Can Kings find consistency during four game road trip?

Eleven games into the 2021-22 NBA season the Sacramento Kings are a mystery.

In the span of four days, the Kings ran over the Charlotte Hornets, couldn’t hit a shot against the Indiana Pacers and then showed a little of everything in a loss to the Phoenix Suns.

How does a team score 140 points on 55 percent shooting including a franchise record 22 made 3-pointers on a Friday night and come back two days later to the same gym and fumble their way to 91 points on 37 percent shooting? 

It’s the same team that battles to a 67-64 halftime deficit, gets outscored 31-12 in the third and then rallies for a 28-11 advantage in the fourth quarter on their way to a 109-104 loss.

“We know that we can be a good team,” Harrison Barnes said over the weekend. “And I think the difference between us being a good team and us being a non-playoff team is our consistency.”

While Barnes believes the team has been more consistent this season through the first grouping of games, there is another level the Kings have to hit if they are going to have the type of season they are hoping for.

“Taking that next step is those details, those 2-3 minute stretches that really decide games in that second half,” Barnes said. “How tight are we going to be?” 

Some nights shots fall and some nights they don’t. If you want to be considered a good NBA team, you have to find ways to win even if you’re having an off shooting night.

At 5-6, there are plenty of things the Kings can point to that are positives. After posting a league-worst defensive rating of 116.5 last season, the team currently has the No. 22 overall rated defense at 107.8. 

In the six losses, the Kings margin of defeat is 6.8 points, but they have been within striking distance in the final five minutes in every game. 

The team’s inability to close out games is an issue, but their strength of schedule through the first eight games of the season was the toughest in the NBA. 

So far, the Kings have shown a toughness and a grit that hasn’t been there in past seasons. They also have an ability to put points on the board in a hurry when shots are falling. 

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Outside of the blowout win over the Hornets, what they haven’t been able to do is consistently string it all together for 48 minutes. This is the challenge that this team faces. It’s also the challenge they have faced in plenty of other seasons during their 15-year playoff drought.

The path ahead for the Kings isn’t all that complicated. They have to clean up the mistakes. They need to execute in crunch time. They need to sustain their energy and defensive intensity for longer stretches. 

After an up and down 2-2 homestand, we may learn a lot more about who this Kings team is when they hit the road for a four game stretch beginning Wednesday in San Antonio.

Over the next eight days, the Kings face the Spurs, Thunder, Pistons and Timberwolves. This group has a combined win/loss record of 10-26. The games are spaced out with plenty of travel time and even a few opportunities to hit the practice floor. 

The November schedule only gets more difficult when the team returns to Sacramento. If they have any hope of heading into December with a winning record, they need to take care of the teams below them in the standings, even if they come on the road.

So far this season the Kings have been solid on the road, posting a 3-2 record against a group of Western Conference opponents. Sacramento isn’t a team that can walk into any game expecting a win, but anything less than a 3-1 record or better should be considered a disappointment for a squad with playoff aspirations. 

There is a possibility that the Kings will play shorthanded early in the road trip with both Tyrese Haliburton (back tightness) and Terence Davis (sore left ankle) listed as questionable heading into Wednesday, but this team has the depth to sustain a few missing pieces.

If the Kings want to be considered a serious contender for a playoff spot, this is one of the first tests. Stacking days or looking at each day as an opportunity to go 1-0 is fine. But they need to fill up the win column against teams that are struggling.