SACRAMENTO – Sixty-six games into the 2023-24 NBA season, Kings coach Mike Brown finally got what he had been asking for all season.
Well, 66 games.
It started Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks, a 129-94 victoryand reported in a Victory 120-107 in the second half of their back-to-back game against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
Saturday’s performance, however, might have opened Brown’s eyes more than any other game, despite a physical loss 98-91 to the New York Knicks, seeded No. 4 in the Eastern Conference.
After the Kings displayed a historic offense last season that thrived on pace, screens and ball movement, Brown shifted the team’s focus to the other side of the ball – an area in which he specializes in.
Sacramento’s defensive efforts in its last three games have been a promising start for Brown.
“One hundred percent. One hundred percent,” Brown said after the game Saturday when asked if the recent defensive performance was what he had asked for all season. “We are more than capable. And, one more times, that people say, “Hey, just focus on offense.” But our guys are also capable defenders when they want to be — and they’ve shown that in the last three games.
Entering Tuesday’s contest, the Bucks were averaging 120.9 points per game and ranked fifth (118.7) in offensive rating. The Kings held them to just 94 points Tuesday night, which was only the second time Milwaukee had scored fewer than 95 points this season.
The following night, the Lakers, in great shape after two big victories against the Bucks and the Minnesota Timberwolves, entered the Golden 1 Center and lost their fourth game of the season against the Kings. They averaged 117.3 points this season before suffering a 120-107 loss at Sacramento.
A large part of both victories was due to the presence of Kings guard Keon Elliswhose lockdown defense limited Bucks star guard Damian Lillard, then matched that defensive intensity against Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell, who has been in a hot spell since January.
Ellis held Lillard to just 10 points on 2-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 from behind the arc after the 3-point machine averaged 24.4 points on 42.3 percent from the field and 35 .2% from downtown this season.
Russell, who has averaged 21.6 points on 47.5 percent shooting from the field and 44.9 percent from 3-point range since January, finished Wednesday’s game with six points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field. the field and 1 of 4 from deep.
Even though Saturday’s mission wasn’t as easy thanks to a 42-point outburst from Knicks All-Star guard Jalen Brunson, Brown was still pleased with his team’s defensive efforts elsewhere.
“You have to give Jalen a lot of credit, he’s a heck of a player,” Brown said. “I don’t know if, Steph [Curry], maybe, I don’t know if we bombed anyone as much as Jalen tonight. We tried to send two [players] against him and he still scored 42 points on 50 percent from the field. The rest of the team shot 34 percent and scored 56 points. And they shot 21 percent from the 3. Jalen shot 50 percent from the 3 and over 50 percent from the field. We double-teamed him every time he came out of the pick-and-roll in the second half and probably about half the time in the first half. He’s a hell of a player. Great play. He stepped up and really helped them get there tonight.
“I can’t be mad at our guys’ effort or anything like that because I thought we tried to play hard. But when you have a team that’s 98 points on 43 percent shooting and we score 91 and one of our big things is to spray the basketball, we go 3 for 9, that’s a big part of our identity that we didn’t bring to the match. table this evening.
Kings star goaltender De’Aaron Fox had a similar attitude toward the team’s effort.
“Other than JB, I thought we did a great job,” Fox said after the game. “Obviously he’s shooting 17 for 28, about 60 percent and we’re still holding this team to 43 percent. So outside of him, we’ve done a great job. But I mean, he’s had almost half of their points, so we have to “We did a better job protecting the star player. But other than that, I thought we did a decent job and he made some tough shots as well.
“But I think overall, defensively, I would say we did a pretty good job. Offensively, we shot 35, 27.” [percent]. We have to be better on the offensive end. There aren’t many games you’ll win with such a low percentage. »
The Knicks were averaging 112.2 points heading into Saturday’s game in Sacramento, compared to 118.4 for the Kings.
Both teams were held to fewer than 100 points on Saturday, a testament to the physicality of the game on the defensive end of the court. Brown believes New York’s physicality impacted Sacramento’s offensive flow, as several players looked open but the shots just weren’t falling.
De’Aaron Fox struggled to get going early, but he finished with 20 points on 5-of-19 shooting from the field and 2-of-7 from 3-point range with seven rebounds, nine assists, two steals and three turnovers.
Kevin Huerter remained scoreless after 16 minutes of play, missing all three of his shot attempts. And fresh off a hot game against the Lakers, Keegan Murray finished with 11 points in 33 minutes on 3-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-7 from downtown.
Domantas Sabonis was one of the few bright spots early for the Kings, but he calmed down in the second half after the Knicks made defensive adjustments to contain the Lithuanian big man later in the game.
Brown thought his guys did enough on the defensive end to get the win, but he believes offensive struggles kept the Kings from crossing the finish line in the end.
And while the emphasis has been on defense all season, with some positive promise over the past week, the coach doesn’t want the Kings to turn their back on where they’ve thrived since last season.
“We practice offense more than defense, whether it’s shooting on goal, normal practice or whatever,” Brown said. “We probably have two defensive drills to four offensive drills every practice. But that said, I know it takes time. I knew our guys were capable and they’re starting to respond. We just have to continue to make sure we don’t We don’t. We don’t lose our identity on the offensive floor either. And part of that is our sprays. We do a hell of a job with the basketball.
“In our last two losses, I think if Houston was the last loss before this one, we played two physical defensive teams that play the same way, and they just challenge you to spray the basketball. And if you don’t, it’s going to be a fight and anyone can win on a pass, especially if you’re playing defense like we are, we’ll still give ourselves a chance. But we would have had a better chance if we had sprayed it all night.”
The Kings are making defensive progress. They match up with some of the more physical teams. And with the final part of the regular season underway, the intensity has come at just the right time because, as we know, the playoffs are a whole different beast.
But Brown’s message throughout the season could give him enough confidence in his team to compete with whoever is ahead of them in the playoffs.
