Sacramento’s hope for revenge against the Golden State Warriors will have to wait for another day, as the Warriors defeated the Sacramento Kings 122 to 114 in Sacramento’s home opener to put the Kings at 1-1 on the season. Stephen Curry lead the way with a game-high 41 points on a ridiculous 14-19 from the field, including 7-10 from three. De’Aaron Fox dropped 39 points to lead the Kings, 22 of which came in the 4th quarter alone as Sacramento attempted a valiant comeback after being down by as many as 18 points earlier in the quarter.
The Kings had a chance to make a statement this game, but instead fell flat on their face. Sacramento allowed Golden State to shoot 55.2% from the field and 43.8% from three. The Kings also didn’t help matters by missing 9 of their 29 attempts at the line. For the first quarter and a half the Kings seemed fairly in control of the game, getting out to an 11 point lead at 39-28 with 9:13 left to go in the second quarter. The Warriors whittled Sacramento’s lead steadily before taking over for good when Jonathan Kuminga hit a three pointer with 2 seconds left in the half to give Golden State a 60-57 lead. The Kings would retake the lead briefly very early on in the 3rd quarter but after that it was the Steph Curry show; Curry scored 16 of his 41 points in the 3rd quarter and broke the game open for the Warriors as Sacramento couldn’t get into any offensive rhythm. Golden State ended up outscoring Sacramento 75 to 55 over the second and third quarters and that difference proved to be insurmountable. De’Aaron Fox led a late fourth quarter comeback that saw the Kings cut the lead to as few as five points, but a Fox three pointer with 1:06 left was awry and Stephen Curry answered on the other end with a three pointer of his own to put the game away for good.
This was a game that was there for the taking for the Kings if they had only executed better. They beat the Warriors on the offensive glass, got to the line for 29 attempts to just 14 for Golden State, won the turnover battle 14 to 19 (although the Warriors ended up scoring 26 points on those 14 Kings turnovers compared to just 18 points for the Kings off of the Warriors turnovers) and also outscored Golden State in the paint 54 to 44. While the Kings defense wasn’t particularly good, it was their offense that disappointed more often than not. The Kings made just 12-40 of their three point attempts, a paltry 30% from the field. Only 4 of those makes came in the second half, and on 19 attempts. Sacramento’s guards aside from De’Aaron Fox were particularly disappointing; Kevin Huerter played just 15 minutes and was 0-5 from the field, not scoring a single point. Davion Mitchell also failed to score a single time on two attempts, and Malik Monk only scored 9 points with just 4 attempts on the game. Newcomer Chris Duarte got the most time on the floor due to his defense, but he failed to show up on the other end of the floor, scoring just 4 points on 1-7 from the field, missing all four of his three point attempts before he fouled out.
Steph Curry is an incredible player, but even with his heroics, this is a game the Kings could have won. Both of Sacramento’s stars stepped up (Domantas Sabonis had 19 points, 18 rebounds, 7assists and 3 steals) but the supporting cast disappeared. Sasha Vezenkov led the bench in scoring with 10 points in just 12 minutes, most of that coming in the first half of action. Harrison Barnes, after scoring a game-high 33 points in the season opener, only scored 10 points and shot the ball just five times overall.
Overall it was very disappointing performance for the Kings on a big stage to start the season. They’ll get the chance to set things right sooner rather than later though, as they’ll be facing the Warriors once again next Wednesday in San Francisco. First up is the Lakers though, who come into town on Sunday and will provide a different test for the Beam Team as they try to secure their first home victory of the 2023-24 campaign.
Random Observations
- Keegan Murray didn’t have the best shooting night, going just 6 for 16 overall and 3 for 11 from three for 16 points but I can forgive him a little bit because I liked the aggressiveness from him and also he had several looks that were almost in but just rimmed out. I think his overall efficiency is going to take a hit while he settles into a rhythm and learns to be a little more comfortable in looking for his own shot. Last year, he was almost primarily just a catch and shoot guy while this year he’s being asked to be more of a primary initiator and creator. So far he’s definitely been leaning into that, and I think we’ll see some really good things once he gets used to it.
- Sacramento’s bench was a real disappointment tonight. Malik Monk was probably Sacramento’s second best player in the series against Golden State last summer, but tonight he seemed like an afterthought. Yes, he had six assists, but Malik’s primary role is to be a scoring spark and to see him only take four shots in an entire game is a little baffling. Davion Mitchell also failed to be a factor on either end of the floor, as Curry seemingly didn’t care who was guarding him tonight. Vezenkov was a small bright spot, but he did most of his damage in the first half. This was definitely a night where the Kings could have used Trey Lyles at time, but he continues to be out dealing with a calf strain.
- Moses Moody continues to be a Kings killer. Moody played some solid minutes for the Warriors in their playoff series against Sacramento, and tonight he chipped in 10 points on 4-5 from the field off the bench while also providing more than solid defense (he ended up with 3 steals as well).
- The Kings didn’t particularly play great defense tonight, but some of the shots Steph Curry makes are just obscene. Hand in the face, off balance, it doesn’t matter. He’s the best shooter the league has ever seen and if there’s actually someone out there who is going to be better than him one day, I hope he at least wears a Sacramento Kings uniform when the time comes.
I fear that unless this team can figure out how to play defense they are a play-in or first round exit at best. The Warriors just exploit on the chinks in the Kings armor. They currently have the Kings number.
IMO, this team really needs a defensive minded wing that can guard the 1-3. Mitchell is not it, Duarte is not it, and Kessler isn’t even in the conversation.
how about Colby Jones?
If he can learn to play D, he might very well be that guy.
I think Brown would be grasping at straws with anyone on the current roster.
since we’re looking at other possibilities at SG, another possibility (not saying it’s the best option), just another possibility to consider, would be Keegan at the 2, HB at the 3, and Sasha or Lyles at the 4.
here is a quote from Brown about a week ago:
“I’ll tell you what, the more and more I watch [Jones] and put him in different situations, the more impressed I am, especially for a young guy. His upside is, in my opinion right now, pretty high. You don’t want to elevate him there quite yet, but his pace, his demeanor, his strength, his athleticism, his feel, he can play pick-and-roll, he can play off the ball. Defensively, he’s pretty good for a young guy. There are a lot of things that you look at and say ‘Okay he may be a good basketball player someday at this level,’ and he could be a high-level basketball player.”
and this from Brown also:
“He was really good. I’m loving how he is making my job harder. I love it. Every time we’ve thrown him out there, he just keeps getting better and better. His demeanor is the same. We like to cut on our offense, and he has got to be the hardest cutter on our team. He doesn’t do it most times, he does it every freaking time. I just love watching the kid compete on both ends of the floor.”
Then is sounds like he should be playing him. Can’t be any worse than the current off guard rotation.
And this from Brown:
“KZ (Okpala) is a remarkable talent. These are high expectations, but in the short time that I’ve had him, (I think) he could be a Defensive Player of the Year type candidate,” Brown said. “His length, his size, his strength, his want to play defense is off the charts.” Brown went on to say that their coaching staff, which included current Sacramento coaches Jordi Fernandez and Luke Loucks, planned to use him “similar to how we do Draymond Green a bit in Golden State where he’ll guard everybody at different times.”
Lol! Take everything with a gain of salt.
Cool! Let’s bring back KZ!
and Chima Moneke as well!
Loved their effort, wish it worked out better for them both.
I agree
Davion is a great on-ball defender, but ‘Defense’ isn’t just on-ball. Kings are getting high-picked repeatedly and switching too much IMO.
To me this loss showed the downside of Monte’s approach this offseason. We are short a quality guard and a rotation big. Unfortunately Huerter has forgotten how to play basketball in the last 6 months and Davion is not even playing backup PG quality so far. Javale McGee minutes are not going to get us out of the 1st round. The Warriors definitely have our number (sigh), but we have a number of holes in the rotation that needed work and weren’t upgraded.
I think that the most important thing after a loss is to overreact.
yes, that’s #1.
If Trey Lyles was playing, we would’ve won by 10.
And if Draymond Green was playing we would’ve won by 20.
logged in just to rec this
Hey, some of us were overreacting to the win!
Sasha deserve more minutes in this game….
And if only Mike Brown wants more defense……..as Durate / Huerter both cannot make shots…..
Mike Browns should try Cobly Jones / K. Edwards
The Warriors got hot and seemingly scored at will.
Curry was Curry, but the Dubs got too many wide open looks and drained them.
With their lack of a big man, I still don’t understand why teams/Kings didn’t go inside – but I am coaching from my couch and remain undefeated on my hone floor.
A bigger front line from Lakers will be next
Guess it’s 81-1 this season with the road record>home record once again.
Poor defense, turnovers, and inability to hit free throws absolutely killed us.
And could not hit 3’s to save their lives.
Huerter obviously needs to be removed and its a wrap for Davion’s career given his age and offensive unimprovement
Davion always needs a few games to recalibrate. remember the beginning of last year when he did that step back jumper from five feet away from the rim. it was a new move. it was jaw dropping. but then he missed the 5-footer, and we were all like, “oh, so that’s it, huh”, kind of deflated, and he never did that move again.
This offseason, he has been trying to play more like Curry. The good: his three-point shot looks better. better arc on the shot. he removed the dip from his set shot. the bad: he coughed up the ball bringing it up the court – something that normally doesn’t happen. he threw up some junk at the rim and got stuffed at a time when there was an offensive advantage – something he normally does not do. and the inbounds pass – not sure whose fault that was, maybe both Davion and his teammate. he also added a high dribble bringing the ball up the court like Monk does when he’s feeling cocky, but it’s not a Davion move.
He can always have a career like Patrick Beverly without the trash talking, and the shot does look better.
Disappointing, but it’s just one game. Still 80 to go to josstle for playoff-position.
Having said that, the D has to improve and I don’t yet see where that improvement will come from. Dribble penetration/PoA is the recurring theme.
Also, we are living by the 3 and dying by the 3, and unless you have 3-point cyborg like Curry, that will be a problem every few games. Especially when we seem to have a tendency to wait too long with abandoning the 3 when it is clearly not falling.
obviously it starts by replacing Huerter
one could make a case for keeping Huerter in the starting lineup. Deuce & Mo were going over his monthly stats from last year and it was feast or famine. looking at it that way, it is not a cause for alarm.
He’s a shooter, and shooters are streaky, but he has 5 years of consistent three point shooting. He was 16th in the NBA in 3pt makes last season, just one below Keegan. He just needs to find his rhythm.
On the defense end, he’s no worse than anyone else at the moment.
It looks like his confidence is rattled – he’s a Pro and he’s off track but not lost, I suspect.
One of my favorite guys on the team.
You had me until the last sentence. He’s not the only bad defender, but he’s terrible.
Is it just me or am I wrong but I see a pattern developing when playing the Warriors. In the last 2 games Curry has gone nuts in shooting the 3. 91 points. Last night 7-10. In comparison in those 2 games we CHOKED. Last night Duarte 0-4, Sabonis 0-2, Murray 3-11, Huerter 0-5. Total3-22. You would think in a normal game one or two of those players would have an average night shooting the 3.Barnes only took 5 shots and Mitchell scored nothing 0. Field goals 55% to 43%, Free throws 86% to 69%. and 3 pointers 44% to 30%.This happened in last years playoff. I hope I’m wrong but I see a pattern developing. Last Kayte and Kyle made a comment last night that stuck in my head. They said Curry all night did whatever he wanted to do.After watching the game over I have to agree.When playing the Warriors something has to change Are we trying to hard or has the Warriors gotten into our heads. Hope not.
Missed a great broadcast by ESPN . Doc Rivers was great as analyst .
I really enjoyed his commentary
Obviously a disappointing result, but a fascinating match-up between two teams that know each other really well.
I feel like these match-ups – similar to games vs the Raptors – always show one thing the Kings sorely lack: the combination of size and athleticism on the wing. Murray provides some of that, but he’s no Wiggins, or Kuminga. I thought especially the latter caused some problems for the Kings.
These games most of all show that the Kings aren’t a great team (yet). They still lack the defensive discipline, leading to wide-open shots for the best shooter to ever play basketball.
Two examples:
Bad recovery by Barnes (where this goes to shit) leads to a Wiggins drive. Sabonis steps in, and Huerter goes over to help out with Looney. Murray is in a bad position, with his back turned towards Curry and is too slow as Wiggins makes the pass to a wide-open Curry. Murray should be better in this situation, but I mostly blame Barnes for his poor recovery.
This one’s quite simple. Mitchell doesn’t move closer to Curry as Thompson passes to Looney. Mitchell is out of position when the screen comes, and gambles by shooting the gap instead of following. Curry, who apparently has been shooting decently for some time now, exploits this.
These things may look like details, but are easily exploited by an experienced machine like the Warriors.
It’s a handful of missteps or poor positioning that make the difference in these games. Great video examples!
This is good but I am sorry for having to criticize both clips for starting a bit too late.
At the first clip, the defense breaks down before that. Looney sets a pick for C.Paul. I have two issues:
Once Fox is stuck behind Looney’s screen, Domas moves over to help on Paul. Barnes (IMO rightfully) lets his man go to bump Looney, to frustrate a possible alley-hoop or offensive board. Only then follows Barnes'”bad” recovery.
But it starts with easy penetration at the PoA.
The second clip, I agree with your point. But if you started it a bit earlier you could see that Davion moves into the paint as a help defender. In principle the right play, but when you’re guarding Curry, not so much.
Just my 2 Eurocents.
I can’t download video’s from my phone to TKH, so I had to make a tweet first.
But here is the few seconds before your first clip starts.
https://x.com/NEtauri/status/1718294326835384345?s=20
I think your 2 eurocents are spot on! Good eye
Thanks!
BTW, I believe I saw several times the guys guarding Curry stepping away from him to take position for help D. Huerter at least once.
For supposedly being the Kings best perimeter defender, Michell looked horrible last night.
I vividly remember the last play of the first half where Klay screened for Curry. Mitchell should have switched onto Klay, who he left wide open at the top of the 3pt circle. Barnes then had to leave his man in the corner to challenge the open Klay. Mitchell should have recognized this and run to the corner to pick up Barne’s left player, but he continued to Klay, who then passed to the open shooter in the corner. Easy corner 3 to end the half and it all started with Mitchell. Simple rotations were blown twice on the same play by Mitchell.
If you can find that gif. it’s painful to watch.
Mitchell has looked bad for a while now. Obviously he’s been a bad offensive player for his entire career, but now the defense has become pretty mediocre. Which, unfortunately, is still better than anyone else’s.
I still hold out hope he can figure something out and be a quality backup PG, but that hope is now really small.
Let’s slow down, he just had a few Off Nights.
His defense is so good, it locks down his offense.
Davion has weirdly been a foul machine on D and just looks
out of sorts.
Gotta give it a few games but still don’t know that Sabonis shot can get good enough. Davion as well.
Murray and Fox look improved but D and 3/4 athlete are probably still lacking.
Hopeful Monte sees what the growth is
and makes a move if needed to get to the next step.
Well analyzed. Cannot leave a shooter ‘like’ Curry (there’s nobody who comes close, but you get my drift) isolated like this. Good example of where Davion’s defense is lacking when he’s not on-ball.
Kings must find ways to get and keep Barnes involved in the offense . Should be getting more FGA than this batch of 2 guards .
One thing that bothers me is how many layups Sabonis misses straight up. It happens almost in every game. Hard to understand how a 7 footer does this.
PS In 1 sequence Curry loses his defender at the wing and drives to the rim for a layup. Sabonis was inside the paint at the time and seems to be nailed to the floor. He could have stepped in and tried to block the shot but stood there and watched Curry finish the layup. No defense.
Sabonis is bad at taking charges. He challenges those driving to the rim like a rim protector, which he is not.
Last season Sabonis averaged 0.04 charges drawn per game. He played in 79 games. That means he drew 3 charges last season .
For reference Mitchell led the team with 15 charges drawn last season. The Kings as a team, however, were 4th in the league in charges drawn
His actual height at draft combine was 6-9+ and listed at Gonzaga at 6-9 . Every 7 footer misses easy shots but few ( only Jokic ) are more productive and he misses easy shots too .
Helpful. He has never seemed like a 7-footer to me. Jokic dwarfs him.
Yes. That drives me a bit crazy. And he misses and 1 chippy too. “Finish!”
Next time these teams meet, the kings need to forget that it’s the warriors and just play ball.
the warriors are buried deep in their heads.
Yep. They’re 100% our daddies right now, treating us like children.
This morning while cooking breakfast my wife was listening to last night”s podcast along with me.After listening to Fox’s comments prassing Curry,supporting Huerter and not wanting to bring praise to himself when asked about his great fourth quarter she wanted to know if Curry would do the same. My answer was who is the class act of the two? Easy answer. Fox would never bring praise to himself the way Curry does.I use to like Curry when he played confident. Now he is cocky and now talks about himself all the time. What he does on the court really bothers me as an old coach.I taught my players to be confident not cocky. Class Act. Fox TES. Curry NO.
lil stephie is a jerk. Plain and simple, It is all about me for him. Flipping show off. I seriously hate the little f—-ker
He is a good player and a fake good person. He should go back to selling cryto on TV.
Monk had 4 shot attempts, Barnes had 5. That’s not a recipe for winning.
I know Barnes kinda takes what is given to him, but he has to be a bit more aggressive like he was in the Utah game.
Monk is playing the distributor role on the second unit, and he probably needs to be a hit more aggressive looking for a shot.
Yup. The fact that Monk is the second best distributor on the team, but the Kings need him to be a scorer is a bit problematic. Davion needs to be that distributor for the second unit to make up for his short comings at shooting.
After listening to comments above I agree we need a wing who can defend and a backup point guard to Fox. 3 players come to mind. Anunoby, Patrick Williams and Alex Caruso. Williams and Caruso are Bulls. Do any of you have anyone other than those 3 please comment.
DeAndre Hunter, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Jonathan Isaac (health concerns), Jalen Suggs (similar to Davion but bigger and more of a passer), Josh Green.
The chances of getting some of those guys is slim
When other posters were discussing trading Huerter, I was going over a list of SGs/small wings that the Kings would be willing to expend assets on to acquire and who (IMHO) would fit well in this lineup. Several of the same names were on my list, but they are all very difficult to acquire (or in some cases impossible to make the money work realistically). Not making any statements over who I want (several bring different skill sets), just a list of players who I think Brown could make excellent use of if there are starter mins available at SG (TMIII or Mann would be my choice BTW).
Wishful Thinking:
Difficult But Not Impossible:
I don’t think any of their respective teams would be willing to move these players without a giant haul except maybe CLE, who could look to move Okoro for a fair trade since he is no longer starting (due to the addition of Max Strus to the starting lineup). CHI may also look to blow it up if they can’t find a taker for Lavine. They built a team around Lonzo and he’s out again for the year, they’ll realize sooner or later they need another rebuild. That could potentially see Patrick Williams and Alex Caruso put up for auction prior to the trade deadline.
I really like both Williams and Caruso.Caruso according to Adamsite and myself is a far better defensive point guard than Mitchell. Williams could start at PF which leaves Murray to play the 3 which I,believe is where he belongs. That would leave Barnes as the backup SF or PW where he also belongs.
If the Kings were to acquire Williams and Caruso before the deadline, I assume it would need to include Huerter and draft assets (after working something out with ATL).
After not having reached an agreement on an extension, Williams is a RFA after the season with Caruso having a year left at just under $10M for 2024-2025.
Not only Huerter but Mitchell as well. You could also add Edwards.
And Davion isn’t that type of player, which sucks for the roster as a whole.
Guess we’ll have to wait a little while longer to see if they upgraded the beam button at G1C.
I heard the beam is stronger now. Did they supersize it? I still can’t see it from Pasadena, but I’ve read that some people can see it from like 10 miles away.
I think you can see the explanation as to the beam strength on this video
https://x.com/SacramentoKings/status/1675928015703011328?s=20
last night, definitely not enough purple (that’s why they lost!)
Well, we stuck to the script of miserable shooting (particularly from 3) while not even providing speed bump level D on Steph, so the outcome wasn’t exactly a shock.
If I’m Brown, I’m telling whoever is guarding Steph to never leave him. Period. Maybe the outcome doesn’t change, but I’m tired of losing to them in large part because we allow (or at least enable) Steph to go in to superhero mode and don’t really seem to do anything about it.
They aren’t physical enough with Steph. No more touch fouls. Body him up and knock him to the ground when he gets in the lane, run him through some tough screens defensively, etc.
Dude just runs around, untouched, and we see the result.
Works for me. Something needs to change, or else the games will just continue to be punked by Steph Ls.
Yeah, there were a number of times where he (and a few other guys) just waltzed up to the basket for easy layups. Instead, they should have been shooting from their backs on the ground.
Tough loss, there’s no guarantee the Kings will improve and be better each year, it take a lot to go from pretty good team to contender. This roster is built for offense, doesn’t seem there’s much changing that for now. You need defense to win in playoffs so regular season isn’t always that important. The Kings will probably be about what they were last year but could be a little better if they stay healthy.
We need more defense, that’s it, but it gets tricky making those final tweaks and finding the right balance of guys to get that. I still think Kings will win a lot this year, still early to judge anything.
the second half of the fourth defense was good. but that’s it.
yikes
Lots of negatives and disappointment.
However, Keegan, despite poor shooting, is playing a different game this year. More diversified. If it clicks, this will help.
Sabonis is a warrior- not a dud but a warrior.
Fox has a different demeanor this year. One of those “I will not let us lose” things. But that demanor started way too late and sometimes resulted in chucking it up. Last year was talent at the end of games. This seemed like talent + a determination. That bodes well.
Stephie got a lot of hoops- not sure who was victimized. Davion seemed not effective. Duarte gave him some troubles but could not score on the other end. Hueter was effective only because the lil one did not shoot.
Kuminga and Wiggins effected the game.
Brown removed Sasha when he had no one to guard.
There are lessons here. Kings got thrown off game in late second, all of third quarters. Zone? + duds junking it up with a lot of pulling and grabbing.
Pretty gross negligence on Mike Brown’s part to keep a defensive player like Davion on the bench vs a guard of Curry’s ilk over and over…Especially watching Curry just cook our guards over and over
Was that sarcasm? Mitchell was smoked by the Warriors in the 2nd and 3rd quarter.
This play had me wanting to throw something at the TV:
https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=FG3M&EndPeriod=2&EndRange=14400&GameID=0022300087&PlayerID=1630228&RangeType=1&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&StartPeriod=2&StartRange=7200&TeamID=1610612744&flag=3&sct=plot§ion=game
In three short years the Kings have ruined their one and only defensive player.
I’d love to see this team, with this offense, play defense like the Bad Boy Pistons.
That would be amazing.
I don’t see how you put that play on DM at all lol???
Tough loss…personally, I put it down to the absolute horrid 3Q, unforced TOs which led to all those POTs, and all the missed FTs.
It seemed to me that the Kings lost this game more than the Warriors won it. No big deal, 2nd game of the season, plenty of time to get going.
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