Domantas Sabonis was back on the court Sunday night after sitting out two games with a left ribcage contusion, but he couldn’t prevent the Kings from suffering their second straight blowout loss at home, writes Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee (subscription required). Sabonis, who played 30 minutes and posted 20 points and 13 rebounds in a 144-117 loss to Minnesota, was determined to play because he felt that the pain of losing was worse than the “sharp stab” he was feeling in his ribs.
“You don’t want to keep losing games,” he said after pregame warmups. “I love the game and we’re not winning, so you want to try to turn things around.”
It’s been a difficult season for Sabonis so far apart from the injury. The three-time All-Star is averaging 15.3 points per game, by far his lowest total since coming to Sacramento, and his shooting percentages of 47.7% from the floor and 15.4% from three-point range are down sharply from last season.
There’s more on the Kings:
- Also off to a rough start is point guard Dennis Schröder, who was added in a sign-and-trade deal as one of the team’s major offseason moves. Schröder’s shooting woes continued against the Wolves as he made just one shot on the night and is 1-0f-16 over the past two games. In an interview with Sean Cunningham of KCRA News (Twitter video link), Schröder admitted that he’s still adjusting to his new surroundings. “I don’t feel comfortable, and when I don’t feel comfortable it’s just not effective,” he said. “I’ve got to watch film and get better in areas where I can be more effective. If the shot’s dropping or not dropping, you can’t control if the ball goes in, but what you can control is on the defensive side of the ball that you’re impacting it.”
- Kings fans chanted for Keon Ellis during Sunday’s game, but once again he didn’t get off the bench until the fourth quarter. Coach Doug Christie explained why he’s not using Ellis more often despite the team’s defensive struggles (Twitter video link from Cunningham). “Trying to play 10 players and finding a rhythm for that is difficult, like there’s a logjam at that position,” Christie told reporters. “One guy plays damn near the whole game, the other guy plays a few minutes and then there’s Keon. But I know in this league that things happen how they happen, and the one thing we’re going to do is try to figure it out.” He also promised that Keon “will get his opportunity.”
- Christie was complimentary of Precious Achiuwa, who made his first start since joining the Kings and delivered 12 points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes. “There’s some grown man things that Precious does out there, and I’m all for it,” Christie said. “There’s a level of physicality, there’s a level of aggressiveness and he rebounds the basketball.”
You have problems on defense, yet you don’t want to play your best perimeter defender? Doug Christie looks overmatched as a head coach, but this is all on Vivek.
You must wonder if he knows the team is not a playoff team and just showcasing the Vets for a future trade. It makes no sense in not playing Ellis who the Kings made off limits during the off season. Now they do not wnat to play him over weaker players. Why they signed Schroder is a head scratcher. DeRozan might be the easiest player to trade of the vets.
Raz- Kinda sounds like Achiuwa would have been a boon to the Bulls with that description huh? Especially after watching Mobley destroy all the Mini Me’s the Bulls tried to guard him with the other night.
Mike, we both know our front office doesn’t respect the minds and opinions of the fans lol. We both know that Achuiwa would bring some stability to the interior defense and depth of this team. FWIW: I actually enjoy watching our team play this year but if our front office is going to handcuff this roster, we’re going to be in for a long season.
Lots of teams are probably thinking missing out on Precious was a mistake. In a way, it’s too bad for him he ended up on the Kings, but at least he’ll get a lot of pt there.
I honestly think the Kings just a hopeless franchise, which is sad because they are one of the charter members of the NBA. Sabonis is a nice player but not a star, DeRozan isn’t capable of being the best player to lead a team to a title (see Toronto in 2019), everyone knows how I feel about Lavine. Schroeder is hot dogging it, no need to give Murray an extension when he’s been average at best. Malik Monk might have the most value on that team due to his ability to get buckets, but rewarding him with an extension was stupid too. It’s going to be a painful few years for Kings fans.
To this point, they are a head scratcher.. one of those you look and say, “what the heck is going on?!”
They should be too good to give up 144 to the TWolves and lose by almost 30.
they do have some good young players on the team but not enough to make a playoff run. They should have started the rebuild in the off season. Trading Fox is their biggest mistake even if some fans claimed he wanted out. They should have waited for a great deal instead of taking LaVine and a few small assets for him. Come trade deadline they should offer to see what they can get for Sabonis, Monk, and DeRozan. Sabonis could bring them a package of young players and draft picks.
Arc – Sabonis ($42M) to Pistons for Tobias Harris ($26M) and Caris Levert ($14M) with Ron Holland ($8.6M) with unprotected 2026 1st round pick and 2027 top 10 protected pick.
Cade/Ivey/Ausar/Sabonis/Duren with Stewart/Robinson and Reed your top 8 playoff rotation. Pistons might need another ball handler with Cade there, but this is definitely a promising team on the verge of something special.
Kings get that massive contract off their books (Harris is a free agent and Levert has $14M next year), but the main coup would be a young Ron Holland on a rookie deal still, with a late 1st round pick and a potential 2027 1st rounder that can add to the nucleus of the team.
Detroit are not doing that trade.
They have Duren, who they should have signed this past summer, but now he’s playing better than ever (duh, what a surprise that a player is better at 21 than at 20), and they will have to give him a bigger contract. They will not want Duren’s, Cade’s and Sabonis’ contracts on the books at the same time.
Plus, they value Holland a lot. And they have Isaiah Stewart, who they are satisfied with at 4-5.
Duren plays the 5, Sabonis plays 4. I agree they value Holland a lot. Cade needs another running mate to take the team to another level.
I was not talking about positional fit.
Cade is on a 30% max, so is Sabonis, and Duren will say: “hey, Holmgren got a 25% max, why not me”? It was reported that Duren was seeking 30m aav; Detroit probably could have struck a deal for 25-28. But now he’ll ask for more. He’s been fantastic.
Having 3 guys on those contracts would limit what they can do with the roster.
If I’m Sacramento, I’d be all over that trade, but it’s not happening.
Sabonis is not a bad contract. LaVine is the bad contract and as soon as they are out of playoff race they should bench him to force a buy out because you know he will pick up next year’s option. Even if they can save $10 million next year or take on another bad contract in exchange for his with a little savings.
It is weird to be burying Ellis… he should be lined up as a breakout player but that can’t happen from the bench. It’d be one thing if the Kings were winning.
Slow start, but understandable with Sabonis in and out of the lineup and you have new playmakers on the team. But there are a lot of positives, by game 20 they should have everything figured out
What are the positives? I have watched every game and I can’t see them. Empty stats LaVine and DeMar? 36 year old Russ playing PF? Not using Domas as the focal point of the offensive structure? Benching their best healthy defender in Keon Ellis? Not playing Nique enough minutes?
I hate this franchise now. They have sucked the joy out of me with this old, crappy roster that is full of veterans who can’t seem to figure out how to play team basketball.
You have about 8 guys on the team that can go off any night. That makes it hard to defend because defenses cant just game plan to stop 1 or 2 players. The scoring is spread out and every night there’s a different player leading the team. Right now they are one of the best 3pt shooting teams in the league. And that’s with a players that aren’t known for their 3pt shooting besides monk.
You make good points, but those are all things that take time to build. It really takes at least 20 games for a team to workout it’s chemistry. They have all the tools. Just need the time.
1.) The positives won’t reveal themselves until the summer
2.) What do you mean you hate them “now”? The rest of us have hated them for 2 decades now
The only Q the Kings didn’t lose was the one where Ellis played all 12 minutes.
“One guy plays damn near the whole game, the other guy plays a few minutes and then there’s Keon.”
Except no Kings player even got 30 minutes. I guess by “one guy” he meant LaVine, but not really sure who the “other guy” was – rookie Nique Clifford played fairly well, but it was Monk that stunk in his 19.5 mins with 2 pts and a def rtg of 142 – oh and the best rebounding guard of all time had 0 reb in 16 minutes.
They were already bad, but when the signed Westbrook they (and Doug) were/are toast
Not really, they were pretty good last year