‘Bad loss’: Fox scores 37 and Sabonis has 20-20 game, but Kings slip up in loss to Hornets
There was no sense in mincing words Monday night after the Kings opened a six-game homestand with a disappointing loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
“I guess you could put it in the category of a bad loss, for sure,” Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox said. “This is a game that we were probably supposed to win, but we lost. You’ve got to keep pushing.”
Fox matched his season high with 37 points and Domantas Sabonis produced another hellacious performance, but none of that was enough in a 125-119 loss to the Hornets before a sellout crowd of 17,803 at Golden 1 Center.
The Kings made just 17 of 31 free-throw attempts while getting outscored 72-58 on points in the paint and 24-6 in second-chance points. Kings coach Mike Brown said the Hornets deserved to win and his team deserved to lose.
“We didn’t lose because we didn’t make free throws,” Brown said. “Obviously, if we would have made free throws, we might have stolen the game, but the way we played, we didn’t deserve to win.”
Sabonis had 28 points, 23 rebounds and seven assists for the Kings (16-13), who were coming off back-to-back road wins over the Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons. Sabonis produced his eighth consecutive double-double and his NBA-leading 21st of the season.
Harrison Barnes left the game late in the third quarter and did not return due to a right quad contusion. Brown said after the game he didn’t have an update on the veteran forward, who has been instrumental in Sacramento’s success.
Kelly Oubre Jr. had 31 points and 10 rebounds for the Hornets (8-23), who won on the second night of a back-to-back to snap an eight-game losing streak despite the absence of second-leading scorer Terry Rozier.
LaMelo Ball had 23 points, five rebounds and 12 assists before fouling out in the fourth quarter. Ball was held to seven points on 3-of-9 shooting through three quarters, but he scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting in the fourth.
“Melo’s a difficult player to assess just because he’s herky jerky the way he plays; 6-7, can pass the hell out of the ball, can shoot the hell out of the ball, get downhill, and he makes decisions in split seconds,” Fox said. “You don’t know if he’s going to shoot or he’s going to drop it off to a big. Melo’s a hell of a player and I think everybody’s known that since he’s gotten in the league, so when Charlotte is really winning games, I think he’ll put the league on notice.”
Fox was even better down the stretch, albeit in a losing effort. After being limited to 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting in the first half, he scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting in the third quarter and 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting in the fourth.
“D’eAaron is a great player — real fast, and he definitely gets to us,” Ball said. “It’s always fun playing with him.”
Another interesting development in the game was the recent and possibly continuing emergence of two-way center Neemias Queta, who is apparently getting a look in the backup center role behind Sabonis. Queta had two points, four rebounds and one blocked shot, but he finished with a minus-12 net rating in seven minutes.
Brown was asked why former starting center Richaun Holmes hasn’t gotten a “longer leash” in terms of an opportunity to establish himself in a backup role. Holmes averaged 4.3 points and 2.9 rebounds in 13.7 minutes over the first seven games of the season before his minutes were reduced.
Brown is clearly searching for answers after trying Holmes, Chimezie Metu and now Queta as his backup enter.
“(Holmes) is going to get an opportunity,” Brown said. “He had a pretty long leash. I think he played over 100 minutes to start the season, and there were some things I was looking at to where I wanted to see somebody different there. I thought Mezie was good to start, but, again, trying to sustain the level that he was playing at, I’m not seeing it right now, and so I went to Neemie. I’m going to give Neemie an opportunity and if Neemie doesn’t work out, I’ll go back to another guy. That’s my decision.”
The Kings trailed 39-30 at the end of the first quarter and 66-63 at the halftime break. They were outscored 13-4 to start the second half as the Hornets extended their lead to 12 early in the third quarter, prompting Brown to take a timeout.
Following the timeout, the Kings came up with a series of defensive stops. They also got big baskets from Fox, Sabonis, Kevin Huerter, Terence Davis and Malik Monk to fuel a 17-4 run as Sacramento stormed back to take an 84-83 lead.
Hornets coach Steve Clifford could feel the playoff intensity from the Sacramento Crowd.
“I’m old,” Clifford said. “I go back to Arco (Arena) with Vlade (Davic), Chris Webber and Doug Christie and those guys. That place used to be crazy. And you can see it’s the same type of environment they are starting to build here.”
The Kings led 92-91 at the start of the fourth quarter before the Hornets staged an 8-0 run to go up 99-92. Charlotte led by nine following a putback basket by Oubre with 2:48 to play.
Fox scored the next seven points over a span of 37 seconds to cut the deficit to two with 1:24 remaining, but a jumper by Gordon Hayward and two free throws by Oubre helped the Hornets hold on for the win.
Sacramento was fifth in the Western Conference after going 3-3 during a difficult Eastern road trip with stops in Milwaukee, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto and Detroit. With the loss, the Kings fell into a tie for sixth in the West. They are just three games behind the first-place Memphis Grizzlies, but only two games ahead of the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors, who are tied for 10th.
“It was a good reality check for us,” Brown said. “We were feeling pretty good off the road trip coming into this game, and we talked about these guys, that their record doesn’t speak for what it truly is. They’re in the NBA, and if you let them get comfortable at the beginning of the game, it’s going to be a long night. I thought we let them get real comfortable.”
The Kings will look to bounce back when they play host to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. Lakers star Anthony Davis is out with a right foot injury, but Monday’s loss to the Hornets was a good reminder that the Kings can take nothing for granted as they seek to end an NBA-record 16-year playoff drought.
Teams are tightly bunched in the Western Conference. The playoff race will be hotly contested. Every game counts.
“We have to learn from this,” Kings rookie Keegan Murray said. “We can’t take this and be too down on this loss. It’s one that we know we should have gotten, but we know the Lakers are a tough team. They’ve been playing well recently, so we have to get ready for them.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 12:09 AM.
