Sacramento dropped their 7th straight game on Monday, losing 110 to 117 to the New Orleans Pelicans.\u00a0 De’Aaron Fox had his second 43 point game of the season against the Pelicans but it wasn’t enough to overcome a huge early deficit.\u00a0 Brandon Ingram (34 points) and Zion Williamson (30 points) led the way for New Orleans.<\/p>\n
Despite the Kings being the team with a day off and the Pelicans being on the second night of a back to back, it was New Orleans who came out with more energy.\u00a0 The Pelicans got out to a 31 to 19 lead after the first quarter and extended that lead to 26 points by the end of the second quarter before eventually going into halftime up 68 to 45.<\/p>\n
Sacramento came out with a lot more energy on both sides of the ball in the second half, with newly signed Damian Jones getting his first in-game action for the Kings.\u00a0 Jones started the third quarter in Richaun Holmes place as Holmes left the game with a sore hamstring.\u00a0 It remains to be seen if Holmes will miss additional time.<\/p>\n
The third quarter was Sacramento’s best defensive quarter, and Jones played a big part in that, providing excellent size, lateral movement and rim protection.\u00a0 De’Aaron Fox came out of halftime with purpose and scored 15 of his 43 points in the quarter.\u00a0 By the end of the third period, Sacramento had cut New Orleans’ lead to just 12 points.<\/p>\n
The fourth quarter was a back and forth affair most of the way, with Sacramento unable to get within more than 8-12 points and New Orleans unable to put the game away.\u00a0 Finally, with 2:28 left in the game, De’Aaron Fox hit a floater to cut the lead to just 5 points, and New Orleans missed on the other end of the floor.\u00a0 Fox quickly pulled up for three on the other.\u00a0 Brandon Ingram had consecutive scoring possessions for the Pelicans on the other end to put the lead back to 9 points and seemingly too far away for Sacramento, but the Kings weren’t done fighting just yet, and a Fox three pointer with 28.4 seconds left cut the lead to just 5 points.<\/p>\n
Sacramento intentionally fouled Eric Bledsoe on the inbounds but Bledsoe made both free throws, putting the Pelicans up by 7 with 24.3 seconds left, the game seemingly out of reach… until Harrison Barnes was fouled on a deep three attempt on the other side of the court a few seconds later.\u00a0 Not only was he fouled, but the officials judged that Naji Marshall committed a flagrant foul by stepping under Barnes as he shot, giving Sacramento three shots and the ball.\u00a0 Barnes sank all three free throws, but Fox\u00a0just<\/em> missed his three point attempt on the ensuing possession, and that was pretty much the ball game.<\/p>\n Aside from the early deficit, the biggest problem areas for Sacramento were their outside shooting, free throws and rebounding.\u00a0 Sacramento was without Buddy Hield for the first time since 2017, and they dearly missed his shooting, especially in the first half when they went 0-14 from distance before De’Aaron made a three to end the half.\u00a0 The Kings also went just 22 of 37 from the line, an abysmal percentage for that many attempts.\u00a0 Fox himself shot just 8 for 15 and of all the Kings who shot a free throw, only Harrison Barnes didn’t miss at least one.<\/p>\n New Orleans is also a big, physical team, and they showed it on the glass, outrebounding Sacramento 61 to 52.\u00a0 Steven Adams had 16 by himself, including 5 offensive boards.<\/p>\n The one area where the Kings really excelled tonight was in turnover differential.\u00a0 Sacramento had just 10 turnovers to 21 New Orleans, and 27 points off those turnovers (to just 11 for the Pelicans).\u00a0 Newcomer Delon Wright shows a penchant for stealing the ball, totaling 4 steals for the game.<\/p>\n The Kings will look to end their skid on Wednesday when they return home to face the Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sacramento dropped their 7th straight game on Monday, losing 110 to 117 to the New Orleans Pelicans.\u00a0 De’Aaron Fox had his second 43 point game of the season against the Pelicans but it wasn’t enough to overcome a huge early deficit.\u00a0 Brandon Ingram (34 points) and Zion Williamson (30 points) led the way for New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24],"tags":[788,888,32,157,40,259],"coauthors":[311],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRandom Observations<\/h3>\n
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