The Kings appear to be heading in the right direction, winning their last three games. Domantas Sabonis admits the first half of Sacramento’s season was plagued with inconsistency but believes the club’s issues are correctable.
“It’s tough, because we know we are better. We’ve shown it,” he told Sam Amick of The Athletic. “We just sometimes go through these mental lapses in games, which are very, very controllable. We know that. There’s other games where we’ve controlled it and ended up winning the game.
“So we’ve just got to stay mentally strong. We need to win games to get the best seed as we can for the playoffs, but I feel like, as the year goes on, we’re learning more and more, you know? We’re seeing film, seeing what we do wrong. We’re realizing these things. And the good thing is that we still have another (38) games.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- D’Angelo Russell has been fined $15K for kicking the game ball into the spectator stands, the NBA announced (via Twitter). The Lakers guard booted the ball following the conclusion of their 145-144 victory over the Warriors on Saturday.
- A report from Yahoo Sports last week indicated the Suns are no longer considering the possibility of trading Grayson Allen. The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson and Shams Charania note that there’s good reason to keep Allen. He’s enjoying a career year, shooting 49.8% from beyond the arc this season. He’s also leveled up his defense, rebounding and play-making, The Athletic duo adds. Allen’s night against Miami on Monday was cut short by an ankle injury, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press tweets.
- During the past six games, Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt is averaging 11.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.2 steals in 26.5 minutes per night. Coach Darvin Ham was evasive when asked if he’s considering putting Vanderbilt in the starting five but indicated that the finishing unit is even more important, Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes. “It’s not about always starting that way, but you know you’re going to get to it,” Ham said. “Every coach has a finishing six or seven, group of six or seven guys that he knows he can potentially finish with.”
Sabonis can sugar coat all he wants, he’s part of the problem. The kings d is awful. Murray is the only one that seems like he wants to play on both ends
28 game double-double streak, league leader in rebounds, 2nd only behind Jokic in assists per game by a Center…. Domas is certainly not part of the problem. A 114 defensive rating isn’t amazing but it’s not poor. Keegs is at a 116.6
The real problem is the surprising regression of Davion’s defense this year. I mean this was a guy who’s only real upside was as a defensive player and he’s totally lost out there. He played 80 games at 18 mpg last year and was expected to do the same this year but has played himself almost all the way out of the rotation this season. The less than surprising regression of Harrison Barnes on both sides of the ball is also not great but he has been playing better as of late.
Kings really missed out on OG. He was the perfect piece for this team but I understand that Kings weren’t matching NYs deal without Murray. They’re doing a good job holding strong in the West but the defensive needs are glaring.
so they didn’t get the ball d’angelo kicked back?
NBA is so lame for their petty fines.
NBA players be like…
“Oh no…
Anyway…”
Anytime they get a fine… They’re meaningless slaps on the wrist…