The Sacramento Kings were in Sunny Florida over the weekend playing against two of the worst home teams in the league. So you would think that Sacramento would rebound after a tough loss in San Antonio with two winnable games against the Magic and the Heat.
Well, both games were winnable, but one thing that has been a trademark of the Kings all season showed its ugly head – their matador defense.
On Friday in Orlando, the Kings let an offensively challenged Magic squad do whatever they wanted to do on the court; and the next night in South Beach, the Kings let a 14 point halftime lead disintegrate into an overtime loss.
Ironically, it was the first time this season that Sacramento allowed back-to-back 110 plus point games to their opponents, but that feeling doesn’t come close to making us feel good. These were two games the Kings could had won, should had won, but loss because they don’t how to properly keep the other team from putting the ball in the basket.
It has been a theme all year, and a theme that should not repeat itself if Sacramento has grand plans of being playoff contenders in the big, bad West.
When I say the defense must get better, I specifically mean the perimeter defense must get better. Ben McLemore is probably the team’s best defender on the wing, but he got torched on Friday against budding star Victor Oladipo (32 points) and on Saturday by a hobbled Dwyane Wade (28 point).
The great thing about McLemore is that he can get better, but you can’t say the same thing about Rudy Gay, and although he had two monster games in the Sunshine State, his defense left a lot to be desired, which has been the case all season.
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The awful perimeter defense puts a lot of stress on the Kings big men, particularly DeMarcus Cousins, who has to play the role of mop up man far too often this season, and a role that George Karl must change next season.
The Kings has to learn that playing defense is also part of the game, because their offense can’t get into gun slinging matches on a nightly basis. This is probably going to be the norm for the rest of this season, but the same cannot apply next year.
Defense must now be a priority in Sac Town.