Sacramento Kings vs. Atlanta Hawks: Defense First

The Sacramento Kings fell to the Miami Heat 114-109 Saturday night. They were in control for a majority of the game before falling apart in the fourth quarter and overtime. Stop me if you’ve heard that before.

On the bright side, the Kings are a near-lock to keep their draft pick this year. Unless one of the teams in front of them starts to do some serious tanking, they shouldn’t finish above the bottom ten. Not if they continue to play like this, anyway.

I’ve been largely satisfied with how George Karl has this team playing offensively. It’s a work in progress, as to be expected, and they are playing without their starting point guard, but it’s been solid. DeMarcus Cousins has returned to pre-viral meningitis form. Rudy Gay has been fantastic recently. The bench unit is much improved. Derrick Williams is actually contributing. These are all good things.

But the team is an absolute mess defensively. Both Orlando and Miami shot well over 50% from the field against the Kings in their recent Florida back-to-back. I shutter to think what the Atlanta Hawks are going to do to them tonight.

Before we get into the Hawks matchup, you can find the Miami Heat game highlights below, and our full recap of that game

here

Tonight, the Kings’ eight-game road trip brings them into Atlanta to play the Hawks. The Hawks own the Eastern Conference’s best record (49-13), and are only one loss behind the Golden State Warriors for the best record in the NBA.

But hey, the Philadelphia 76ers just beat them on Saturday, so who knows?

The Atlanta Hawks have no less than three specific offensive characteristics or weapons that have been killing the Kings all season.

1) They are extremely unselfish. The Hawks are 2^nd in the league in assists per game. The Kings defense has a hard time defending one-dimensional offenses. This Hawks team is so dynamic that the Kings are going need near-perfect rotations, and they’ve done nothing to suggest that they could actually keep a team like the Hawks off the scoreboard.

2) A sharpshooting guard. Kyle Korver is the kind of shooting guard that Ben McLemore hasn’t figured out how to defend yet. McLemore is an improving defensive player, but he consistently over helps, leaving his man wide open on the perimeter. He can’t do that on a shooter like Kyle Korver on a team that passes as well as the Hawks. If Korver’s open, they’ll find him, and if they find him, he’s going to score. It’s that simple.

3) Paul Millsap has always been a versatile scoring forward, but he’s transformed himself into a legitimate three-point shooting threat over the last two seasons. The Kings haven’t been able to lock down a ‘stretch-four’ (fancy word for big men who can shoot three’s) in about six years. Expect Paul Millsap to have a big game. It’s inevitable.

In other words, this game could be a disaster. I hope I’m wrong, but we’ll find out in a few hours.

As Always, check back in to A Royal Pain after tonight’s game for our postgame coverage.

Sacramento Kings at Atlanta Hawks

Where: Philips Arena – Atlanta, GA

When: 4:30 PM Pacific, 7:30 PM Eastern

Broadcast: Comcast Sportsnet California

Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM

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