Turnovers and defensive lapses led to Kings’ collapse in overtime loss to Spurs

After answering three questions from the media after Sacramento’s 105-104 overtime loss to San Antonio on Friday night, Kings coach Luke Walton clapped emphatically four times to no one in particular as he walked away from a handful of reporters.

There were plenty of reasons to be frustrated.

Start with the four missed shots by the Kings at the end of overtime. Far from desperation heaves, Trevor Ariza hoisted a pair of open 3-pointers that missed. Buddy Hield had three offensive rebounds in the closing seconds but he also missed a pair of shots. Paired with a collapse at the end of the fourth quarter, where the Kings blew a nine-point lead with 1:50 to play, and Walton almost had steam coming out of his ears.

“We turned it over a few times and they made some big shots,” he said. “And, you know, at the end of the day we had three open looks to win and we missed all three of them. So, it’s frustrating. It hurts to lose, but it’s what the journey’s about and it’s about learning from these and getting better as a group and going out and being able to do a better job at executing down the stretch next time we’re in that situation.”

The Kings were mostly upset with the turnovers that let the Spurs back in the game in the fourth quarter.

Cory Joseph, whose 3-pointer put the Kings up 98-89 with 1:50 to go, gave up a pair of turnovers that led to layups. Harrison Barnes took a charging call to turn the ball over. The Kings allowed an offensive rebound and a putback to the Spurs’ LarMarcus Aldridge. But it was a blown defensive assignment that left Marco Belinelli open to hit the game-tying 3-pointer with 4 seconds left that had Hield taking responsibility for the loss.

“I left [Marco] Belinelli open, I should have took him when he was driving,” Hield said. “I took my eye off of him. He walked on and I got trapped on the screen and it was too late and it went in. … I did not lock in and pay extra attention to Bellineli. So it’s on me though.”

Walton has preached two things since taking over as head coach in April: working hard on defense and taking more 3-pointers. Every time he faces the media, he talks about defense, unprompted.

He said Friday the coaches talk about defense at the start of every practice, joking they were “brainwashing” players into focusing on defense. While the defense is markedly better than last year – the Kings are allowing seven points less a game – Sacramento’s defensive efficiency ranks a middling 19th in the league.

Sacramento still has nights where players look half interested in defense. That was the case in the first half Friday as the Spurs wandered to a 52-42 halftime lead. It could have been much, much worse, as a subpar shooting night kept the Spurs from running away.

Then the Kings went on a 30-17 tear in the third quarter to seemingly take command. The difference was both palpable and simple.

“Just played harder. Picked up our intensity,” Ariza said. “In the first half, they were getting a lot of second-chance opportunities. I think in the second half, we did a better job of boxing out and limiting their shots, and second-chance opportunities.”

Stopping second-chance shots has been something of a specialty for the Kings. They rank seventh in the league with their 12.4 points per game average. The difference in the second half against the Spurs was noticeable.

“We were more engaged in it. We were getting the loose balls, our guys in our rotations were coming over putting bodies on people, we were following the game plan,” Walton said. “When we started the game, we skipped out on coverages, like three times before the first timeout. Which tells me, mentally, we’re not where we need to be. In the second half, we were locked in, we followed, everyone knew where everyone was going, defensively on the same page. ... Every coach is always preaching, 48 minutes, 40, nobody plays a perfect 48 minutes, but it’s about playing as many good minutes as you can, per game. And tonight we didn’t get enough of them.”

The final two minutes of regulation stand out in particular.

Sure, the Kings also missed four straight shots in the final 18 seconds of overtime, but nobody was frustrated about that. At least, nobody said they were frustrated. Ariza had two open 3-point looks from the same spot. Hield had a couple of makeable midrange shots. Walton said he’d take those shots every time. They just didn’t go in.

However, the defense and the turnovers are something they can control.

“I’ll tell you now, we need to be more locked in, especially with attention to detail with the last minute of regulation, plus overtime situations,” Hield said. “I see what the coach was talking about and that was my fault.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 6:42 AM.