Mike Brown says Kings have no ‘presence defensively’ in ugly loss to Charlotte Hornets
The story of the Beam Team’s season has been an offense that has hovered around the top-scoring teams in the NBA while the defense had been just good enough to complement it more often than not.
But on Monday, the bottom gave out on the defensive end and the Sacramento Kings suffered their worst loss of the season.
“When you analyze that game and you see how we played, especially without a presence defensively ... we didn’t deserve to win,” Kings coach Mike Brown said.
The result was a 125-119 loss to a Charlotte Hornets team that had lost eight in a row and was playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
The Kings viewed the Hornets’ 7-23 record coming in as a misnomer. Charlotte had been without many key players throughout the season, including point guard LaMelo Ball, who had missed all but six games with a recurring ankle injury. They knew the Hornets could score and they were a better team than their record showed.
Ball, who has been back in the lineup for four games after missing 24, had a good one Monday. He scored 23 points and dished out 12 assists with five rebounds while Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 31 points, three off his season high, and the Hornets stunned a rowdy crowd that hadn’t seen its team play at Golden 1 Center since Dec. 4.
“You can put this in a category of a bad loss, for sure,” De’Aaron Fox said. “It’s a game that we were probably supposed to win, but we lost. You got to keep pushing.”
Sacramento wasted a 37-point performance from Fox and a 28-point, 23-rebound, seven-assist game from Domantas Sabonis. Such showings from the team’s two best players have often been enough for the Kings to win, but their defense, and bad free-throw shooting, did them in.
The Kings went 17 of 31 from the charity stripe, leaving 14 points on the board in a game they lost by six. But Brown correctly pointed out afterwards the free throws weren’t the reason his team lost. It was all about defense — or lack thereof. Particularly around the rim.
“I’m disappointed in our weakside defense,” Brown said. “It was not good at all tonight. There were countless times where guys were either late, or they were there and they moved out of the way and they didn’t want to take the hit or take the charge for the team. And so, for me, it’s going to be a fun film session tomorrow, because we’re going to see who did what on the back side.”
The Kings allowed the Hornets to score 72 points in the paint (Sacramento had 58) and get 24 second chance points (to six).
Much of it came off ball handlers beating perimeter defenders and getting into the paint. And when Sabonis, in most cases, came to help, the Kings didn’t rotate to the open player, which allowed for a slew of easy buckets. That was especially true in the first half, when 46 of Charlotte’s 66 points came in the paint. They made just three 3-pointers while taking a 66-63 lead into halftime.
“Charlotte was getting to the rim at will,” Brown said. “We didn’t have anybody who could guard tonight.”
The performance could raise long-term questions about the Kings’ defense, which have lingered throughout their encouraging start. Their offense had been good enough to mask their defensive issues while the defense continues to improve.
The Kings have ranked in the top 10 in defensive rating throughout December, and played good defense in spurts during their recent 3-3 road trip, but Monday’s performance was a stark reminder of the consistency it takes to win in the NBA, particularly against teams they should beat, like Charlotte.
“They all kind of hurt us in the paint,” Kings guard Kevin Huerter said.
One problem: the Kings lost Harrison Barnes to a quad contusion when he was hit on a layup attempt in the second quarter. He was ruled out of the game in the second half, coming after winning back-to-back Defensive Player of the Game awards during last week’s wins in Toronto and Detroit. The Kings didn’t have any answers for their perimeter defense with Barnes unavailable.
Sabonis was the best player on the floor for either side. But he played more than 40 minutes for the third straight game. That speaks to his effectiveness but also the lack of an option behind him.
Brown has been tinkering with Richaun Holmes while Chimezie Metu has struggled recently. On Monday, Neemias Queta, a two-way player, got the nod. He was minus-12 in 7:16. Brown left open the idea of the 24-year-old Portuguese center getting continued run. He’ll have to improve drastically before the team gets serious about adding a backup center ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline.
“I can’t run Domas 40 minutes every night,” Brown said. “So I need to find a guy in that spot who’s going to defend, run the floor, spell Domas for six, eight minutes a half, and play as hard as he as can while following the gameplan. Not fouling, boxing out, doing all the little things that need to keep that group solid for those six to eight minutes. We’ve found it in spurts. But I want to get to a point where it can be a little bit more consistent, so I’m going to keep searching until I feel like that person is there.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 1:16 AM.
