Returning home after having signed three victories in a row, the Kings were going to spend five matches and two weeks at home. Ideal for continuing a great sequence. But now that this period has passed, we can take stock of it. The latter is terrible: five defeats in a row! Above all, Mike Brown's players were often in a position to restart, but wasted golden opportunities.
Latest example: this defeat against the Pistons, when they had a 15-point lead at the start of the last quarter. Except that it won't be enough to avoid the coming shipwreck…
“Why did Fox go for 3-pointers? I don't know “
There are ten seconds left, the Kings still have a three-point lead. They defend pretty well until Jaden Ivey makes a fake, which De'Aaron Fox totally bites into. Clever, the Pistons player finds contact and shoots. He gets the foul and scores!
“When we are three points ahead, we must not rush to 3-points”, laments Mike Brown. “We agree with the idea of conceding a basket near the circle and we must close our opponents at 3-points. Everyone must do it. Why did Fox go for 3-pointers? I don't know, I need to see the pictures again. We told the guys: we can't cash in a winning basket. »
But if the star's attitude towards this action is indeed blameworthy, we must not forget the discomfiture of the Kings during the preceding minutes. The advance had melted like snow in the sun…
“We stopped playing in the last six minutes. I didn't like that rhythm when we were telling the guys to play over and over.”regrets the coach, who did not hide his annoyance at the press conference.
Mike Brown angry at his team's lack of toughness
It is therefore a stupid mistake, which is costly, like the missed offensive rebound against the Lakers recently. “ “It’s a difficult defeat to take because we should have, at worst, gone into overtime,” adds Mike Brown. These careless mistakes which end up tipping the scales to the wrong side and, in the end, are paid for in defeats.
What response can De'Aaron Fox make to his gesture? Why did he jump on this Jaden Ivey feint?
“It doesn’t matter, it won’t change anything so…”, answers the All-Star, who believes he and his teammates knew they could “win this match”. “We gave ourselves a chance and we didn’t get the job done. We have to finish better”he says, not being very talkative after this setback.
When we ask the player what the Kings (13 wins – 18 losses, 12th in the West) need to do to get better, he has no answer: ” I don't know “he said.
While Mike Brown already knows what he no longer wants to see. “We have to be mentally tougher. There is impact on the screens and we literally stop – I insist, literally – playing and we complain to the referees. We don't win matches like that.”concludes the technician, well reassured.
