Surging Sacramento Kings feel ‘joy and freedom’ in blowout win over Golden State Warriors
Something has happened to the Sacramento Kings since Doug Christie took over as interim head coach.
The ball is moving, shots are falling, defenders are flying around the floor and the Kings are winning with an energy they couldn’t seem to find earlier in the season.
They won again Sunday night, blowing out the Golden State Warriors 129-99 before a sellout crowd of 18,064 at Chase Center in San Francisco. The Kings won their fourth in a row — their longest winning streak of the season — to improve to 4-1 under Christie, who took the helm when Mike Brown was fired Dec. 27.
Sacramento led by as many as 39 points despite the absence of De’Aaron Fox. Warriors fans headed for the exits with almost nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. When it was over, Kings forward DeMar DeRozan tried to explain why the Kings seem to be playing with more energy and enthusiasm now.
“I don’t know,” DeRozan said. “I think just going out there, leaving it all out there, playing with joy, freedom, for one another. I would say it’s that more than anything, just going out there and playing freely with joy and for one another.”
DeRozan elaborated on his thoughts when asked if the Kings were not being encouraged to play with joy under Brown.
“I wouldn’t say that,” DeRozan said. “Whenever you’re going through any type of ups and downs, when the downs come, everything just feels extremely bad. Everything is just heightened to another level.
“I think with so much going on, it kind of hit the fan with having a coaching change in the middle of the season. So much was going on that we could just sit there and kind of sob in our sorrows and let things get worse. I think we just pulled together and pulled ourselves out of that more so than anything. That tough stretch when we were going through what we were going through, everybody was down and frustrated because of the losing.”
Malik Monk had 26 points, 12 assists and four steals for the Kings (17-19), who are now one game out of the final play-in spot in the Western Conference.
“I’m so proud of that kid,” Christie said when asked about Monk. “Before I was sitting in this seat, we’ve had multiple conversations just about everything, and I’ve always told him, ‘Believe in yourself. I believe in you. You are a tremendous, fantastic player, and play through your mistakes.’ You’re going to make them. This is a game of mistakes. Who makes the least amount of mistakes usually wins the ballgame. He is just about as free as I’ve ever seen him. We’ll live with some of the things he does and his greatness will continue to shine because the kid is great.”
Domantas Sabonis had 22 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Kevin Huerter came off the bench to score 16 points. Rookie Devin Carter had 13 points and seven rebounds in his second game after making his NBA debut Friday.
Steph Curry scored 26 points to lead the Warriors (18-17). Andrew Wiggins had 18 points.
Fox was ruled out due to a right glute contusion, but Keegan Murray was cleared to return after missing the past two games with left ankle inflammation.
Murray made his first 3-point attempt of the game to help the Kings jump out to a 10-3 lead. They went up by as many as 18 points and led 36-21 after shooting 58.3% in the first period.
“Nobody likes to get embarrassed like that, especially the way we started the first quarter,” Curry said.
The Warriors came back to cut the deficit to four after Curry converted two four-point plays in a span of 54 seconds, highlighting Sacramento’s recent tendency to foul 3-point shooters.
The Kings went up by 20 when Monk threw a lob to Keon Ellis for an alley-oop dunk. They took a 64-41 lead on a 3-pointer by Sabonis and carried a 75-51 advantage into the halftime break. Sacramento led by 33 in the third quarter and 39 in the fourth.
“We came into the game knowing we were down a player, especially a player like Fox,” Carter said. “We knew we had to bring a little more juice. I think we executed the game plan as best as we could. We just wanted to execute the game plan and live with the results, and the results were definitely what we wanted.”
Carter shared his perspective on the team’s newfound energy and as the Kings try to turn their season around.
“I think it’s contagious,” Carter said. “Once one person sees somebody else doing it, then the next person, the next person, and it just trickles down the line, so I just think it’s contagious.
“Obviously, we want to keep on winning. Wins are contagious. Good vibes in the locker room, good vibes in practice, and just go from there.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2025 at 9:44 PM.
