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The Kings head into Sunday’s matchup with the Phoenix Suns at 5-4 on the season. They’ve played competitive basketball throughout the first three weeks of the season with their wins coming by an average of 10.8 points and their losses by just 4.5 points per game. 

Phoenix is playing incredible basketball to open the season and is the toughest challenge the Kings will face to date. At 8-1, the Suns have found ways to win in crunch time. They have a predicted record of just 5-4 and they have just one win by double figures on the season.

The Suns were dealt a huge blow on Saturday when it was revealed that future hall of famer Kevin Durant will miss a minimum of two weeks with a left calf strain. In his 18th NBA season, the 36-year-old Durant is averaging 27.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists in nearly 39 minutes per game. 

With Durant sidelined, the focus shifts to Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, who are both off to solid starts for Phoenix. This should be a good matchup of two high level veteran Pacific division foes.

While the Kings aren’t missing a star, they do have a few pending issues that they’ll need to deal with.

While De’Aaron Fox’s injured left pinky has never appeared on the NBA’s injury report, it’s clearly a bigger problem than the team is letting on. Fox injured the finger early in training camp and has the digit taped to his ring finger during games.

Through the first nine games, Fox is shooting 47.9 percent from the field, but just 30 percent from behind the arc. Nine games is a small sample size, especially when you factor in Fox’s 0-for-11 performance against the Raptors in the sixth game of the season. If you remove that one performance, Fox is shooting 36.7 percent from three, which is in line with the 36.9 percent he shot from deep last season. 

Where the injury appears to hamper Fox the most is when it comes to handling the ball. Again, it’s important to consider the sample size, but last season, Fox had a usage rate of 31 percent with an assist rate of 25.2 percent and a turnover rate of 10.2 percent. Early in this campaign, Fox’s usage rate is down slightly at 29.2, but his assist rate has dropped to 19.5 percent and his turnover rate has ballooned to 16.5 percent. 

“It is what it is, I can’t really do much about it,” Fox said. “I’m not going to have a month off or anything. I’m able to play, so I’m out there.”

What do all of these numbers mean? Fox has the ball in his hands near the same volume as he did last season, but his assist numbers are down 1.3 per 36 minutes and his turnovers have spiked from 2.6 per 36 last season to 4.0 this year. 

Again, we don’t have an official determination on what Fox’s injury is, but he has hinted that it is a ligament issue and would require him to miss a month or more to recover. It is possible that the injury will require surgery and if he chooses to forgo that procedure during the season, he could battle this injury long term. 

This isn’t ideal, especially for a primary scorer and ball handler. On a positive note, Fox has been very good on the defensive end. He currently ranks 10th in the league in steals at 1.9 per game and second in deflections at 3.6 per game. 

One of the reasons that Fox’s assist rate is lower than typical is due to the fact that the Kings are struggling from behind the 3-point line. As we mentioned above, Fox is part of the problem with the long range shooting, but almost every Kings regular is shooting below their expected rate.

After a 3-for-26 performance from deep in the loss to the Clippers on Friday, Sacramento is now hitting just 30.7 percent from behind the arc, which ranks 29th in the league. Last season the Kings shot 36.6 percent from deep, which ranked 16th overall in the NBA.

“We have a lot of guys that are just shot faking and trying to drive and everybody is sitting in the paint,” head coach Mike Brown said after Friday’s loss. 

In their five wins this season, the Kings are shooting 32.9 percent from three. In their four losses, that number dips to 28.1 percent. 

A career 38.4 percent shooter from three, Keegan Murray is currently shooting 28.1 percent from three on 6.3 attempts per game. Malik Monk is hitting 28.6 percent on 4.7 attempts, down from his career mark of 35.5 percent. Kevin Huerter is down to 33.3 percent on 5.6 attempts and Trey Lyles is currently shooting 22.2 percent on three attempts per game. 

“Most of our team are historically good shooters,” Fox said. “Obviously guys go through slumps and that sort, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to shoot the ball.”

Not only are they not making their 3-point shots, the Kings are attempting just 33.3 deep shots per game (23rd in the NBA), down from the 39.3 attempts per game (3rd in the NBA) they took a season ago. As much as the make percentage being low hurts, the reduction in attempts has struck a chord with head coach Mike Brown.

“When that ball hits your hand and you’re open, you’ve got to shoot it and you’ve got to shoot it with confidence,” Brown added. “If you pass up one and then pass up a second, now it’s in your head. Not only that, the defense’s confidence continues to grow and it makes it harder and harder to knock it down as you go along.”

The Kings currently rank eighth in offensive rating at 115.5. If they were hitting their 3-point shots at a reasonable rate, that number would be significantly higher. 

What’s next

Following the battle with the Suns, the Kings will hop a flight to San Antonio where Victor Wembanyama and Harrison Barnes will be waiting. This is the first of two back-to-backs this week for the Kings.

The Kings return to Sacramento on Wednesday to face the Suns for the second time in four days. Brown’s squad will take Thursday off before returning to the court on Friday for a home-and-home back-to-back with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Utah Jazz. The game against the T-Wolves is the first Emirates NBA Cup match for each team.  

It’s a busy week for the Kings with five games in seven nights. 

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