The Sacramento Kings had a tough time in New York, falling behind early, climbing back into the game before the half, but ultimately unraveling in the fourth quarter and losing 143-120 to the New York Knicks. It’s hard to find silver linings in this one, as the Kings looked completely outmatched in the final quarter, despite a solid effort in the second quarter and most of the third. Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points and 15 rebounds in this one, and he was the lowest-scoring starter for the Knicks. It’s hard to point to depth issues with the Kings when Thibs doesn’t believe in depth and the Knicks basically beat the Kings with five players. OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 33 points, Jalen Brunson had 25, Mikal Bridges had 27, and Josh Hart had 20.
The Good
Domantas Sabonis: 25 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists. A tremendous effort, wasted.
Malik Monk: 31 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal. Monk played a great game and was a huge reason the Kings closed the gap in the second quarter.
Keegan and DeMar: Keegan Murray had a solid outing, with 12 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. DeMar DeRozan added 18 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists. Not DeMar’s best outing, but he was solid.
The Bad
Keon Ellis’ Minutes: Keon was limited to 17 minutes in this one. He had 6 points on 4 shots, plus a rebound and steal. But Ellis is simply too important to this team to be limited to so few minutes. I haven’t had many issues with Doug Christie’s rotations this season, but this was a bad game for the rotation management.
An offense without a plan: Sacramento’s offense was too stagnant too often in this game. Doug has talked about a free-flowing offense rather than set plays, and there are times that works (obviously), but it failed tonight. A small example was that, following his explosion at the end of the Nuggets game, Doug McDermott saw early minutes in this game. He played 9 minutes overall. And yet nobody found him for a shot. He had zero FGAs in 9 minutes. Shooting is the whole reason you have McDermott in the game and on this roster. And yet there were no plays run to get him a look, and no effort to get him the ball in a shooting situation.
The Ugly
De'Aaron Fox: Fox was bad tonight. Really bad. Fox entered this game on the injury report due to a thumb injury suffered in the Denver game. That’s a thumb injury on the opposite hand of the pinky injury Fox has played through all season. I appreciate Fox’s toughness and willingness to play through injuries, but he hurt the Kings by playing tonight. Fox was 6-for-20 from the field in this game. He finished with 14 points, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 rebound. He played 34 minutes. Remember my complaint about Keon’s minutes? Yeah. Fox should have played less, Keon should have played more. The coaching staff, training staff, whoever, needs to make that adjustment when Fox is playing this poorly and is clearly injured. I’m sure that 65 game mark is looming large in Fox’s mind as he attempts to reach All-NBA this season, but pulling a Haliburton and playing like crap for 30 games through injury only works when you’re the media’s golden child. Fox shouldn’t have played in this one, and he probably should sit out the next game. Heal up and come back. Again, I appreciate the toughness and the willingness to fight through injury, nobody will ever accuse Fox of being soft, but he also needs to recognize when his presence is making the team worse.
Defense: Truly a terrible defensive showing in this one. Just bad, bad, bad defense.
Something askew: The stanchion on the Knicks basket got turned slightly by an OG Anunoby dunk. Mikal Bridges pointed it out to the officials before shooting a free throw. It resulted in a lengthy stoppage as the refs wasted time bringing out a level to ensure the rim wasn’t titled (nobody said it was), and didn’t really fix the fact that the basket was off center. The stoppage seemed to impact the Kings a lot more than the Knicks, and New York ran away with the game.
Up Next
The Kings get Sunday off to regroup, and with no real travel as they’ll face the Brooklyn Nets on Monday.
