Coach Doug Christie promises to fans, and haters, that he will 'figure things out' with the Sacramento Kings. By Stats Perform Video via VideoElephant
Sacramento Kings coach Doug Christie couldn’t excuse his team’s sorry performance during a shameful five-game homestand, so instead he apologized for his language.
Christie sounded off in an expletive-laden postgame press conference following a 133-100 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
The announced attendance was 15,006, but there appeared to be fewer than 11,000 in the building when the game began. Most of them were long gone or heading for the exits when the third quarter ended with the Kings trailing by 37 points.
“That ain’t it,” Christie said. “You are not going to represent the Sacramento Kings that way. It just ain’t happening, not while I’m here. Nah, put on a jersey, represent it properly. These people need to come into the turnstiles and they need to be proud when they leave here about the product they see, not f---ing embarrassed.”
The Kings fell to 3-9 overall after going 1-4 during the homestand, winning the first game against the Golden State Warriors before losing the last four by an average of 26.8 points. That included a 31-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, a 27-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves and the 33-point loss to the Hawks.
The Kings were booed off the floor Wednesday after bumbling their way through the team’s second-worst homestand of at least four games since February 2021. The only one worse was last season’s 0-5 homestand, which ended with Christie taking over as interim coach after Mike Brown was fired on Dec. 27.
“Shameful compete level,” Christie said. “We’re going to find people who want to compete, period. You’ve got to look in the mirror. We’re going to show each individual film, and if that’s your compete level, that’s unacceptable. We’ve got to compete.”
Christie has an unenviable task. He’s trying to put the puzzle together, but some pieces are missing and others don’t fit.
The Kings have an imbalanced roster with too many guards and not enough forwards. Keegan Murray, the team’s best forward and one of its only reputable defenders, has yet to play a game after undergoing surgery to repair an ulnar collateral ligament tear in his left thumb.
All-NBA center Domantas Sabonis, Kings scoring leader Zach LaVine, former Sixth Man of the Year finalist Malik Monk and rookie first-round draft pick Nique Cliford have also missed games. Christie has deployed 10 different starting lineups in 12 games while facing the most difficult schedule in the NBA.
“If we’re being honest, we’re in a tough stretch with who we’re playing, the travel, the days,” Kings guard Russell Westbrook said. “I think you take a lot of that into consideration. A lot of newness around here as part of the team. I’m new. A lot of changes. Things are happening.
“I don’t think things will click immediately, obviously. Based on our talent, we should be better than 3-9, absolutely, but I’ve been in the league a long time, and as a unit, as a team, we’ve got to be able to find a way to get out of this slump, stay with it and stick together.”
Westbrook, a point guard who has started games at power forward due to the team’s lack of frontcourt depth, said the Kings are searching for a way forward.
“I think we’re just trying to figure it out as a team,” Westbrook said following the loss to Atlanta. “As you guys can see, tonight wasn’t our best effort by any means, but I do think there’s a conscious effort to figure it out and figure out what works for us as a team.
“All we have is each other. Based on my experience, the best part about this game and this league is that stuff like this can either pull you apart or can pull you closer. I think as a team, as an organization, we need to become closer and find a way to compete at a high level.”
LaVine agreed while acknowledging growing frustration in the locker room.
“It’s frustrating,” LaVine said. “We have a lot of talented guys on the team, guys who care and are competitive, but it’s something we’ve got to work through.”