Week in Review: Disappointment, chaos reign in the Kingdom

Key losses and trade rumors control Kings' crazy week

Author

James Ham
January 22, 2022

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Kings record: 18-29

Kings record on the week: 0-2

Some losses are worse than others. The Kings experienced that reality twice this week. 

After a solid two wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets, the Kings were staring a potential four game home win streak in the face. All they had to do was take care of business against two of the worst teams in the NBA.

Sacramento was dealt a blow Sunday morning when Tyrese Haliburton became the 12th Kings player to enter the league's health and safety protocols. In addition to Haliburton, Marvin Bagley, who was coming off his best game of the season, wasn't able to play due to a shoulder issue.

Buddy Hield caught fire and kept the Kings in the game, but a Flagrant 2 cost De'Aaron Fox the final eight minutes of the game, which was too much to overcome. The Rockets snapped the Kings' two-game win streak by a final of 118-112.

It appeared that the Kings would finish their five game homestand on a positive note on Wednesday when they held a nine-point lead with 2:34 remaining in the fourth. Alvin Gentry's group has lost in plenty of ways this season, but allowing a 10-win Pistons team to score the final eleven points of the game was new.

Former King Cory Joseph made a 14-footer with 26 seconds remaining and Fox and Terence Davis both missed opportunities to tie and win the game in crunch time and they fell by a final of 133-131.

It was a light week on the court with only two games, but the rumor mill was out of control. According to league sources, the Kings hope to build around the duo of Fox and Haliburton, but it could be a wild few weeks leading up to the February 10 deadline. We get to all of this below in the weekly readings portion of the week in review.

Injuries

On the plus side, starting center Richaun Holmes returned to action this week for the Kings after missing 15 of the previous 20 games due to an eye injury and health and safety protocols. He was rusty, but started to show signs of regaining his form against the Pistons.

Holmes returned, but Sacramento played out the week without the services of Haliburton, who went into health and safety protocols on Sunday. Haliburton cleared protocols on Friday, just in time to hop the team plane to Milwaukee to face the Bucks. Saturday morning's injury report is completely clean with 17 healthy bodies. The only one currently out of action is assistant coach Doug Christie, who is still in Sacramento waiting to clear protocols.

Player of the Week: Terence Davis

With Haliburton out of action, the door swung wide open for Davis to find his footing in the starting lineup. He answered the call in spectacular fashion, averaging 26 points, six rebounds, four assists and 2.5 steals over the two game stretch. Davis shot 39.1 percent from 3-point range on 11.5 attempts per game, showing that the Kings have another high volume shooter waiting in the wings in case a big move comes over the next few weeks.

Previous winner: Marvin Bagley

Stats of the Week

  • 3: Harrison Barnes looked like a man possessed in the first 13 games of the season. He was scoring and rebounding at a high clip and providing stability in the Kings' lineup. In the last 29 games, Barnes has faded dramatically, notching 20 points or more just three times and seeing his season averages plummet.

  • 23: Coming into Sunday, the Houston Rockets had just 13 wins. Coming into Wednesday, the Detroit Pistons had just 10 wins. The Kings lost to both teams in dramatic fashion to fall back to 11 games under .500.

  • 8: Eight points is what separates the Kings from being a .500 team at home. That is the total of the Kings' previous two losses to the Rockets and Pistons. 20-27 isn't all that impressive, but it would feel a lot better than 18-29 heading out on the road for a five game trip.

Tweet of the Week

Haliburton can do it all, including announcing his own return:

Dr. Lydecia Holmes has an announcement:

Quotes of the Week

“I can tell you that for sure, there are deals with the Sacramento Kings that would work." -76ers President Daryl Morey

“Am I worried about anything? No. Do I know stuff can happen? Yeah. But I’m not worried at all, no.” -Fox on trade rumors

"He has that knack of making winning plays." -Buddy Hield on Davion Mitchell

"Everything and all of my energy is on coaching the team. Whatever happens, happens, but I pour all of my energy into trying to get this tea, to play better and finish games like this." -Gentry on the trade rumors following the team's loss to the Pistons

Videos of the Week

Fox on the rumor mill churning:

Gentry on the Kings' epic meltdown against the Pistons:

Holmes on where he's at physically after an extended layoff:

Weekly Reading

Weekly Podcasts

In addition to audio options, we now have the podcasts available on YouTube. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and give us a thumbs up!

What's next?

Kings vs. Milwaukee Bucks, Fiserv Forum, Saturday 4PM

Kings vs. Boston Celtics, TD Garden, Tuesday 4:30PM

Kings vs. Atlanta Hawks, State Farm Arena, Wednesday 4:30PM

Kings vs. Philadelphia 76ers, Wells Fargo Center, Saturday 4:30PM

Kings Beat Notes

We are continuing to build out The Kings Beat, with more exciting add-ons coming over the next few weeks. The Kings Beat Discord channel for premium subscribers is set to go live soon. We'll be upgrading some of the look and feel of the YouTube show as well.

The Off the Record with The Kings Beat virtual Happy Hour part deux was a huge success! Over 60 members of our growing community attended and it went into overtime. We are already looking at dates to schedule episode 3, with February 1st or 4th standing out as potential days that make sense, although the NBA trade deadline could throw a wrench into those dates.

Lastly, a huge shoutout to Jim Espinosa at Brickhouse Industries who created The Kings Beat logos. There is potential for Kings Beat merchandise in the near future.

Thanks again for your continued support!

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