks like. He is too methodical and deliberate of a player to make a difference, and a patsy on defense. And Joseph again shows why he is a loser and the coach is a loser for his undying devotion to him. When Joseph is at his best, it amounts to nothing, and it is unsustainable. If you lack the physical and athletic profile to be an NBA player it does not matter how fundamental or savvy you are or try to be. Our coach fails to get this!
CoJoScrub is constantly grimacing and clapping his hands in exasperation, am I the only one who notices this. He has loser body language, and teammates pick up on this consciously or unconsciously.
Last night was revealing but not shocking because we have a 4-man core + Whiteside, and a bad coach, a SG with a trailer attached to his shorts, and nothing else we can count on.
So why should we not lose to horrible team like the Magic w/o half of their roster? Coaching is significant in games like this, along with role players and backups capable of rising to the occassion, and we have neither.
Vuvecic is a tougher matchup than Embiid when he has his shot going like that because it is harder to send help. I don’t think Bagley would have made a difference because his close outs are poor. And Vuvecic would punish Bagley in the paint too. But just like our coach fails to make adjustments in his rotations he made no adjustments to stop Vuvecic from a career game.
Walton is obviously an indecisive milquetoast phony if he is waiting into the second half and throws Kyle Guy out there. It is not fair! Give him all the minutes you are gifting to Joseph are don’t bother.
Well-stated kings4ever.
Our bench trash and yet Belly never plays lol, Walton sucks, the sooner they fire him the better.
Kings looked so lackadaisical throughout this game, casual no intensity. Tyrese was ballin 1st quarter, he needs to take over when Fox is out instead of ‘being in flow’. Holmes and Barnes too, step up, be more aggressive, it’s okay for all three of them to take tons of shots, who else will?
This is part of the reason why we have no business being “buyers” at this year’s deadline.
This roster is Vlade’s legacy and Walton’s coaching is poor. This loss only makes Fox looks better. Dude has been dealing with a lot of shit since his rookie year. He could have reached before the all-star level showcased recently
The Big Failure here was Walton’s failure to contain Vusevic. Whiteside could been used more ably and effectively against Vusevic and also possibly produced more points from the five and lured Vusevic into foul trouble.
Daquan Jeffries shows promise at the wing. Buddy Hield continues to disappoint when he was needed most despite all the yammering from Walton about his other contributions which to my reckoning last night were invisible. Maybe i was too busy smacking my forehead like Bobby Jackson did last night when Buddy made a big booboo.
Facts for a minute. Just because we’re not terrible like we usually are still does not mean we are good.
Usually to win we need a healthy roster, Bags included.
Even at full strength we are not the type of team that can assume a win over anyone, and without one or two pieces of our core we sure as hell can’t do that.
Hopefully everyone gets back soon and we can start rolling again.
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