The Sacramento Kings kicked off their first road trip of 2023 against the Detroit Pistons, and the Kings had hopes of a bounce-back effort after a brutal showing against the New Orleans Pelicans. Unfortunately, the Kings carried over some of their bad habits from the Pelicans game and dug themselves an early hole. Kings fans were screaming doom and gloom after the first quarter, which saw the Kings give up 47(1) points to the lowly Pistons, despite Detroit missing Cade Cunningham due to injury. Luckily, the Kings turned things around in a big way. The Kings closed the gap and took a lead into half time, and despite allowing the Pistons to keep it a little too close during the third quarter, the Kings ran away down the stretch with a 131-110 victory.
The key to success for the Kings was really their Core 4. Domantas Sabonis had a monster game, dominating the Pistons in the paint en route to another triple double. He finished with 37 points, 13 assists, 10 rebounds, and 3 steals. Keegan Murray also came up huge. Keegan played great defense and racked up 32 points on 17 shots, to go along with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal. Malik Monk had a great game off the bench, finishing with 20 points, and 9 assists, including several beautiful passes to a rolling Sabonis.
De’Aaron Fox struggled for stretches, looking very uncomfortable at times. At one point he blew a breakaway layup where the ball simply flew out of his hands and into the heavens. And yet, because Fox is so good, he still finished with 26 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals.
You may notice that those four players accounted for 115 of Sacramento’s 131 points. Yeah. The rest of the crew struggled to score. Kevin Huerter returned to the starting lineup and finished with 4 points, but did add 5 assists and 5 rebounds. Kevin played hard, but his shot wasn’t falling. Trey Lyles also gave the Kings good minutes, despite scoring just 6 points. He also added 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and lots of tough defensive effort. Alex Len chipped in 6 points. No other Kings scored.
It was a far from perfect game, but despite the rough start it was nice to see the Kings recover their composure and handle business. Hopefully this win can help get them back on track moving forward.
