Game 52 Notes: Sacramento Kings Kept Quiet in Cleveland
The Sacramento Kings extended their losing streak Monday night in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers 100-120. The Kings couldn’t fight off the demons that have plagued them for the entirety of this losing streak. Perimeter defense and getting shots to fall.
The game started off exactly the way the Kings were hoping for, a slow start by Cleveland, the only problem was that the Kings got off to a slow start as well. The first quarter ended with the Cavaliers only up by 8, the score was 23-31.
The second quarter saw the Kings exchange blows with the Cavaliers, but they were unable to erase the deficit that they had created in the first quarter.
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The Kings also decided to put their defensive focus on LeBron James starting in the second quarter, this lead to Kyrie Irving getting a bunch of open looks and hitting key threes that would continue to show the Kings glaring weakness, perimeter defense.
The Kings were not the only ones with lackluster defense, the Cavaliers gave the Kings plenty of open looks during the second quarter. They did this knowing that the Kings haven’t had the best shooting as of late, so they decided instead of playing man on man defense they would focus on winning the rebounds. A game plan in which they executed tremendously.
The Cavaliers compiled 24 defensive rebounds by halftime while the Kings had only come down with three offensive rebounds the whole first half. The Cavaliers were shooting 50% at halftime while the Kings were shooting 41.9%. The halftime score saw the Cavaliers ahead, 45-61.
The third quarter saw the Cavaliers come out firing on all cylinders. They looked as if they had made adjustments. They came out playing better defense, taking smarter shots, and they were feeding Kyrie Irving the ball.
The Kings, on the other hand, began the third quarter the same way they finished the second. They looked as if they had made no adjustments and they began to play lazier defense, they had accepted the loss. At the end of the third quarter, the score was Sacramento Kings 70, Cleveland Cavaliers 91.
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The beginning of the fourth quarter showed the resilience of the Kings. The team began to play with effort, something that hadn’t been seen since mid-way through the second quarter.
Even though the Kings were trying to cut into the deficit, the Cavaliers were not slowing down. With 4:38 left in the game, Coach George Karl had admitted defeat and put in the reserves. The final score of the game: Sacramento Kings 100, Cleveland Cavaliers 120.
This game saw Kyrie Irving drop 32 points and LeBron James pick up the 40th triple-double of his career finishing with 21/10/10. On the Kings side, DeMarcus Cousins and Omri Casspi led the way with 16 points each.
The Sacramento Kings (21-31) will be in Philadelphia on Wednesday night to take on the 76ers in their last game before the All-Star break.