Column: Kings’ defensive breakdown against the Heat was emblematic of a broken season

The Sacramento Kings led the Miami Heat 105-103 with 1.9 seconds remaining Monday night. The Heat advanced the ball via timeout and were inbounding. Just 1.1 seconds later the game was tied, as Goran Dragic threw a perfect lob to Bam Adebayo, who scored with ease over Cory Joseph. The Kings would go on to lose the game in overtime, but that one play is a perfect encapsulation of the Kings’ season.

Let’s start with the lineup Luke Walton used to defend Miami’s inbound play. Walton used De’Aaron Fox, Cory Joseph, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Harrison Barnes and Marvin Bagley, a small-ball lineup. But Walton tasked Bagley with defending the inbound pass. Prior to the play, Walton could be seen demonstrating to Bagley how he expected Bagley to wave his arms to disrupt Dragic. Bagley did just as his coach asked. But placing Bagley on the passer meant Harrison Barnes would guard Adebayo.

Although Barnes is listed as 6-foot-8 and Adebayo at 6-foot-9, there’s a reason Adebayo plays center and Barnes plays small forward. Adebayo is a more prolific leaper with a much longer wingspan. It’s unrealistic to expect Barnes to stop Adebayo near the rim.

But while Barnes started matched up on Adebayo, it wasn’t Barnes defending Adebayo as he scored the game-typing basket. The Heat ran a simple screen and the Kings immediately switched, giving the Heat a clean look at the basket with Adebayo over Cory Joseph. The switch by Joseph and Barnes was swift and immediate, suggesting the defensive plan was to switch on everything, not an uncommon tactic in a late-game scenario.

To recap, the Kings rolled out a small-ball lineup with one big. They assigned that big to defend the inbound pass instead of the opponent’s big man and employed an easily exploitable switching scheme to allow the most-efficient shot in basketball — a shot at the rim.

This defensive breakdown is emblematic of the Kings’ season as a whole. It begins with Walton’s lineup decisions and putting players in the best position to succeed. Using a player with Bagley’s length to disrupt the inbound pass is perfectly fine, but expecting four players under 6-9 to defend the rim in a tip-in situation is setting up the defense for failure. Despite being without Trevor Ariza and Wenyen Gabriel due to the pending trade with the Portland Trail Blazers, Walton still had other options.

Dewayne Dedmon, for all his offensive struggles this season, is still a lengthy and astute defender. Walton even used Dedmon in this same scenario against the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 26th. It led to the sideline argument that preceded Dedmon’s trade demand, but that was because Dedmon had been benched the whole game and was being asked to play in only the closing seconds. Against Miami, Dedmon had already logged 14 minutes of game action, scoring six points and grabbing eight rebounds.

Aside from the lineup, there’s also the matter of strategies employed in the closing seconds. Walton gave instructions to Bagley regarding waving his arms, but Bagley seemed more focused on preventing an inbound pass than directing an inbound pass. Bagley provided a clear inbound path from the sideline to the basket. Whether this should be blamed on Walton or Bagley is anyone’s guess. Walton may have reminded Bagley to prevent a pass towards the hoop, or he may not have. But Bagley, as the team has many times throughout this season, lacked situational awareness.

Walton has talked at length about the importance of defense and how he wants the Kings to have a defensive identity, but the Kings regularly experience these defensive failures. Whatever lessons Walton is trying to teach don’t appear to be working, and his lineup and scheme choices are making matters worse.

Greg has covered the Kings since 2009. You can follow him on Twitter at @gwiss.

This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 4:00 AM.