Kings notebook: Team loses fourth in a row to Houston Rockets despite lineup change

Kings coach Luke Walton made a major change to his starting lineup, inserting Marvin Bagley III in hopes of injecting life into his struggling team, but even that didn’t work.

The Kings lost their fourth in a row, falling 113-104 to the Houston Rockets on Monday night at Golden 1 Center. The Kings have now lost five of their last six and eight of 12. They are 2-5 since Bagley returned from a broken thumb and 0-4 since point guard De’Aaron Fox came back from a severely sprained ankle.

James Harden scored 34 points for the Rockets (21-9), who won their fourth in a row to avenge the 119-118 loss they suffered when Nemanja Bjelica hit a 33-foot buzzer beater on Dec. 9. Russell Westbrook finished with 28 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Fox had 31 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Kings (12-18), who will play host to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday and the Phoenix Suns on Saturday. Richaun Holmes had 12 points and 14 rebounds. Bagley had 11 points, six rebounds and one blocked shot.

Buddy Hield continued to struggle with his shot, scoring 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Hield left the game at the end of the third quarter and did not return in the fourth. He has made just 4 of 28 (.143) over the past three games.

Walton explained that Hield wasn’t benched as “punishment,” saying he simply decided to stick with the players who sparked a fourth-quarter comeback that ultimately came up short.

Walton started Fox, Hield, Harrison Barnes, Bagley and Holmes, trying a lineup that had only logged two minutes together before Monday night. Bagley started in place of Bjelica, who was averaging 11.5 points and 6.2 rebounds, shooting 40.5 percent from 3-point range over the first 29 games.

The move might have produced at least some of the desired results. The Kings outrebounded the Rockets 49-39, which was a point of emphasis, Walton said. Sacramento also outshot Houston, but the Rockets made 15 3-pointers while the Kings missed eight free throws and committed 17 turnovers.

Walton said his decision was based partly on the game plan, but he will likely keep Bagley and Holmes in the starting lineup for a while to evaluate their compatibility.

“We knew we were going to play a zone against them tonight and try to take Westbrook and Harden out a little bit, so we knew how important rebounding would be ... but we’ll most likely stick with it and give it a better sample size,” Walton said.

The Kings were outscored 13-4 over the first 3:32 and trailed 37-21 at the end of the first quarter. They got within five on a 3-pointer by Hield with 3:30 to play in the second quarter and trailed by eight at the break, but the Rockets started the second half with a 10-0 run to take a 75-57 lead on a driving layup by Westbrook.

Sacramento trailed by as many as 25 points before Fox took over in the fourth quarter to help his team get within six with 4:41 to play, but the Kings couldn’t get any closer.

Bogdanovic still sidelined

Bogdan Bogdanovic missed his third game in a row due to a sore right ankle. Bogdanovic was declared active after being listed as questionable earlier in the day, but he was a late scratch after going through pregame tests with coaches and trainers. The Kings are now 0-5 when Bogdanovic does not play this season. He is averaging 14.6 points, 3.9 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 27.7 minutes per game as the team’s top reserve.

Best in the business

Houston’s backcourt is the best in the NBA. Harden came in averaging 38.8 points, 7.5 assists and 5.8 rebounds. His scoring average is the highest the league has seen since Wilt Chamberlain averaged 44.8 points per game in 1962-63. Westbrook, who averaged a triple-double each of the past three seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder, came in averaging 23.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists in his first season with the Rockets.

“What Harden is doing offensively is incredible and now Westbrook has found his groove as well,” Walton said before the game. “… They’re playing as well as anyone in the league.”

Return of the Mac

There was a small smattering of applause for Rockets guard Ben McLemore when he checked into the game for the first time midway through the first quarter.

The Kings selected McLemore out of Kansas with the seventh pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. He never realized his full potential in two stints totaling five seasons with the Kings, but he has resurrected his career as a key reserve for the Rockets this season, averaging 10.4 points and 2.3 rebounds in 23.7 minutes per game.

Injury report

Kings: OUT — Bogdan Bogdanovic (ankle).

Rockets: OUT — Eric Gordon (knee), Gerald Green (foot), Nene Hilario (adductor).

Kings upcoming schedule

Dec. 26 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves, 7 p.m.

Dec. 28 vs. Phoenix Suns, 6 p.m.

Dec. 31 vs. Los Angeles Clippers, 2 p.m.

Jan. 2 vs. Memphis, 7 p.m.

Jan. 4 vs. New Orleans, 7 p.m.

This story was originally published December 23, 2019 at 9:21 PM.