Ugly sweaters and ugly basketball: Kings booed at home in bad loss to Washington Wizards
Kings fans have hardly been able to contain the joy and excitement their team has brought them thus far this season, but they couldn’t hide their disappointment Friday night.
Many came to the game wearing ugly holiday sweaters on the eve of Christmas Eve. Some of them were absolutely hideous, but there was nothing more unsightly than the way the Kings played in a 125-111 loss to the Washington Wizards before a crowd of 17,894 at Golden 1 Center.
The Kings got booed on their home floor when Monte Morris threw an alley-oop to Kyle Kuzma to put the Wizards up by 20 midway through the second quarter. Unfortunately for the Kings, it would only get worse.
“They just didn’t feel us, man,” Kings guard Malik Monk said. “We let them do whatever they wanted to do. They just ran whatever they wanted to. … They just punked us tonight.”
Kuzma had 32 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Wizards (13-21), who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back after losing to the Utah Jazz on Thursday in Salt Lake City.
Bradley Beal scored 24 points for Washington. Rui Hachimura had 21. Kristaps Porzingis returned from an illness to grab 13 rebounds.
“I don’t think it was anything they did,” Kings forward Trey Lyles said. “I think it was us. We came out lackadaisical. We didn’t play any defense tonight. Offensively, we didn’t share the ball, and it just showed in the outcome of the game.”
De’Aaron Fox had 26 points and seven rebounds for the Kings (17-14), who fell to 1-2 on their current six-game homestand.
Domantas Sabonis finished with 20 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. It was his second consecutive triple-double, his 10th consecutive double-double and his league-leading 23rd double-double of the season.
Sabonis became the first Kings player to post a 20-15-10 stat line since DeMarcus Cousins did it against the New Orleans Pelicans on April 3, 2015. Sabonis is just the fourth player in franchise history to post back-to-back triple-doubles, joining Cousins, Rajon Rondo and Chris Webber.
The Kings raced out to a 10-3 lead over the first three minutes of the game, but it was all downhill from there. The Wizards led by one at the end of the opening period, staged an 11-1 run to start the second quarter and then mounted a 19-6 run to go up 68-50 at the half.
The Wizards outshot the Kings 57.4% to 41.9% in the first half while tallying 18 assists with only one turnover. The Kings were outscored 38-24 on points in the paint and 18-9 in fastbreak points.
Sacramento still might have had a chance with a better effort in the second half, but the Kings were outscored 19-7 to start the third quarter as the Wizards opened up a 30-point lead.
“We deserved to get our behinds kicked,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “... They were just better than us tonight.”
This story was originally published December 23, 2022 at 9:48 PM.
