No ‘Hollywood’ ending: Kings lose to Lakers in Doug Christie’s debut as interim coach
Doug Christie will always be considered a king of Kings.
Christie spent five seasons with the Kings at the height of their success under former coach Rick Adelman.
He helped them push the Los Angeles Lakers to Game 7 in the controversial 2002 Western Conference finals. He even punched a Laker in the face, chin checking Rick Fox with a stiff left uppercut to the jaw.
Christie couldn’t help feeling somewhat nostalgic as he prepared to make his debut as interim coach of the Kings Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
“There’s a lot of history here,” Christie said. “There’s a lot of history in this building and in that hallway, and for it to be against this team, and for it to be with my team, yeah, it’s big time.
“We are in Hollywood, so you couldn’t write up a better script. How it turns out, whether it’s a love story or a horror story, we don’t know yet, but we’ll find out.”
This was just the beginning for Christie, who was named interim coach after Mike Brown was fired Friday, but the Kings did not get a storybook ending.
Anthony Davis nearly posted a triple-double, putting up 36 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists to lead the Lakers to a 132-122 victory over the Kings.
Austin Reaves had 26 points and 16 assists for the Lakers (18-13), who have won five of their last six games. Rui Hachimura scored 21 points while Dalton Knecht came off the bench to score 18.
De’Aaron Fox had 29 points and 12 assists for the Kings (13-19), who have not won since Dec. 12.
DeMar DeRozan had 25 points, six rebounds and seven assists for the Kings. Malik Monk added 20 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Domantas Sabonis finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
Lakers star LeBron James was ruled out due to illness. Sabonis flew to Los Angeles on Saturday and returned to the lineup after missing Thursday’s game against the Detroit Pistons with an illness of his own.
“If there was any chance I could play, I wanted to play and be here, especially with everything that happened when I was gone and with Doug being the coach,” Sabonis said. “I felt like I had to try to be here and give everything I had today.”
‘No grace period’
Kings guard Kevin Huerter said the Kings are still committed to winning this season.
“For us, that was a message that was very clear yesterday,” Huerter said. “We don’t see this as a lost season. We’ve got to right the ship. We’ve got to turn this around, so there’s definitely no grace period.”
Asked how that message was conveyed, Huerter said: “From a lot of different people — front office, coaching staff and the players. We’ve had a lot of different meetings over the last 24 hours. Generally, there’s still a lot of belief in this organization and this room, and we think we’ve got to create some urgency to try to turn it around.”
A number of players said they were still in shock a day after the Kings fired Brown, who posted a 107-88 record in two-plus seasons in Sacramento, but Christie clearly has the support of the locker room.
“Doug is the identity of Kings basketball, all passion, all heart,” Kings center Alex Len said. “From (2000-05) when he was with the team, he was always that guy who brought the energy, brought the passion, so he’s one of those guys it’s hard to not like.
“He’s just a likable person, so the first thing he said to the team was, ‘I love you guys, and when I was a player, I wanted to get love from my coach,’ so he said that’s what I’m going to give you. I’m going to coach you hard, but it’s going to come from a place of love, and I want you guys to play hard for me.”
Defensive issues
That will have to start on the defensive end, something Brown preached until his last breath as the team’s head coach.
The Lakers shot 59.7% from the field, 53.8% from 3-point range and went to the free-throw line 33 times. The Kings got lit up for 40 points in the first quarter. The Lakers made 17 of 23 from the field and 6 of 8 from 3-point range, shooting an alarming 73.9% overall and 75% from beyond the arc.
Los Angeles went up by 11 in the opening period and led 40-31 at the end of the first quarter. Sacramento came back to tie the game on a dunk by Keegan Murray with 5:08 to play in the first half and led 66-65 at the halftime break after Fox made two free throws with 13.1 seconds remaining.
The Lakers staged a 15-2 run to take an 88-78 lead on a layup by Max Christie midway through the third quarter. The game really got away from the Kings after Sabonis was whistled for his fifth foul with 4:17 to play in the third period. The Lakers outscored the Kings 15-5 to end the quarter, opening up a 17-point lead going into the fourth.
“It’s tough when we lose our biggest guy and our most dynamic guy, somebody out there to give AD some type of issues, especially defensively,” DeRozan said. “When we lose that, it’s tough, especially being undersized.”
Los Angeles took its largest lead of the game when Knecht hit a 3-pointer to put the Lakers up 110-90 early in the fourth. The Kings cut the deficit to seven on a 3-pointer by Huerter with 6:54 to go. They got within six on a driving layup by Fox with 3:49 remaining, but that was as close as they would get.
Level of intensity
Christie, who was a four-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection during his 15-year NBA playing career, said he will be asking a lot of his players.
“The level of intensity I would like to see, it’s difficult,” Christie said. “It is. I did it. I told them that. I want you to play so hard that you raise your hand and say, ‘I need to come out of the game.’”
Murray said the Kings will keep trying to give Christie the effort and intensity he wants to see at both ends of the floor.
“Everyone likes Doug, so for him to be our interim head coach for the rest of the year, I think everyone is going to try to rally around him and give him the best situation possible, try to not give him as much stress,” Murray said. “He’s definitely been to each and every one of us in some way or another just to try to motivate us. He’s been great these last 24 hours, just trying to motivate our team to turn the season around.”
How can the Kings do that when they still lack size, length and defense?
“We have enough,” Christie said. “This is a message that I said to them. There is enough in this locker room, but how we get over that is the types of things I’ve talked about. The consistency, the focus, the willingness to play for my team at such a high level that it hurts and I have to come out of the game. It’s up to me to be able to find that.”
This story was originally published December 28, 2024 at 10:58 PM.
