Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says Kings are ‘having fun playing together’ under Mike Brown
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, in preparation for Thursday’s game, watched the Sacramento Kings play under his close friend Mike Brown and had a clear takeaway.
“This group is really reacting to him, famously, wonderfully,” Popovich said. “And they’re having fun playing together.”
Basketball, of course, it a lot more fun when a team is winning — and Sacramento is enjoying winning in a way it hasn’t for a long time. The team on Thursday beat San Antonio, 130-112, earning its fifth straight victory.
According to Elias, it’s the first time the team has won eight of 10 since the 2005-2006 season, which was the last time Sacramento made the playoffs. The team has been mired in its infamous 16-year playoff drought since, the longest current spell in major North American sports.
At 8-6, the Kings are just 1.5 game behind the Portland Trail Blazers (10-5) who have the best record in the Western Conference through the first month of the season.
“Before the season, all we’ve been hearing about is the drought, the drought, the drought,” guard Malik Monk said. “We’re just happy to have some energy here. And the fans are pushing us and they just energize us, so we don’t give up.”
Said Popovich: “The thing that I see the most, I think (the Kings) are enjoying the hell out of themselves, their style of play and what they’re doing out there. And (Brown) is smart enough to give them some room to do that.”
Monk finished with 26 points off the bench, continuing Sacramento’s string of strong performances from reserves during the winning streak. But the headliner against the Spurs was point guard De’Aaron Fox, who tallied 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting with eight assists. He was a game-high plus-36 in his 32 minutes.
Fox has adapted to Brown’s style of offense that he brought from the Golden State Warriors. That team under head coach Steve Kerr famously emphasizes pace and space, which Fox has spearheaded with the Kings. He’s having his most efficient offensive season of his career.
The Kings came into Thursday averaging 308.5 passes per game, good for fifth in the NBA. Kerr’s Warriors are first at 323.4. Brown explained why all the passing not only leads to good looks, but starts the cycle of generating an offense that’s fun to be a part of.
“When the ball moves, everybody gets a chance to touch it,” Brown said. “There’s a synergy. ... If you’re touching the ball every time down the floor, you’re feeling good about what you’re trying to do when it comes to the defensive side of the floor, when it comes to rebounding and all that other grunt stuff. And the more guys that touch it, the more opportunity they get to shoot the ball. And when you get to shoot the ball, it’s like it’s a kid’s game.”
Fox came into Thursday’s game averaging career highs in field-goal percentage (54.1%) and 2-point percentage (61.5%). He’s also shooting 36.1% from 3-point range, just below his career high of 37.1% in 2018-19. He’s surrounded by more quality shooters than any other point in his career, and Brown’s offense is making things easier for him.
“Playing against it, it’s hard, it’s hard to guard,” Fox said. “It’s extremely hard to guard when you have multiple guys that can make shots, multiple guys that can pass and are willing to pass and get their teammates open.”
Forward Trey Lyles, who played 20 minutes Thursday while rookie Keegan Murray was out with a back injury, scored 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a posterization dunk over Spurs center Charles Bassey in the first quarter.
Lyles played for Popovich’s Spurs for two seasons starting in 2019, and first realized the Kings could have a fun offense to play in before the regular season began.
“For me, personally, I saw it in training camp and then those preseason games,” Lyles said. “We started off rough, but it’s alright. We picked it back up and we’re hitting our stride, I think, and we’re beginning to play really well together. Guys are enjoying being out there with one another. It’s very apparent and you see it.”
Brown served as an assistant under Popovich from 2001-03. After Brown had been out of the league for two seasons following his second stint coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2013-14, Popovich connected him with Kerr, who hired him to be an assistant on the Warriors staff in 2016.
When Popovich was asked about Brown before Thursday’s game, he deadpanned about his close friend.
“He’s a dog,” Popovich said. “Disloyal. No sense of humor. Knows nothing about basketball. I don’t know why he got hired.”
Then he paused.
“He’s one of my best friends in the world,” Popovich continued. “From the very beginning, you could tell he had a unique way of developing trust with the players. It wasn’t like a buddy-buddy ‘let’s go have a beer’ kind of thing. It was respect for his knowledge and the way he handled himself. So that was the first you would notice as time went by. And as time went by, his suggestions, X’s and O’s wise, were timely and they were significant. He understood what would win and what would lose. He became a confidant that I really depended on.”
So far this young season, the Kings are also depending on Brown, and they’re having fun doing so.
This story was originally published November 18, 2022 at 12:01 AM.
