The Kings changed coaches on Friday in response to a five-game losing streak, but they didn’t look much different Saturday night in Doug Christie’s debut, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Defense continued to be a glaring issue as the team sank further in the West with a 132-122 road loss against the Lakers. Sacramento gave up 40 points in the first quarter and 42 points in the third quarter before a late rally fell short.
After the loss, Christie told reporters that the key to turning the season around is getting a commitment from his players on both ends of the court.
“We have enough,” he said. “This is a message that I said to them. There is enough in this locker room, but how we get over that is the types of things I’ve talked about. The consistency, the focus, the willingness to play for my team at such a high level that it hurts and I have to come out of the game. It’s up to me to be able to find that.”
Christie had a 15-year NBA career as an intense competitor who specialized in defense, and he wants to bring that same attitude to the team. While they were caught off guard by the sudden loss of Mike Brown, several players pledged their dedication to Christie as he tries to salvage the season after a 13-19 start.
“Everyone likes Doug, so for him to be our interim head coach for the rest of the year, I think everyone is going to try to rally around him and give him the best situation possible, try to not give him as much stress,” Keegan Murray said. “He’s definitely been to each and every one of us in some way or another just to try to motivate us. He’s been great these last 24 hours, just trying to motivate our team to turn the season around.”
There’s more on the Kings:
- The team’s ownership and front office have made it clear that there’s no “grace period” and that results are expected immediately, Kevin Huerter told Anderson in the same story. With the trade deadline less than six weeks away, it’s possible that major changes could be coming if the Kings don’t start winning. “For us, that was a message that was very clear yesterday,” Huerter said. “We don’t see this as a lost season. We’ve got to right the ship. We’ve got to turn this around, so there’s definitely no grace period … We’ve had a lot of different meetings over the last 24 hours. Generally, there’s still a lot of belief in this organization and this room, and we think we’ve got to create some urgency to try to turn it around.”
- Third-year guard Keon Ellis may see a larger role as the Kings try to upgrade their perimeter defense, Christie added (Twitter video link from Law Murray of The Athletic). “Keon is a perfect example of a lot of things that I want,” Christie said. “When he got into the game tonight, he didn’t shoot the shot. He put it on the deck and he got in the lane. I looked at him and I said, ‘Listen, man, you gotta shoot that. I need you to shoot the basketball; you shoot it well. Defensively, you pick up. You’re an irritant. You need to get after people. So a lot of the things that he does, we need, but we need him to shoot that basketball.
- If De’Aaron Fox decides to ask for a trade before the deadline, the Spurs and Rockets are teams to watch, along with possibly the Lakers and Heat, Tim MacMahon of ESPN said on the latest edition of The Hoop Collective podcast (hat tip to HoopsHype).
Didn’t those clowns in Kings front office give DeRozan 3 years?
The problem wasn’t giving DeRozan three years – he would have gotten that elsewhere. He’s just an odd fit with the rest of that roster.
Having no defense at all is nasty roster building, Mike Brown had no chance with this. The front office is entirely to blame here.
Murray is shooting like trash
What kind of “fire them” crazy is this world? The super rich are so out of control.
Picking Fox over Haliburton was always a bad idea
That’s one of the things they got right. Fox is better.
Easily. Haliburton is massively overrated….rocks or diamonds, mostly rocks. Fox is a way better all around player than Hali.
OKC could be a team in play for Fox. I just don’t see lakers or Heat in play for Fox since neither have the young talent to get him.
Why would the Thunder need or want Fox? They have one of the two best Point Guards in the league. Even if the didn’t already have Shai the Thunder philosophy is built around everyone playing defense and Fox does not.
Shai is a SG not a PG. When you have a opportunity to win a championship you do everything to win it. Fox fits the Rockets the best with their lack of offense and his defense wouldn’t hurt them as much. Kings would be smart to trade Fox for a multi player deal with 1st rounders coming back.
Shai is versatile enough to play PG, SG or SF but he is a PG. The offense runs through him and you want the ball in his hands. Their identity is everyone playing hard on defense and being disruptive. Fox would have to replace Wallace or Dort both of which are defensive pests. Fox would be an expensive step back for the Thunder. They have to extend Williams and Holmgren soon and don’t need to wasting cap space on another PG.
Agreed Tacocat. They play as a team but you know who the ball goes through. But everyone plays their part in OKC. Spurs makes sense for Fox, not HTown they are having the hawks of the east type year, back when ATL were the #1 seed and still got wrecked by Bron.
At arc. Yeah like a truck load from San Antonio that nobody else can match.
Doug says all of that about Keon, and then plays him 14 minutes. Keon has the highest net rating on the team for those that get actual minutes (9.1), and yet he plays Huerter, who has a negative net rating, nearly 30 minutes.
Propping up Huerter to trade him.
That’s not working well. Dude can’t shoot or play defense.
Fox to spurs. Make it happen Pop.
Kings are back to the Sacramento Queens at this point. Derozen should have gone to warriors, not a trash franchise.