‘A long flight back:’ Kings coming home to heal wounds after another loss in India
The Kings are coming home from a historic trip to India with a few dings and lots of work to do before the regular season begins in 18 days.
Defense and rebounding will be focal points when the Kings return after Saturday’s 130-106 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the second of two preseason games at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai. Sacramento gave up 132 points in an overtime loss to the Pacers on Friday.
“Our top priority is defense and we’ve talked about it a lot,” Kings coach Luke Walton said in a news conference televised by NBA TV. “I think we showed some nice moments of defense but I thought tonight it got away from us.
“We weren’t nearly as aggressive as we need to be. Indiana was doing a really nice job of penetrating our defense and kicking to shooters and making us pay for not stopping the ball, so that’s our top priority right now. We’ve got a lot of talent on our team. We can score the ball with the best of them, but we know as a group, if we want to win consistently, we’ve got to get better on defense.”
The Pacers shot 52.1 percent from the field and made 15 of 29 from 3-point range. They also amassed a 51-35 rebounding advantage after outrebounding the Kings 47-30 on Friday.
Buddy Hield had 17 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Kings. Marvin Bagley III had 15 points and six rebounds. Sacramento shot just 38.3 percent and committed 18 turnovers.
“We’ve got a lot to work on,” Bagley said. “We did a lot of great stuff. We still got a lot of things to fix, as you can see, but I think — no, I know — that we will get to where we want to be. We’ve just got to lock in and continue to work every day.”
The Kings didn’t start with the same precision and pace they demonstrated during a 39-point first quarter in Friday’s loss to the Pacers. They seemed to be making a concerted effort to get Bagley going offensively, feeding him repeatedly in the opening minutes. Bagley responded nicely, sinking a face-up jumper, scoring on a pretty pick-and-roll with Hield and finishing on a driving layup before draining a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
The Pacers led by 12 with 4:46 to play in the first half. The Kings cut the deficit to three after Dewayne Dedmon and Hield made 3-pointers to fuel a 9-0 run, but Indiana quickly reestablished a double-digit lead to carry a 71-59 lead into the halftime break.
The Kings got within six early in the third quarter, but the Pacers pulled away as Sacramento’s starters and key reserves came out of the game in the second half.
Dedmon left in the third quarter with a left leg injury. Justin James exited in the fourth with an apparent injury to his right ankle.
Richaun Holmes (sore left groin) and Cory Joseph (sore right calf) did not play. Trevor Ariza was not on the injury report, but he sat out, too.
The Kings were scheduled to start the 19-hour flight back to Sacramento aboard “Air Drake” shortly after the game. They will arrive Sunday but the team has not announced when they will hold their next practice.
The Kings will play host to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday and visit the Utah Jazz on Oct. 14 before concluding their preseason schedule at home against Melbourne United on Oct. 16.
“We’ve got a long flight back and then we’ve got a couple weeks to get a lot of work in,” Walton said.
Work in progress
During his postgame news conference, Walton was asked about his team’s turnover problem in its first two preseason games. The Kings had 22 turnovers Friday and 18 more Saturday.
“Some of it is (because) we had 2 ½ days of practice before we got here,” Walton said. “So those turnovers go down when we know exactly what we’re doing, where our teammates are going to be, what the play call is. Right now we’re running things that we haven’t had a lot of reps at. Part of it is we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and putting value on the ball, and part of it will naturally start to clean itself up as we get to understand our playbook a little more clearly.”
Bumps and bruises
The Kings might have three centers nursing injuries when they get back to Sacramento. Harry Giles III didn’t make the trip due to left knee soreness. Dedmon and Holmes suffered what appeared to be minor injuries in India, although the nature and extent of Dedmon’s injury has not been disclosed.
Giles participated in each of the team’s first four practice sessions over the first two days of training camp before being held out of Monday’s workout, a team source told The Sacramento Bee. An MRI conducted earlier this week revealed no new findings in his surgically repaired knee, the team said.
Kings preseason schedule
Oct. 4: Indiana Pacers 132, Kings 131 (OT)
Oct. 5: Indiana Pacers 130, Kings 106
Oct. 10 vs. Phoenix Suns, 7 p.m.
Oct. 14 at Utah Jazz, 6 p.m.
Oct. 16 vs. Melbourne United, 7 p.m.
Injury report for Kings vs. Pacers
Kings: OUT—Harry Giles III (left knee soreness), Tyler Ulis (right groin strain), Richaun Holmes (sore left groin), Cory Joseph (sore right calf).
Pacers: OUT—Victor Oladipo (right knee rehab), Goga Bitadze (right ankle sprain), T.J. Leaf (right quad strain), C.J. Wilcox (right quad strain).
This story was originally published October 5, 2019 at 11:09 AM.
