Friday’s loss to Phoenix was the latest in a string of ugly defeats for the Kings, writes Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. The Kings were blown out for the third game in a row and have now dropped four straight and five of their past six.
“I expected a way better performance out of our guys,” interim head coach Doug Christie said to open his postgame press conference.
Opposing teams have been feasting from behind the arc of late against Sacramento, which gave up a season-high 24 three-pointers to the Suns and made only eight of their own. As Biderman notes in another story, things went from bad to worse in the fourth quarter, when star center Domantas Sabonis appeared to aggravate the left hamstring injury that had sidelined him for the past six games.
“I think he wanted to continue to play,” Christie said. “But (there’s) no conversation. Sit down. When I see you do that, I’m not even playing around with that one. You are way too important to us.”
The Kings, who are currently the No. 9 seed in the West, have dropped to .500 at 33-33 and are only one game up on Dallas and 2.5 games ahead of Phoenix as they vie for a postseason spot.
Here’s more from the Pacific:
- Prior to Friday’s game in Denver, Lakers head coach JJ Redick said that LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes all have a good chance to suit up within the next week, tweets Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet. “They’re all very close to returning,” Redick said. James has missed the past three games with a groin strain, while Hachimura and Hayes are battling knee injuries. The Lakers wound up losing their fourth straight game to conclude their road trip.
- Austin Reaves was a bright spot for the Lakers in their shorthanded road loss to the Nuggets, as Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times relays. Reaves wasn’t sure whether he’d play after injuring his right wrist on Thursday in Milwaukee, but he wound up recording 37 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds and four steals in 39 minutes. “We know when we’re full healthy and got everybody on the team that we have a really good chance to beat anybody,” Reaves said. “I just see this group, coming together, locking in on one common goal and that’s to win. And tonight I think is the biggest testament to that. Very shorthanded and went and played a really good basketball team with probably the best player in the world. And went toe to toe and had an opportunity to win it and just didn’t execute the last 50 seconds.”
- Suns star Kevin Durant credited the play and professionalism of Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro following Friday’s victory over Sacramento, according to Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports (Twitter video link). “It was incredible. … Love playing with those guys and it’s something we need to build on,” Durant said. “We’ve been talking about it for so long, but each game matters, every possession matters. They came out there with that type of mindset.” Both rookies have been in and out of the rotation over the past month.
- Suns backup center Mason Plumlee was ejected for the second straight game on Friday after elbowing Sabonis in the neck area (YouTube link via ESPN). The play was reviewed and Plumlee’s actions were deemed “unnecessary and excessive with contact above the shoulders,” leading to a flagrant 2 foul and automatic ejection. Plumlee was also ejected from Wednesday’s game vs. Houston after a brief scuffle with Steven Adams.
Take your time bring back injured Lakers, Bronny can take on their minutes. He should be getting 40m and taking 30 shots a game.
He almost won that game last night for the Lakers if they played him more minutes.
I’d love to see that stat line. 4-30, 0-9 3-pt, 8 pts. But, on the bright side, he wouldn’t be called for any fouls. A family tradition.
Bronny shut down Murray when Murray was on the bench.
Lakers = Thump City!
The Kings had one season where I felt like “nice they are a good team” every other season that I have followed the nba they have been a “they got nice players but mostly suck” team. And they are back there again…
Came here to say the same thing, All those rebuilding years resulted in a few years of mediocrity with no chance of winning it all, and now its time to rebuild again.
Suns are looking like they’ll pass the Kings and Mavs and get the 9 seed. They could make quite a scramble from the current 2-6 teams to stay there and the current 7-8 teams to move up. Twolves seem to have gotten their act together and are now on a 7 game win streak, GSW on a 6 game and even the #8 Clippers have won 2 in a row.
Should be fun.
It’s very difficult not to feel sympathy for Kings fans right now. It’s a great fanbase, and the team means so much to Sacramento.
I’m not close enough to the situation to feel qualified in saying this, but, from a distance, it looks like pulling the plug on Mike Brown will have far-reaching consequences. No good coach or free agent will want to come to Sac until this owner is gone. If that doesn’t happen, we probably start hearing those rumors about moving to Vegas or Seattle. Vivek will get paid before this team makes the playoffs again.