The Sacramento Kings entered this game feeling good after overcoming the Golden State Warriors. Unfortunately for the Kings, they have a new nemesis to overcome in the New Orleans Pelicans. The Kings entered this game having lost all five matchups against the Pelicans, and this game followed the same script. The Kings were flummoxed by New Orleans’ length, couldn’t hit open shots, and were outplayed by the Pelicans throughout. Every time the Kings would close the gap, New Orleans responded. The Pelicans held on to the end, defeating the Kings 105-98
It’s a frustrating loss that encapsulates the season as a whole. The Kings spent the entire year struggling against teams with size, length, and depth, which the Pelicans have in spades. Sacramento got essentially no help from their bench. Prior to the final 5 minutes, the Kings had just 10 points from the bench. 8 points from Davion Mitchell, and 2 from Sasha Vezenkov.
To their credit, the Kings never gave up. Despite trailing by as many as 20, the Kings kept pushing. Unfortunately, the Pelicans just always had an answer. Every time the Kings would cut the lead to 7 or 8, the Pelicans would answer back and push the lead to 13. As much as I was frustrated with this loss, in pretty much every facet, I was happy that the Kings never threw in the towel.
A quick rundown of how the roster performed:
De’Aaron Fox – Get this man some help. De’Aaron Fox didn’t have the most efficient night, but had 35 points and absolutely carried this team as far as he could. Fox stepped up and desperately needed anyone to help him down the stretch.
Domantas Sabonis – 23 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 1 block. Despite some early foul trouble, and despite a terrible matchup against Jonas Valanciunas (19 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks), Sabonis had a solid game. He started the game aggressively attacking, and didn’t shy away from taking open looks when the Pelicans gave him space.
Keon Ellis – Oh Keon where art thou? 0 points on 5 shots, 0 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks, in 28 minutes. Keon was a game changer against the Warriors, but a complete no-show in this one. Keon came into this season on a two-way contract, and in this game was asked to be a starter in a critical game. He did it last game, couldn’t this time. It sucks, but the future remains bright for Elllis.
Keegan Murray – Keegan was bad tonight. He finished with 11 points on 12 shots, and was 2-7 from three. He did leave the game in the first half with a hip injury, and played through it in the second half, but even in the first half he was missing open looks. If he had a good shooting night, the Kings win this game despite everything else. I still love Keegan, but this one hurt.
Harrison Barnes – HB came to play. 17 points, 3/5 from 3, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, drawing fouls, Barnes was the third best King tonight. Sadly, history tells us that if HB is your third-best player you’re a bad team, and that was the case tonight.
Davion Mitchell – Davion had a tough game. He was absolutely brutal in the first half, to the point I questioned if he should play in the second half. He bounced back and hit a couple shots, but still was not great. Still, he had 10 points off the bench, 8 more than any other bench player.
Trey Lyles – Garbage game. 0 points, 2 turnovers, 3 rebounds. Unacceptably bad in 13 minutes
Sasha Vezenkov – The only other bench player other than Davion to score. He had 2 points on 4 shots. The fact Brown even went to Sasha speaks to how desperate Brown was. That isn’t a knock on Sasha, but Brown clearly intended an 8-man rotation that did not include Sasha
Alex Len – Played 4 minutes. I have no idea why he didn’t play more.
This game highlights issues that every Kings fan knew about this squad coming into the season, issues the front office failed to address in the offseason or at the trade deadline. The pressure will be on Monte McNair this summer to make major improvements to this roster. The Kings were the three seed last season in an injury-riddled Western Conference. This year the conference returned to normalcy, and just two fewer wins took the Kings down the 9th seed. The Kings will now have their first round pick in what is viewed as a very weak draft class, rather than conveying the pick to the Atlanta Hawks and freeing up future firsts for trade packages. We can make excuses and wonder how this game might have been different with Malik Monk or Kevin Huerter, but the harsh reality is that we’ve already seen how those games go.
Congratulations to the Pelicans for absolutely owning the Kings the entire season. Here’s hoping the Kings can somehow land unrestricted free agent Naji Marshall this summer. I think the city of Oklahoma City breaths a sigh of relief tonight, knowing that the Kings would have been a worse matchup for the Thunder, but the Pelicans are the Kings kryptonite.
Here’s hoping next season is better.
