April 16, 2024. That's when the Kings last won a competition. It was the first play-in round against the Warriors, before a loss in the second against the Pelicans. Since then, the Californians have lost all their preseason matches.
And are not happier so far in the regular season. After a first setback against the Wolves, the Kings faltered again last night against the Lakers.
“ I feel like we had a better match (against Wolves), but we weren't able to finish. In this match, at the start of the fourth, we were not good. So it's about producing good basketball for 48 minutes. They were close matches, it's not like we had our heads underwater “, puts De'Aaron Fox into perspective.
The defense couldn't resist LeBron James
A reference to the minimal negative differential after these two defeats (-2 against the Wolves, then -4 against the Lakers). In Los Angeles, Mike Brown's men seemed to have things in hand with three possessions in advance (87-94) as they began the fourth quarter.
This was without counting on the bulldozer LeBron James who would puncture the entire Kings defense with his… 16 points scored in three minutes. 16 points from the “King” at the heart of an impressive sequence in favor of the locals, 21-0 (108-94).
“ It's the same story as in the last match, we let them come back », Regrets Domantas Sabonis who, like De'Aaron Fox, thinks that the match was decided on this sequence. The Kings were able to close the score afterwards. But recovering from such a blow is not easy.
“ We didn't defend well. LeBron clearly made some complicated shots, but we have to do better. There were sequences in the game where we were very good in defense, others very bad. It was one of those sequences and we lost control », Continues De'Aaron Fox whose team won its four confrontations last year against the Lakers.
Mike Brown positive
What's wrong with the Kings? The leader recalls that the team has remained almost intact compared to last year. If not, obviously, the arrival of DeMar DeRozan, “ who gets a lot of attention and has the ball… It takes a little time. But I don't even think our offense was the problem in those two games. It's defensively, these sequences where we don't defend well enough. »
For his part, Mike Brown doesn't really have any alarmist speech to make, on the contrary. “ It's a tough defeat. Our guys did some good things, especially in the first half. The players passed the ball around. The spacing was magnificent. If we continue to play like that on offense, good things will happen. »
He adds, to indirectly underline his team’s defensive concerns: “ You think scoring 127 points in regulation time is enough to win. » Last season, his team had never lost by scoring so much without going into overtime (17 victories). The record, however, was much less rosy when it suffered so much (4 victories – 12 defeats)…
