Uninspired effort dooms Kings in 133-120 loss to Pistons

SACRAMENTO — This should have been an easy one.

With most of Northern California’s attention on Las Vegas and the 49ers impending date with the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, the Sacramento Kings should have just quietly handled business against the six win Detroit Pistons in their first home game since January 22nd.

Should being the operative word.

But as has often been the case with this version of the Kings, nothing came easy Wednesday night. Even though the Pistons were without Cade Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart, and Bojan Bogdanovic.

After a strong start, Sacramento was outscored by 12 in the second quarter and found themselves down by as many as 15 in the third. It was disappointing to say the least, and on multiple occasions, the relatively sparse crowd reigned boos down on the home team.

The disappointment from the home crowd began to resonate late, as Sacramento made a run to close the third period, turning a 15 point disadvantage into a two point lead over the final 6:29 of the third. A run that was punctuated by Domantas Sabonis corralling an offensive rebound, draining a corner three, and high five-ing fans with real emotion.

But for all the momentum swinging in their favor, the Kings could not put away the short-handed Pistons, who retook the lead on a long Jaden Ivey three four minutes into the fourth quarter and never relinquished it.

In a loss like Wednesday night’s, one this is unequivocally bad, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

“For us to feel like ‘it’s okay, or this is a tough one coming off a 14 game road trip’, that’s a bad excuse,” Mike Brown said. “I hope none of us feel that way. At the end of the day, I don’t care that we lost the game – you’re going to lose games. But if you lose a basketball game, you at least want to look at yourself in the mirror and say ‘I left it out on the floor’. I don’t think many of us can look in the mirror and say we left it out on the floor, which is very disappointing.”

Keegan Murray was scoreless in the loss, playing just 20 minutes and attempting just four shots. His minutes were taken by Trey Lyles, who dropped 19, including five three pointers. De’Aaron Fox was just 4-12 for 10 points and Harrison Barnes 4-10 for 8, as the starting lineup failed to deliver in crunch time. Well, with the exception of Sabonis, who went for 30/12 in 40 minutes and was the only player to play with any real fire in the second half.

Kevin Huerter started strong with nine in the first but cooled off considerably, finishing with 16 before being tossed on a double-tech with 1:40 remaining.

Meanwhile, second year guard Jaden Ivey, who the Kings passed on in favor of Keegan Murray in the 2023 draft, had a revenge game of sorts, scoring a career-high 37 points as he was practically unstoppable no matter where he pulled up from.

“He [Ivey] played great,” Sabonis said. “He kept knocking down shots, especially in the fourth quarter, kind of killing us. We kept answering, but he kept knocking down threes, which is deflating when you’re trying to make a comeback.”

Ivey connected on 5-7 from deep and added six rebounds and seven assists on the night. “Jaden Ivey, he torched us,” Brown said simply. Ivey’s effort was bolstered by Jalen Duran’s 20, and Alec Burks 25 off the bench. Malik Monk led the bench scoring for Sacramento with 23.

Teams are shooting over 40% from three against Sacramento, something Fox said they have to be better at defending. “We need to close out better. The guys that we’ve labeled as hot, we have to get them off the line.”

That often starts with effort, something Sabonis said was lacking from the home team.

“Our effort… coach talked about it, we really didn’t have any effort there. That’s what made that lead, and we just couldn’t get back up. We just have to respect each opponent, no matter who is on the court. Fight for your team, play to a certain standard that we believe we are.”

After several games of the team’s leaders not meeting with media after home losses, both Sabonis and Fox did the post game presser Wednesday night.

They had very different responses to the loss.

“It sucks,” Sabonis said. “A loss is a loss but at the same time this is one of those games we have to win. We have to take accountability for it.”

Meanwhile, Fox was ready to move on, stating simply, “It adds one loss to the loss column.”

The messaging coming from the team is as inconsistent as their play on the court, as they can look like true contenders one night and also-rans the next. This is a team coming off a 5-2 road trip, one that has looked dominant in victories over playoff teams like Indiana, Golden State, Oklahoma City, and Denver.

But they have also been embarrassed on their home floor by Charlotte, New Orleans (multiple times), and now a historically-bad and very short-handed Pistons team.

It’s frustrating for the fans, and certainly the players and coaches.

“The way we performed defensively, it was not good, it’s concerning,” Brown said. “I told the guys, I hope that this stings. Because the way we played, there wasn’t anything I could say that was good about it. I am disappointed in the way we played – it’s unacceptable.”

The Kings will look to right the ship at home before another road trip when they welcome in the defending champion Nuggets Friday night. Mike Brown hopes his messaging gets through in time. “We’re making the same mistakes over and over again defensively and we don’t understand how important it is to figure that out sooner than later. That’s concerning to me.”