Although the Kings have lost nine games so far this season, those losses have come against just four separate teams. Sacramento has lost to Pelicans three times and the Clippers, Warriors, and Rockets twice apiece — Tuesday’s defeat at the hands of the Clippers was the second time in two weeks that the Kings have fallen to L.A.
Speaking on Tuesday to reporters, including Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee, head coach Mike Brown suggested that the Kings’ record so far indicates his club struggles to match up with the length and physicality of bigger teams.
“Houston’s big,” Brown said. “New Orleans is big. The Clippers are big, and obviously they’re different because some of them have scoring at four or five positions, but it’s about the level of physicality that our opponents have brought to the game when it comes to the common denominator for the losses.”
Besides being disappointed with the lack of physicality and grit his team showed on Tuesday, Brown was also perturbed by his players’ focus on addressing issues on the offensive end rather than prioritizing getting defensive stops.
“At the end of the first half, they shot 60% from the floor and scored 70 points, and throughout that whole first half, coming from our players, it’s ‘Hey, we’ve got to swing the ball. We’ve got to do this offensively. We’ve got to do that offensively,'” Brown said. “That can’t be our mindset, not when a team’s shooting 60% from the floor and scoring 70 points on you and getting 32 points in the paint in one half. Your mindset has to be: Somebody has to get a stop.”
Here’s more on the Kings:
- Reserve center Alex Len, who is recovering from a high right ankle sprain, has resumed on-court activities but isn’t running or jumping yet, he tells Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. The team initially announced on November 17 – nearly four weeks ago – that Len was expected to be sidelined for six-to-eight weeks, so his return is still a little ways off.
- De’Aaron Fox reportedly turned down a two-year, maximum-salary extension offer from the Kings prior to the season in the hopes of landing a more significant payday in a year or two. So what might his next deal look like? Keith Smith of Spotrac digs into that topic, exploring a few different scenarios that depend on whether or not Fox qualifies for a super-max contract.
- Kings guard Malik Monk was hit with a $2,000 flopping fine for a play that took place in Monday’s win over Brooklyn, per the NBA (Twitter link). The video of the play can be found right here.
- Monday’s return to Sacramento was a “dream come true” for former first-round pick Harry Giles, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Now a member of the Nets, Giles spent his first three years in the NBA with the Kings and said he misses the fans in Sacramento. “I don’t know what it is. It just feels like home. It feels like we’ve known each other forever,” Giles told Anderson of The Bee. “Some people are just meant for you. Sacramento fans are meant for me and I’m meant for them. That’s a mutual thing we have in common. I feel like I’m from here almost.”
As Haynes outlines, since Fox had three guaranteed years left on his current contract entering this season, a two-year extension was the best offer Sacramento could make when he became eligible for a new deal over the summer. However, the Kings recognized the guard likely wouldn’t sign a new agreement at this time and weren’t bothered by the fact that he passed on their offer, Haynes adds.
In the late game, the Lakers benefited from a generous timeout call in the closing seconds (