SACRAMENTO – The Defeat of the Kings 112-104 at the Houston Rockets on Sunday at Golden 1 Center was costly for a Sacramento team trying to advance in the Western Conference.
This was a game that, on paper, the Kings had to view as one they should have won hands down.
Instead, they let it slip away after a terrible third quarter.
Now, rather than taking a small step forward and moving closer to fifth place in the West, the loss dropped the Kings to seventh place.
Any defeat at this stage of the season is undoubtedly expensivebut it is even more true when the feeling there was so positive.
The Kings had identified this game as the one that would mark the start of a pivotal stretch for the team.
Sacramento’s next 19 games will go a long way in determining where the Kings end up when it comes to the playoffs.
If they want to make any move now, it won’t be easy.
Twelve of their last games are against teams .500 or better. These same teams would qualify for the playoffs if the playoffs started today.
There is room on the schedule to make a few waves. After games against the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, Sacramento has a three-game series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards, none of which are above .500. As the standings currently stand, all three are outside the playoff picture.
This will be a very intriguing stretch for the Kings, who have been accustomed during the 2023-24 B+NBA season to playing against the best teams and down to lower teams.
That trend continued Sunday against Houston. The Rockets had lost 10 of their previous 15 games before picking up the victory at Golden 1 Center.
“We know we have to be better,” De’Aaron Fox said. “We can talk about minimizing competition, competition, whatever you want to call it. We need to be a more cohesive team, no matter what.
“I guess if you make the playoffs you’ll play a good team, right? So I guess you are on par with your competitors. Look on the bright side, right? »
It sounds easy enough, but it will take a lot more than the Kings have already shown to secure a playoff spot.
The playoff push begins in earnest Tuesday when Milwaukee comes to town. The Bucks, who beat the Kings in overtime on January 14, are in third place in the Eastern Conference.
However, it really won’t matter unless Sacramento learns to stick to daily game plans.
As they did in losses to the Miami Heat on Feb. 26 and to the Chicago Bulls on Monday, the Kings were put on notice that both opponents like to pack the paint with designs to stop any sort of drive to the hoop. .
But instead of heeding those plans, the Kings repeatedly tried to drive deep into the paint and forgot to throw the ball to open shots.
It’s a trend that’s causing all kinds of concern among the Kings coaching staff.
“They hold the ball a little too long,” coach Mike Brown said. “As soon as you see a second body, you just have to get off it. We have guys who are capable scorers and playmakers, so sometimes it gets a little tough to get through it, but you have to have the discipline to say, “Hey, fuck it. As soon as I feel something, because I know they’re coming, I’m going to make the pass. I probably won’t get the assist and obviously I won’t score. But this triggers the domino effect.
“We talked about it, we broke through it. This is something we’ve done before, but in the last five games our spray game hasn’t been good, and it’s obvious. We have to do a better job, especially against the better defensive teams protecting that paint.
There is still time for the Kings to correct this and get things back in a favorable direction. But there’s about a month until the playoffs begin, so the margin for error keeps getting smaller by the day.
