Pep talk: The words that helped Kings see they were ‘not far away from winning’

Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver arrived just in time to see the Kings in their lowest moment.

Bazemore and Tolliver joined the club on the road after Sacramento acquired them in a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers six weeks ago. They made their Kings debuts in a blowout loss to the Detroit Pistons. The conversations in the locker room that night were somber and muted. Buddy Hield, the team’s leading scorer, sat there in silence, staring at the floor.

The Kings had lost six in a row and 12 of 15. Their season was swirling into the abyss. Their struggles were approaching the point of no return. Someone had to say something. And someone did.

Bazemore and Tolliver both spoke up when players and coaches gathered for a team meeting at their hotel in Chicago before playing the Bulls after that loss to Detroit. They had only been with the team for a couple of days, but they had some strong views. Bazemore told his new teammates they were better than they thought. Tolliver told them they could win games with a few fundamental adjustments.

“We were very vocal about the potential here,” Tolliver said. “Coming from Portland and seeing how we played there, and seeing how these guys played here, even though they were losing a lot of games at that point, we were like, ‘You guys are not that far away from winning.’”

They were right. The Kings went out and beat the Bulls by 17 that night. Then they beat the Timberwolves, then the Clippers, then the Heat, then the Spurs, the Grizzlies and the Clippers again.

The Kings (25-34) continued to build momentum in Memphis on Friday night with a 104-101 victory over the Grizzlies (28-31) at FedExForum. They beat the Grizzlies for the second time in eight days to get within three games of the eighth seed in the Western Conference after trailing by seven games coming out of the All-Star break.

The Grizzlies have a tenuous grip on the eighth seed at the moment, but a number of teams are gaining on them, including the Kings.

“It’s great, especially being in this situation we are right now, trying to get that eighth seed,” Bazemore said. “We’re playing like a desperate team and it says a lot about this group. … We’ve got 20-some-odd games left and it’s a crapshoot right now. Some teams are injured and some teams, it’s a sink or swim moment. You see it every year. A team gets hot and makes it interesting at the end. We’ve got some lofty goals and we’ve got the group to get it done.”

‘Match made in heaven’

The Kings have gone 10-5 since Bazemore and Tolliver addressed the team during their meeting in Chicago. They have won four of their last five going into Sunday’s game against the Pistons at Golden 1 Center. Now they have a chance to show the home crowd how far they’ve come since suffering a 127-106 loss to the Pistons on Jan. 22 in Detroit.

Bazemore, a 6-foot-4 guard, has been a big part of Sacramento’s turnaround after enduring his own struggles while playing for Portland. He averaged 7.9 points and 4.0 rebounds in 43 games for the Blazers, shooting just 34.7 percent from the field and 32.7 percent from 3-point range. In 16 games for the Kings, he has averaged 10.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals while shooting 41.5 percent from the field and 40.0 percent from beyond the arc.

The change of scenery has been good for Bazemore, who has been good for the Kings, establishing himself as an integral part of their bench.

“It wasn’t much that needed to be changed, to be honest, but sometimes fresh blood does help and I hadn’t been having the best year, so I think it’s a match made in heaven,” Bazemore, 30, said. “A guy coming over desperate and a team in a desperate situation, and we’re kind of making it work right now.”

Kings coach Luke Walton agreed, saying Bazemore has fit right in with a core group that includes De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Harrison Barnes, Nemanja Bjelica, Harry Giles III and Cory Joseph. Bazemore and another recent acquisition, center Alex Len, have helped the Kings improve despite the absences of forward Marvin Bagley III and center Richaun Holmes.

“Baze has been great,” Walton said. “The things he says in the locker room, his participation in film sessions, the energy and passion he plays the game with, his versatility. Having him and Harrison both and being able to play them on multiple guys, and throw Cory in that same group, has really helped stabilize what we try to do from a consistency standpoint and he’s shooting the ball beautifully right now, so he’s been a big part of us having a little bit of success.”

Bazemore and Tolliver have both lived up to their reputations as consummate professionals, exemplary teammates and good locker-room guys, but Tolliver, 34, hasn’t received the same kind of opportunity in Sacramento. The 6-8 forward has appeared in just nine games for the Kings, averaging 1.0 points and 1.2 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per game.

The Kings announced Saturday they released Tolliver, which will allow Tolliver to pursue opportunities with other playoff contenders. The Kings have a logjam at Tolliver’s position. Other teams might offer more of an opportunity for playing time.

‘Right back in that game’

Tolliver’s stay in Sacramento was short-lived, but the words he and Bazemore shared with the team that day in Chicago will long be remembered.

They hadn’t been with the team long, but Bazemore drew from his experience in Portland, noting that the Kings handed the Blazers a 107-99 loss on Nov. 12 in Sacramento.

“We played Sacramento when I was in Portland earlier in the year and they smoked us at Golden 1,” Bazemore said. “That’s kind of what I remembered from this team, so when AT and I came in, we reminded them, ‘You guys are a great bunch. You guys are really good. We’ve seen you play at a high level.’

“We brought in a level of optimism that’s just contagious. AT and I have been around the league for a while, and I’m sure if you ask any of our teammates, that’s just who we are. We came in and tried to inject as much positivity as possible. … I just told them who I thought they were — who I know they are.”

Tolliver pointed out the Kings were losing a lot of close games, noting that a lot of those games could have been won if they eliminated mistakes on a couple of possessions per game. The Kings have lost 14 games by five points or less.

“I just said, ‘I don’t think you guys realize how close we are to being a really good team,’” Tolliver said. “I said, ‘These are not huge things. There are not any huge, glaring issues.’ It was small things — being a little bit smarter on defense, getting your hand out of the cookie jar, pulling your hands back instead of putting it in and getting the foul. During the game, a play here and a play there, throughout the game, now you’re talking about between four and eight points that you just prevented by just being a little smarter.

“For the most part, it’s just about, ‘OK, yeah, we foul too much, but if we can prevent the mistakes we were making before on two, three, four possessions per game, that gives us a chance to win games. We might have been losing by four or six. Now, all of a sudden, we’re right back in that game and giving ourselves a chance to win.”

Walton said the Kings have benefited from the veteran leadership and perspective Bazemore and Tolliver provide.

“They’re both solid, solid vets,” Walton said. “They’ve been around the league for a while. They’ve been on different teams, so they’re the type of guys you want in your locker room. They shared some of their experiences and it was good for our guys to hear, and I think it made them closer to our group quicker than normally when you make trades or pickups.”

Tolliver has been on bad teams before. He has played for 10 teams over 12 NBA seasons, including the Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets and Pistons. He even had a prior stint with the Kings in 2016-17.

“Losing weighs heavy on everybody, coaches and players,” Tolliver said. “Sometimes when you’re on a losing streak and in a losing mindset, it’s really hard to imagine even winning again. Sometimes, as a team, you’ve just got to pick each other up and figure out a way to scratch one out. Once you get over the hump with good intentions and good habits … to go out and earn a win playing the right way, just doing it one time can literally change everything, and I feel like that’s kind of what happened here in Sacramento.”

Kings upcoming schedule

March 1 vs. Detroit, 3 p.m.

March 3 vs. Washington, 7 p.m.

March 5 vs. Philadelphia, 7 p.m.

March 7 at Portland, 7 p.m.

March 8 vs. Toronto, 6 p.m.