The Sacramento Kings haven’t lost back-to-back games in which they scored as few points as they did against the Houston Rockets in roughly two years. Their Nov. 17 and Nov. 19 games in 2021 against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Toronto Raptors, respectively, were the last time they scored a combined 186 points in two contests.
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But even then, the Kings weren’t outscored by a margin of more than 18 points in both showings.
Sacramento’s most recent shellackings made it look like a shell of itself. There’s no two ways about it. Even without De’Aaron Fox (sprained right ankle) and Trey Lyles (left calf injury) yet to make his season debut, the Kings can’t afford embarrassing performances like they had against the Rockets and expect to outdo the success they had last season.
Here are four observations from Saturday’s 107-89 defeat and Monday’s 122-97 loss:
Defensive disappointments
It’s only right to start with the most glaring issue. Kings coach Mike Brown had preached all training camp and preseason about the need for his team to be more physical defensively, but against Houston, the Kings fouled far more frequently than playing sound defense. In the two matchups, Sacramento nearly tallied more fouls (41) than made 3-pointers and free throws combined (50).
With 3 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the second quarter Monday, Kevin Huerter and Sasha Vezenkov miscommunicated on an out-of-bounds play that left Rockets veteran Jeff Green wide open under the basket. Domantas Sabonis was late rotating over as the last line of defense and was pump-faked into his second foul of the night.
His frustration could be heard over the broadcast, which caught him yelling to his teammates: “What are we doing?!”
The excessive fouling also led to decreased minutes for Malik Monk. The Kings’ spark plug off the bench only saw six minutes of game time in the first half.
On the topic of made 3s, the Rockets shot a scorching 15 of 31 from long range the second night, allowing them to take a 40-point lead at one point. Just 17 of those 31 attempts were contested, according to NBA.com’s player tracking data, meaning – you guessed it – Sacramento surrendered 14 open looks from distance.
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On Saturday, Dillon Brooks was the Rockets player with the hot hand, and he had no problem letting the Kings know about it. He dropped a season-high 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 2 of 4 from 3.
DILLON BROOKS IS. ON. FIRE. pic.twitter.com/oXJe5rfEJR
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) November 5, 2023
Brown was blunt in his assessment after the second loss at his postgame news conference.
“Give Houston credit,” Brown said. “They kicked our behind. Starting with me, they kicked my behind and on down the line. They came ready to play tonight and punched us in the mouth. And it was evident when you look at the game and watch us defensively.”
He went on to elaborate that his team consistently gave up inside position. The Rockets scored at least 50 points in the paint in both of their wins, whereas the Kings reached 40 paint points just once. It doesn’t help that Sacramento managed 13 fast break points through both games, while Houston notched 14 in transition in the second game alone.
Third-year Rockets center Alperen Şengün is off to a stellar start to his career and has even drawn comparisons to Sabonis for their similar size and crafty play. The Turkish native outplayed his comparison in both meetings, but especially Monday night. Şengün posted a career-high 12 assists and was two rebounds shy of a 17-point triple-double on Sabonis in 26 minutes of action.
watch @alperennsengun flirt with a triple-double 👇 pic.twitter.com/RVkgiPdY6U
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) November 7, 2023
The 21-year-old has effectively become Houston’s offensive hub.
While Sabonis scored his first points of the night powering through Şengün for a left-handed slam, he finished with just eight points on 3-of-4 shooting — a season low for points, makes and attempts. Scoring isn’t the focal point of Sabonis’ game, but he also reeled in a season-low eight rebounds with five assists.
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In total, Sabonis tallied 19 points, 23 rebounds, nine assists and nine turnovers to Şengün’s 32 points, 17 rebounds and 18 assists and three turnovers in the two-game mini-series.
Kings still can’t hit enough 3s
Saturday night marked Sacramento’s season low in first-quarter scoring, as they put up just 19 points. That same first quarter, they gave up a season-high 33 points on the other end. We briefly discussed 3-point shooting above, but in the Kings’ first matchup against the Rockets, they made just 11 3s. They hit 11 of them earlier this month in their second loss to the Warriors, but this time around it came on 41 attempts rather than 35, resulting in a season-low 26.8 percent from behind the arc.
Keegan Murray and Kevin Huerter, the Kings’ two most reliable 3-point shooters, have continued to struggle to find their stride from the area where they made their mark last season. Through the last two contests, Murray has shot 3 of 14 from deep and Huerter has gone 3 of 11.
Brown continues to have confidence in his guys.
“If they’re open, they’ve just got to let it fly,” Brown said when discussing his approach with them during Saturday’s news conference. “Those guys have shown that they can shoot the ball. In this league, too, at the highest level, you have to have an inner confidence that you carry all the time. Because stuff is going to get hard. And both those guys, if they’re open I just tell them to shoot it. … But if they miss shots, they can’t let that impact them the other way.
“Both those guys, when they missed shots tonight, they dropped their shoulder or dropped their head. And they’re better than that. They have to shoot the ball, we want them to shoot the ball. And if they miss a shot, I don’t give a damn. Just get back on defense and keep playing.”
The combination of Brown breathing confidence into their games and, frankly, the need to turn a recent weakness back into the strength it has been should provide both Murray and Huerter the necessary motivation to recalibrate their jumpers. Shooting your way out of a slump is much easier said than done, but they’ll have another opportunity to do so Wednesday at home against the Portland Trail Blazers.
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Bench carries its weight
In both games, Sacramento’s leading scorer came off the bench. On Saturday, it was Monk with 18 points and seven assists — both team highs.
Malik in his baaggg 👜 pic.twitter.com/GmRhRpKEqC
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) November 5, 2023
Another night, another 'Lik to JaVale OOOOOP! 🆙 pic.twitter.com/ovAQzfTydJ
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) November 5, 2023
Monk is the usual suspect when it comes to providing an offensive boost and a sense of urgency off the bench, but Keon Ellis stole the show Monday night. The second-year Alabama guard paced the Kings with a career-high 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3 in 14 minutes and was a plus-10.
“Our spirit got deflated and we didn’t have anybody out on the floor that could bring it back up,” Brown said. “When Keon came in the game, just his activity, his confidence — you could feel it. It was at a level that we weren’t at tonight.”
JaVale McGee, who’s been occupying the backup center spot, had palpable energy in Houston. He had his two highest-scoring games as a member of this Sacramento squad, scoring 12 and 10, respectively, to go along with nine total rebounds in 25 minutes combined.
AND ONE!! 🗣
JaVale gets the tough bucket through traffic 💪 pic.twitter.com/Ob3k0SJ8Ev
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) November 5, 2023
While these numbers are encouraging for bench scoring, it’s also less than ideal that only two starters scored in double figures in each game for Sacramento. It remains to be seen how long Fox will be sidelined with his right ankle injury, but those scoring numbers don’t bode well for this team’s depth offensively if the starting unit sans Fox can’t produce efficiently in his absence.
GO DEEPER
De'Aaron Fox injury raises early questions about player participation
Getting back on track at home
The Kings have a three-game upcoming homestand starting Wednesday against the Trail Blazers. The Oklahoma City Thunder will be at Golden 1 Center for Sacramento’s first In-Season Tournament game on Friday. Finally, the Kings close their brief stay at home Monday against the Cleveland Cavaliers before going on a six-game road trip.
Brown is looking forward to seeing how his squad responds to this 2-4 start.
"If we expect to be who we expect to be … we’re going to find our way out of this." – Mike Brown pic.twitter.com/eIHLf61Nwq
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) November 7, 2023
“As crazy as it sounds,” Brown said Monday. “The neat part about it is, we’ve hit some adversity. And if we expect to be who we expect to be, who I truly, 100 percent still believe in, then we’re going to find our way out of this. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but this is great for us to try to experience and come back from the right way.”
(Photo of Keegan Murray and Mike Brown: Alex Bierens de Haan / Getty Images)
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