The Kings with their loss to the Phoenix Suns on Friday tied their second longest losing streak of the season at four.
The longest, which lasted six games, led to coach Mike Brown getting fired in December. He was let go after the streak grew to five, and it extended to six with a defeat in interim coach Doug Christie’s first game.
“I expected a way better performance out of our guys,” Christie said to open his postgame press conference Friday night in PHX Arena following a 122-106 loss.
Friday night marked the third straight game in which the Kings have been blown out. Not coincidentally, it marked the third straight game the Kings allowed an opponent to shoot better than 50% from the 3-point line. The Suns hit a season-best 24 3-pointers against Sacramento on Friday, while the Kings managed to make just eight, meaning they were outscored by 48 points on shots from distance.
On Monday, the New York Knicks tied their season high with 22 made 3s when they blew out Sacramento by 29 points at Golden 1 Center. On Thursday, Stephen Curry accounted for only two of the Golden State Warriors’ 22 made 3s.
It’s made for ugly math. The Kings have allowed 68 made 3s the last three games while making just 32. In other words, they’ve been outscored by 108 total points from beyond the arc in just three games.
“When I took over,” Christie said, “what I talked about is the front side and back side have to match. ... Then the reaction time to sink and rotate isn’t quick enough, and you see it in front of you. You have to react.
“Excuse me, not react,” Christie continued. “I want them to be the aggressor. I don’t want them reacting. And right now, we’re reactionary in defense. And that’s not going to make people uncomfortable.”
In addition to the wide disparity in 3-point shooting, the Kings compounded their issues Friday with turnovers and poor transition defense. The Suns scored 38 points off Sacramento’s 19 turnovers. Many of which were unforced. Conversely, the Kings didn’t make the Suns pay for theirs. Sacramento scored just 16 points off Phoenix’s 14 giveaways.
DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Malik Monk, the team’s primary ball handlers, combined for 11 turnovers and just eight assists. Domantas Sabonis helped, recording 12 assists in his ninth triple-double of the season. But he wound up leaving his first game back after a six-game absence while it appeared he aggravated his hamstring injury.
“I feel like it’s just our bad offense is leading to their great offense,” Monk said. “I feel like if we cut the turnovers down — I feel like the turnovers are not coming from a bad spot. We’re trying to make the right play. But we got to make the (right) play now, because obviously it’s not going in our way. If we don’t figure it out, we’ll be home in April.”
There’s been plenty of drama off the floor. The Kings fired Brown; traded their face of the franchise in De’Aaron Fox; dealt with injuries to Monk and Sabonis; and lost their defensive coordinator and one of their top assistants when Luke Loucks left the team last weekend to become the head coach at his alma mater, Florida State.
“Nobody care though,” Monk said. “Nobody care about what’s going on. Nobody care if we hurt, nobody care about none of that when we step out on the court. So we’ve got to be better.”
On top of the drama, the Kings front office and ownership has assembled a roster that lacks defense on the wings, evident by the struggles to defend the 3-point line, and a true point guard. The Kings are using natural shooting guards Monk and LaVine at point guard despite using draft picks on Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, Davion Mitchell and rookie Devin Carter. The latter is the only remaining player of that group still on the roster.
And since the Fox-LaVine swap, Sacramento ranks 26th in the NBA in turnover percentage.
LaVine had another uneven performance on Friday. He scored 14 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter while the game was hovering around garbage time.
Christie has said he wants LaVine to be more assertive offensively. But LaVine has been passive, which his teammates have acknowledged, while providing little on defense. The Kings were outscored by 21 points during LaVine’s 36 minutes, despite LaVine shooting an efficient 7-of-13 from the floor.
“When I watch that,” Christie said, “fourth quarter Zach is the one that we need throughout the game. We need him to be aggressive like that. We got guys coming back from injuries and him trying to fit in, and I’m saying, ‘Fit in ain’t it. Be aggressive,’ because everyone will find their way with that type of aggressiveness.”
LaVine was asked about that thought after the game.
“I think we’re just trying to win,” LaVine said. “We got a lot of moving parts, and we got to figure out whatever we got to do to win a game. And right now, we’re on a slide. Whatever that may be, we got to figure it out.”
Where do Kings stand as season nears end?
Suffice to say, there weren’t many clear fixes coming from the Kings after their fourth straight loss in a frustrated locker room.
“I don’t know,” DeRozan said when asked about his team’s resolve. “I’ll probably need tonight just to think about it. It sucks, losing. It’s been a crazy week. The way we lost a couple games. Maybe just, this is where we’re at. We got (16) games left. It’s going to be a dog fight. We got to figure it out.”
Things don’t get much easier for Sacramento. The Kings have five games on their seven-game home stand against teams with winning records. The team is 9-22 against those teams and 24-11 against teams with sub-.500 records.
They left Phoenix on Friday night in the No. 9 seed at 33-33. Phoenix improved to 31-36 and is just 1.5 games behind the Dallas Mavericks (33-35) for the No. 10 spot. And given Dallas’ slew of injuries, there’s a decent chance the Kings and Suns could match up in the play-in tournament as the last two seeds.
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Chris Biderman covered the 49ers from 2013 to 2021 and started with The Sacramento Bee in August 2018. He previously spent time with the Associated Press and USA Today Sports Media Group. A Santa Rosa native, he graduated with a degree in journalism from the Ohio State University.