Harrison Barnes urges effort, accountability as Kings teeter on brink of elimination
Kings forward Harrison Barnes wants to see heart, hustle and accountability over the next three games as the team wraps up an abbreviated end to the regular season in the NBA bubble.
The Kings hope to stave off elimination Sunday when they face the Houston Rockets at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, but their days appear to be numbered. In order to reach the play-in round for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, the Kings would have to win their three remaining games and hope for a total collapse by the Portland Trail Blazers. Even then, the Kings would need help from other teams to move ahead of the San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans and Phoenix Suns.
If the Kings lose to the Rockets or the Blazers beat the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, Sacramento will be the first team knocked out of the race. The Kings avoided elimination Saturday when the Blazers lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, but it’s probably just a matter of time.
The Kings will likely miss the playoffs for the 14th consecutive year, the longest active streak in the NBA and the second-longest streak in league history. They are in danger of matching a dubious record set by the Clippers, who missed the playoffs 15 years in a row from 1977-91, if they can’t end the drought next season.
The Kings had high hopes heading into the restart, but they have lost four of their first five games in the bubble, including a 119-106 loss to the shorthanded Brooklyn Nets on Friday.
“Frustration is high,” Barnes said. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily disappointment, but it’s frustrating because coming into this game we knew that it was more mental than physical. It was meeting force with force. It was being disciplined. It doesn’t matter what scheme we have. It doesn’t matter what game plan we have. If we don’t have the effort needed to execute, it doesn’t matter, and tonight we did not play with that effort.”
Barnes offered a long and sobering assessment of the team’s play following the loss to the Nets, repeatedly mentioning “effort” and “accountability.”
“I think it starts with individual accountability just in terms of the effort that we’re putting out there on a consistent basis in order to win in this league,” Barnes said. “And, to be consistent, you have to do that every single night. Starting with myself, I know defensively over these past (five) games, I just have to be better. There’s no real excuse around that. Make or missed shot, you still have to go out there and defend. You still have to go out there and rebound, and I wasn’t doing my job at that thus far since we’ve been here.”
Barnes has been one of Sacramento’s more dependable players. He got off to a slow start after contracting COVID-19 and spending weeks away from the team, but he averaged 13.2 points and 5.6 rebounds while shooting 51.1 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from 3-point range over the past five games.
Barnes, Cory Joseph, Corey Brewer and Kent Bazemore are the only players on the Kings’ roster with significant playoff experience. Younger players like De’Aaron Fox, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield have never appeared in a postseason game.
The Kings have failed to meet the level of toughness, intensity and attention to detail needed in what Joseph and Bazemore described as a playoff-like environment in the bubble.
“I’ll be the first to say that it’s definitely on us as veteran players, guys like myself,” Barnes said. “I’ll take personal responsibility for that because I’ve been to the playoffs. I’ve been to the finals. I know the energy and effort that it takes to win games, and when you don’t bring that, you lose.
“I definitely take responsibility there, but I think as a group we have to learn that you can’t just turn it on. We have moments where guys have unbelievable performances. We go on great runs, have great comebacks and win. And that’s great, but you can’t win like that consistently, and that’s something that, as a group, we’re working through.”
Kings coach Luke Walton has preached that message all season. After losing their first three games, the Kings got hot in a 140-125 win over the Pelicans on Thursday, making 53.8% from the field and 16 of 33 from 3-point range. Then they went cold in the loss to the Nets, shooting 42.7% from the field and making just 12 of 40 from beyond the arc.
“That’s why as coaches we’re constantly harping on becoming good at all the other things,” Walton said. “When we get to start winning consistently, it’s not going to be because we’re hot every night. (It will be because) we don’t foul, we’re disciplined on defense, we contain our man on the ball. I know it’s a lot to do … but it has to happen. The frustrating part as a coach is more that we continue to make some of these other mistakes that don’t allow us to win if we’re not shooting the ball well.”
The Spurs shot 53.3% from the field and 44% from 3-point range in their win over the Kings. The Orlando Magic shot 52.4% overall and 47.4% from long distance.
Sacramento held the Dallas Mavericks to 36.7% shooting, but then the Pelicans shot 57.3% and the Nets shot 48.4%.
Bogdanovic was asked to identify the team’s biggest problem on defense.
“Just communication,” he said. “Miscommunication most of the times.”
Barnes summed up the team’s struggles in one word.
“Trust,” he said. “As a group, we need to know if a guy gets beat, his teammate is going to be there to cover for him. If a guy is in a bad way, he can trust that we’re on a string. We’ve shown moments of that, but over the course of these (five) games, we haven’t been connected enough defensively as a unit to get consistent stops.”
