The Kings had their fair share of nights giving up 100 or more points.

It's happened 34 times this season, and the Kings are 7-27 in those games.

The Kings, however, won't base their success on defense solely on how many points they give up.

Under coach Keith Smart, the Kings are looking to be among the NBA's best teams at creating steals and scoring off turnovers, and not basing their defense just on points allowed.

The faster pace means the Kings and their opponents have more possessions and opportunities to score. The Kings most certainly will take a win even if their opponent scores a lot.

The Kings are seventh in the NBA at 18 points per game off turnovers and sixth at 8.32 steals per game. The team entered Wednesday allowing a league-high 104.1 points and opponents to shoot 47.3 percent, 29th in the NBA.

Smart wants to see opponents' field-goal percentages lower, pushing the Kings to be more aggressive on defense and make it tough on opposing teams to run their offense.

One way of doing that is creating turnovers. Assistant coach Bobby Jackson charts the number of deflections on defense, with a team goal of eight per quarter.

"We haven't fallen below 27 (in a game). The highest has been 46," Smart said. "Activity-wise, they are doing a good job. They are in the areas of the floor where they need to be as far as getting the ball to allow us to get into transition, so that's a positive right there."

That's not to say all is well defensively. As Tuesday's loss to Phoenix showed, the Kings are still susceptible to costly late-game breakdowns.

Two missed defensive coverages allowed Steve Nash to score five quick points and turn a four-point deficit to nine.

"We've still got a lot of work to do, but I feel like we're showing progress," guard Isaiah Thomas said. "I feel like guys are really trying to buy into coach's system on the defensive end of helping each other. We're doing a pretty good job of that. We've just got to finish. Finish games off, finish possessions off, and then we'll be good with that."

In the first seven games this season under coach Paul Westphal, the Kings averaged 92 points to their opponents' 102.4. Opposing teams shot 48.5 percent, while the Kings shot 31.9 percent.

In 47 games under Smart, the Kings have averaged 99.7 points and opponents 104.4. The Kings are shooting 43.8 percent since the coaching change, while opponents are shooting 47.1 percent.

One area the Kings need to tighten up is their interior defense. They allow a league-high 48.9 points per game in the paint.

Some of those points come from penetration in the halfcourt or in transition. But the Kings have to speed up games to prevent teams from taking advantage of their halfcourt defense.

"Now we've got to keep growing and growing, and then challenging shots in the paint," Smart said. "That's one thing we're not doing. When a shot gets to the paint, we have a tendency to back off … not having a shot blocker on the floor all the time kind of hurts you in the paint."

Tonight's game against the Los Angeles Clippers will test the Kings' defensive awareness and ability to control the paint.

All-Star guard Chris Paul can break down a defense off the dribble. When Paul does that, he is good at finding All-Star Blake Griffin or DeAndre Jordan for dunks.

Expect the Kings to try and pack the paint against the Clippers.

"You don't like to see paint scores and dunks and all those things," Smart said. "So on a given night, you're going to give up those threes, and hopefully, it's not enough to hurt you.

"When it's all said and done, you can be the best defensive team, but it's who won and who lost the game."

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