On Friday night, the Sacramento Kings embarrassed themselves at home against their “rival”, the Golden State Warriors. Heading into the game, the Warriors and Kings were tied in the standings, both sitting at 28-27 and tied for the last spot in the play-in tournament. The Dubs played like the game mattered. The Kings played to get theirs on offense and cruise on defense.
Four players were featured offensively for Golden State. Moses Moody and Buddy Hield scored 22 points apiece, Brandin Podziemski had 21, and Steph Curry put up 20, while DeMar DeRozan poured in 34 points, and Domantas Sabonis finished the night with 14 points, 14 boards, and 9 assists for the Kings
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
The Good:
A Wild Point Guard Appears! Prior to signing Markelle Fultz a few days ago, the Sacramento Kings quite literally didn’t have a traditional, capable point guard on their roster. The difference in quality of play was obvious once Markelle Fultz stepped on the floor. In his six minutes of play prior to the game getting completely out of hand, Fultz scored 6 points on 3 of 4 shooting from the floor and also showed the same defensive chops he demonstrated in Orlando last season. He may not be a 20-minute per game guy, but it sure was nice to see a real point guard in the game for Sacramento.
The Bad:
Defense: The Kings are not a particularly big, strong, long, or defensively skilled squad. The only way to truly make up for those shortcomings is to play really, really hard on the defensive end of the floor, but unfortunately, that simply isn’t in the makeup of most of Sacramento’s squad. The Kings doubled Golden State’s turnovers, 20-10, but more importantly, the Dubs outscored Sacramento 36-5 in points off of turnovers.
The Ugly:
Offensive Offense: When the Sacramento Kings traded their best point of attack defender for a…not point of attack defender, the defensive concerns surrounding a Monk-Lavine backcourt felt obvious, and they have been obvious, but Sacramento’s inability to out-run and outscore opponents has been just as worrisome in the last seven games. The your-turn, my-turn offensive schemes simply aren’t working. Since the trade, Monk and LaVine have combined for 231 points on 204 field goal attempts – a wildly inefficient showing – while Domantas Sabonis has also often been frozen out of the picture. On Friday evening, Sabonis had attempted exactly one two-point attempt with four minutes remaining in the first half. By the time Doug Christie began taking advantage of Sabonis’ size against Draymond Green, the game was well out of hand.
The King of Kings
DeMar DeRozan: With 34 points on 14 field goal attempts, alongside 6 assists and 4 rebounds, DeRozan was one of the only bright spots for Sacramento on Friday night.
Up Next
Monday, February 24th vs. Charlotte Hornets – 7:00 P.M. (PT)
