Pounded in the paint: Kings haunted by familiar mistakes in loss to shorthanded 76ers
After losses, Kings head coach Mike Brown often laments the fact his team didn’t do well enough in a few key areas. Namely: opponents points in the paint, second-chance points and offensive rebounds allowed.
All of which played a big role in Sacramento losing Saturday night to the shorthanded Philadelphia 76ers, who were missing their two best players, Joel Embiid and James Harden, who were given the night off.
“It’s frustrating because we have the personnel to do it,” Brown said.
The Kings have been the third-worst team in the NBA this season at allowing points in the paint at 55.0 per game. Only the San Antonio Spurs (55.5) and Detroit Pistons (55.2), teams whose success this season will be defined by where they land in the NBA draft lottery, are worse.
Sacramento on Saturday allowed 70 points in the paint as Philadelphia snapped Sacramento’s six-game winning streak. The Kings also allowed 70 points in the paint in their previous loss Jan. 7 to the Los Angeles Lakers, another team that was shorthanded.
“We’ve drilled on that almost every freakin’ day,” Brown said. “(We) watch it on film and I think when the guys see (us) do it possession after possession, when we’re consistently doing it throughout the course of the game, usually the results are pretty good.”
Brown went on to point out his team’s offensive stats for the night. The Kings scored 127 points on 54.8% shooting while making 39.4% of 3-pointers and 22 free throws — not including two Harrison Barnes missed in the game’s final seconds that could have tied it. The Kings lead the NBA by averaging 120.0 points per game, so 127 points should be plenty to put away a team missing its two best players.
Yet they couldn’t prevent the 76ers from getting by them on drives to the lane, which often results in the team’s big man helping off the low offensive player. It’s a chain reaction that combusts when another player doesn’t help the center after he helps off his man.
That also contributed to allowing 23 second-chance points, as the Kings did Saturday, along with 16 offensive rebounds, in a game they lost by two.
“If we want to be great — I think the guys in the room believe we can be — we’re going to have to do a better job when it comes to controlling that offensive glass,” Brown said. “We’re going to have to control the glass and, in turn, control the paint.”
The Kings, who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, led by 21 points at the 2-minute mark in the second quarter, but they allowed the 76ers to go on a 12-1 run before halftime. And instead of responding out of the gate in the third quarter, Sacramento was outscored 38-22 in the frame while allowing Philadelphia to make 14 of 22 from the floor and 5 of 8 3-pointers. The Kings entered the fourth down 102-96.
“It was still a close game,” De’Aaron Fox said. “It’s not like we were down 20 or anything. So we still felt like we were still in position to win the game ... but we got behind too much.”
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey score 15 points in the quarter, including 10 in the first three minutes, while the slow-footed Kings offered little resistance. The loss marred another strong night from Fox, who scored 31, including 14 in the fourth quarter, and 27 points from Barnes, who hit 6 of 9 from long distance to improve to 51% on 3s in January (38 of 74). Domantas Sabonis narrowly missed his sixth triple-double of season, finishing with 16 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists.
“You learn from every loss,” Kings guard Kevin Huerter said. “We know right now what our deficiencies are, especially on the defensive end, so it’s something we’ve been trying to clean up. We’ve just got to be more consistent.”
Despite the loss, the Kings (26-19) remained in third place in the Western Conference. They will host the Memphis Grizzles on Monday.
