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.
And they had things lined up pretty nicely for once, then went out and made a bunch of head-scratching moves that didn’t fit their needs. Bad owner? Bad GM? Who knows, but I’d bet on the former.
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.
Neither am I, but from what I’ve seen and read about Christie as an outsider observer, I’d say he’s not much better from a personnel or rotation standpoint than Brown was. And if that’s the case what was the point of firing Brown, particularly given the effects you alluded to?
It’s also possible Vivek has been calling the shots over one or both head coaches, which obviously would muddy the waters. But if that’s the case, well, the rest doesn’t matter.
The Kings are such a horribly cursed franchise with one of the worst front offices in the league. Sacramento isn’t a sports town. They should move them to San Jose.
Who would you rather have if your the Lakers next year
Reaves, Zubac or Claxton ?
Reaves best player overall but will require a mega bag soon (30+) and probably not the greatest long term fit with Luka
Zu and Clax both similarly locked into 20 M next 3 years already on nice contracts and obv LAL need a C
Clax probably best fit but Zu better player overall further making it even more difficult
Assuming no draft picks need to be traded either way who are YOU choosing to run with if your Rob Pelinka assuming Clips and Brklyn are interested ????
I agree he’s not a good fit with Luka. That’s a big decision there. Mavs should try for Reaves .. funny
I couldn’t bring myself to it but Gafford I suppose is an option too. Like that Zu and Clax are both locked in for 3 years and I just don’t see Nico and Rob calling each other again
Id have Gaff 3rd on that C want list and to me not enough for Reaves (solo at least)
I’d take Claxton by a hair. Zubac is definitely better now (and may always be better), but I think Claxton has the highest ceiling and I’d take that and fit over the steady hand.
Reaves feels like the type of guy you don’t want to get rid of (and would want in a playoff environment) but yeah, I don’t know how you could justify that bag given the cost and less-than-ideal fit issues. Tough decisions to be made.
History tells us they will probably just extend AR huge and trade later ( if need be) but IDK….Luka is probably the strangest player in the NBA to build around and they def rolling that red carpet out for him at all stops
Tad scared Rob will be making the huge calls
A provocative topic! (An outsider view: If I’m the Lakers, I’m looking to keep Reaves to play with Luka after LeBron retires, and surround those 2 with great defenders, like Dallas did last year. ) As for Zubac and Claxton:
If basing on this season, Zubac is a way better all-ar0und player than Claxton, both offensively and defensively (where Zubac has improved enormously). Zubac has been a top 4-7 C this year, the biggest suprise of the season (more so even than Powell). If Zubac continues to play at this level, his contract is an absolute steal.
If Lakers had this year’s version of Zubac next season, Zubac scores 20 ppg. A perfect fit with Luka and LeBron. But no way Clippers trade Zubac for Reaves because they already have a lot of what Reaves brings with Harden, Kahwi and Powell. You can’t play Reaves and Harden together.
Claxton is a better lob threat and PnR defender than Zubac, and certainly a better fit than Mark Williams (who, IMO, will never be a plus defender). Reaves is a very nice piece on the right team, and has more trade value than Claxton, but I don’t think Brooklyn wants another scoring off-guard that doesn’t defend well. Lakers might be able to get Claxton and some draft capital in a 3-team deal in exchange for Reaves.
Thanks for the replies
Yea was def looking for outside opinions as sometimes your too close to the stove as a home fan
Ari- I assume Harden and Powell are short lived for Clips and AR would be a futures play there with a 4 yr ext (probably over 120 M , train your kid in hoops!)
My take is probably AR is best player and yea you probably just hold but you gotta gauge his commitment this offseason ….he wont resign as he will make a lot more if he wait’s but yea he could literally walk out the door summer 26 for nada so you gotta check under the hood
I come to the same issue w Zu v Clax
Clax prolly best fit as he’d fit the JJ D perfect in switching and guarding perimeter ….But Zu is just a better player overall/ I wouldnt want to make this difficult call if I was LAL Gm but loking around I dont think theres a C to trade good enough that can be got for just Dalton Knecht the 31 1st and expiring…… I could MAYBE ??? see it getting to this weird state of possibly Austin being traded this summer