Even if Paul George was absent, playing the Clippers presented a real challenge for the defense of the Kings. Because the players from Los Angeles are particularly skilled at 3-points (second team in the league) while those from Sacramento suffer enormously (they are the worst) to bring down their opponent's percentage in this area.
However, 48 minutes later, Kawhi Leonard and his teammates lost having shot 8/27 at 3-points, with few very open shots. Sacramento made the effort, in addition to stealing 10 balls.
“Among the important elements for us in this meeting, there was the rhythm and the physical impact”, analysis Harrison Barnes. “We talked about it during this sequence and we have the feeling that by playing our style, we will win a lot of matches. »
“For us it’s about making stops,” continues Mike Brown, who saw his troops resist the Californians in the last quarter and thus never tremble. “We can score points as long as we make stops. They were going to have some strong moments, but we responded each time to keep them at bay. »
Focus on defending the 3-point line
Recent victories against the Nuggets (February 9 and 14), as well as this success in Los Angeles, showed that the Kings can defend hard when they want. Which they haven't always done, even recently with 133 points conceded against Detroit…
“We always talk about bringing physical impact and the players did it”welcomes the Sacramento coach. “It’s undoubtedly one of the matches where we came closest to doing it for 48 minutes. The players were very, very good defensively. We focused on winning shots and they did the job on the shooters. If we had been average, and not bad, in this area during the season, we would have four or five more victories, if not more. So, it was a great defensive performance. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| De'aaron Fox | 49 | 35.6 | 46.8 | 37.5 | 70.3 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 5.6 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 26.8 |
| Domantas Sabonis | 55 | 35.7 | 62.4 | 42.6 | 69.7 | 3.2 | 10.0 | 13.2 | 8.4 | 3.3 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 20.2 |
| Malik Monk | 54 | 25.9 | 45.1 | 37.3 | 81.9 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 5.2 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 15.2 |
| Keegan Murray | 51 | 32.5 | 46.2 | 35.2 | 81.2 | 1.2 | 4.0 | 5.3 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 14.8 |
| Harrison Barnes | 55 | 29.6 | 48.2 | 39.5 | 81.5 | 0.8 | 2.2 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 12.1 |
| Kevin Huerter | 53 | 25.1 | 45.5 | 37.5 | 79.1 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 3.6 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 11.0 |
| Trey Lyles | 40 | 19.9 | 45.5 | 39.9 | 67.3 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 7.5 |
| Sasha Vezenkov | 35 | 12.6 | 44.8 | 38.0 | 76.9 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 2.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 5.6 |
| Javale McGee | 39 | 8.0 | 62.9 | 0.0 | 58.1 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 2.9 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 4.4 |
| Davion Mitchell | 45 | 13.1 | 39.8 | 30.5 | 72.0 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 3.8 |
| Chris Duarte | 38 | 12.9 | 37.1 | 33.8 | 76.9 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 3.8 |
| Keon Ellis | 33 | 11.5 | 42.2 | 37.0 | 64.7 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 3.5 |
| Alex Len | 23 | 8.6 | 61.0 | 0.0 | 46.7 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 2.5 |
| Colby Jones | 17 | 7.1 | 37.0 | 7.7 | 40.0 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 2.2 |
| Jordan Ford | 6 | 3.6 | 57.1 | 66.7 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| Kessler Edwards | 37 | 4.8 | 41.2 | 36.4 | 75.0 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Philip Petrusev | 2 | 3.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Jalen Slawson | 5 | 3.7 | 66.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 |
| Juan Toscano-Anderson | 11 | 4.8 | 25.0 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 0.6 |
