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Week in review: Kings showing improvement under Alvin Gentry

Week in review: Kings showing improvement under Alvin Gentry

Bad loss in Charlotte puts damper on solid week

James Ham
December 11, 2021

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Kings record: 11-15

Kings record on the week: 2-1

Don't let the disappointing loss in Charlotte spoil the fun. The Sacramento Kings are playing better and making strides, although it's usually two steps forward and one step back.

After knocking off the Los Angeles Clippers last Wednesday without Paul George, the Kings doubled down against Steve Balmer's crew on Saturday with the seven-time All-Star forward.

De'Aaron Fox drew the short straw and had to cover George, and Terence Davis had a breakout 28-point performance to push the Kings over the top for a 104-99 win.

Riding high off their two-game sweep of the Clippers, the Kings made it three straight on Wednesday when the Orlando Magic rolled through Sacramento. De'Aaron Fox went from defensive stopper against George to offensive genius against the Magic.

Sacramento struggled on the defensive end, but the Magic couldn't keep up. Seven Kings players scored in double-figures in the 142-130 rout. It was a fun style of basketball, but the lack of defensive effort was a foreshadowing of what would come next.

On Friday night the Kings kicked off a three game road trip in Charlotte. With the Hornets missing six rotational players, it was a chance for the Kings to pick up a fourth straight win and climb one game closer to .500.

The defensive struggles continued for Sacramento against a rag-tag version of the Hornets. The Kings gave up 124 points, but still had a shot at winning the game in the final seconds.

Fox, who once again put up a dominant performance, stepped to the line with less than three seconds remaining in the fourth and missed a pair of free throws. Marvin Bagley had a tip opportunity, but that too came up short and the Kings fell by a final of 124-123 to snap their three game win streak.

Injuries

Harrison Barnes returned to the court mid-week and looked solid in his first game. He wasn't as strong in his second outing, but Gentry seemed to take a cautious approach. Moe Harkless returned this week as well, but only played three minutes in the loss to the Hornets. A new injury to track is the right eye of center Richaun Holmes. The Kings' starting center caught a finger to the eye against Orlando and underwent a procedure to repair a laceration. He is out a minimum of two games, but it's difficult to see him playing at all on the team's three game road trip.

Player of the Week: Terence Davis

De'Aaron Fox is deserving again of the team's Player of the Week award and if it wasn't for a pair of missed free throws against the Hornets on Friday night, he may have even been up for the NBA's Player of the Week award. However, Davis picked up his sixth straight start in Charlotte and he's starting to get extremely comfortable with the first team. Over his last four games, TD is averaging 21.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game on 45.2 percent shooting from 3-point range.

Previous winner: Richaun Holmes

Stats of the Week

6-for-43: Over his last six games, Buddy Hield has hit just six 3-pointers out of a whopping 43 attempts. That's just 14 percent. He's also shooting just 26.1 percent from the field over the same stretch.
11-15: This is the Kings' record following Friday's loss. It's also the same record that the Minnesota Timberwolves and Portland Trail Blazers currently have, which is good enough for a three way tie for ninth place in the Western Conference standings. If play were to stop today, the Kings would make the play-in tournament.
110.3: Sacramento's offense is rolling. Their defense, not so much. After dropping 123 points against Charlotte, the Kings' offensive rating of 110.3 is tied with the Milwaukee Bucks for the fifth best mark in the NBA.
6: This is the number of days off the Kings have had over the last nine days. Plenty of those days were spent on the practice court. It appears that most of that time was spent on the offensive end.

Quotes of the Week

"Winning is winning, I don't care." -Tyrese Haliburton

"I just felt like he was going to make a big shot for us. So if there's any question about it or anything, that would be on me, because I'm the one that decided to keep him out there." -Gentry on his decision to play Buddy Hield in the fourth despite his poor shooting against Charlotte.

"I'm very disappointed because I wanted the ball in my hands. Like I said before, they took the foul and you want to punish a team for making a mistake like that. I missed them. There's nothing I can do about it now." -Fox after missing the game winning free throws against the Hornets.

Videos of the Week

Gentry with some humor:

142-130 defensive battle:
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA)
6:15 AM • Dec 9, 2021

More humor from Gentry:

Alvin Gentry on the media being smarter than we look:
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA)
8:38 PM • Dec 7, 2021

Haliburton on accountability and communication:

Tyrese Haliburton on players holding each other accountable and the team’s better communication this season:
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA)
8:32 PM • Dec 7, 2021

Davis on being a shooter that's not hitting shots:

Terence Davis on his recent hot streak and the difficulty of being a shooter who isn’t hitting shots:
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA)
6:45 AM • Dec 5, 2021

Barnes is back: