Week in review: Kings struggle, Fox talks, trade rumors swirl

Kings continue march towards trade deadline

Author

James Ham
February 05, 2022

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Kings record: 19-35

Kings record on the week: 1-3

Losses are stacking up. The season has spun out of control. The play-in tournament is still staring the Kings in the face.

The week started with a riveting 103-101 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Tyrese Haliburton went off, setting a new career-high with 38 points, but it wasn't quite enough.

Instead of going for two points and the tie in the final moments, Haliburton passed the ball out to Harrison Barnes for a potential game winning three. The shot came up short and the Kings dropped their sixth straight game.

The effort and energy was good against the Sixers, but that was not the case two days later in New York. The Kings laid another egg against the Knicks, falling by a final of 116-96. Haliburton and rookie Davion Mitchell both put up solid numbers, but the result was a seventh consecutive loss.

Following the loss in New York, the Kings flew home to face a daunting back-to-back against the Nets and Warriors. For one of the few times this season, the Kings played lockdown defense, shutting down James Harden and Kyrie Irving.

Barnes, Mitchell and Buddy Hield all had strong performances as the Kings snapped their losing streak with a 112-101 win.

The Kings boarded a bus for San Francisco after the win over Brooklyn where they faced the Warriors on the second night of a back-to-back. Sacramento stayed within striking distance, but Golden State buried 20-of-42 from 3-point range to come away with the 126-114 win. 

Injuries

Terence Davis had a season-ending surgery on his right wrist this week after sustaining an ECU tendon injury against the Boston Celtics on Jan. 25. He will be reevaluated in three months.

Marvin Bagley missed three games with a left ankle sprain and is questionable for Saturday's game against the Thunder.

De'Aaron Fox continues to sit out games with a sore left ankle. He is listed as questionable coming into Saturday night's game, but he has been questionable and a game-time decision for the last seven games and failed to make an appearance.

On Wednesday morning, a small contingency of local media got their first opportunity to chat with the Kings’ starting point guard following the morning shoot around. Nothing groundbreaking came from that discussion.

Has Fox had an MRI? Yes, and while he pointed out that he is not a doctor, multiple sources have confirmed that he does not have a sprained ankle and there is no structural damage to the ankle.

“It’s getting better,” Fox said. “I want to come back as close to 100 percent as I can.”

Fox suffered a grade 3 sprain of the ankle back in November of 2019. The ankle has bothered him since and according to the 24-year-old, he tweaked it against the Pistons and then started having issues with lateral movement before the Kings’ road game in Milwaukee and needed to shut it down. 

When will Fox be back? He couldn’t answer that question and anyone venturing a guess would be speculating at this point. He is hurting. It doesn’t matter what x-rays or MRIs say. He will play when he’s ready.

With the trade deadline set for Thursday, there is an outside possibility that we already witnessed Fox's final game in a Kings uniform and we didn't know it at the time.

Player of the Week: Davion Mitchell

Last week we decided that no one deserved the award. Despite another rough stretch of games, that isn't the case this time around. With Fox sitting and Davis undergoing surgery, a door opened for Mitchell to move into the starting lineup and the rookie did not disappoint. Over the last five games, the 23-year-old guard is averaging 19.4 points on 48.8 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from 3-point range. He's also posting a 5.6-to-1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio in 34 minutes per game and continues to play stellar man on defense. Opportunity knocked and Mitchell answered.  

Previous winner: No one.

Stats of the Week

  • 2.5: Despite posting a 3.13 record over their last 16 games, the Kings still sit just two and a half games out of the 10th seed in the Western Conference. With the Portland Trail Blazers waving the white flag and trading away Robert Covington and Norman Powell, the play-in is there for the taking. What a prize it is turning out to be.

  • 26: Mitchell's play was a huge bright spot this week. He set a new career-high of 26 points against the Warriors, showing that he might be more than just a defensive specialist.

  • 7: That is the number of games that Fox has missed with a sore left ankle.

  • 5: That is the number of days until the NBA trade deadline. Hold onto your hats, it's going to be a wild week.

Tweet of the Week

Coach Joerger returns to the Sixers bench after clearing cancer treatments:

Haliburton and Mitchell make the Rising Stars game:

Counseling session on ESPN 1320:

Flashback of the late great Paul Westphal:

Quotes of the Week

"I'm not going to dispel something that's made up from the outside. That's not my problem." -Fox on speculation about why he's missing games

"As a young player, I'm just trying to take it in stride and learn from it and learn as much as I can, but there's no silver lining, we're just losing." -Tyrese Haliburton

"I think we did a really good job of connecting, making sure we had each other's back and talking." -Mitchell on the win over the Nets

Videos of the Week

Fox on rumors about why he's sitting out:

Fox on his communications with the front office:

Gentry answering some pretty heavy questions about his team:

Haliburton on silver linings to the losing:

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. Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden 1 Center Center, Saturday 7PM

Kings vs. Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden 1 Center, Tuesday 7PM

Kings vs. Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden 1 Center, Wednesday 7PM

Kings vs. Washington Wizards, Capital One Arena, Saturday 4PM

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 upgraded the look and feel of the YouTube, with the help of The Kings Pulse's Brenden Nunes.

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. With the uncertainty surrounding the NBA trade deadline, Thursday, February 17 is looking like a perfect date to hold our third Happy Hour.

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

Thanks again for your continued support!

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