If the Sacramento Kings (6-11) want to improve their record this season from previous years they will need to play better defense because losing 101 to 91 to the Minnesota Timberwolves (8-8) on their home court is not something that can be allowed to happen during a successful season.
The excuses of course are that DeMarcus Cousins did not play and Rudy Gay shot 1 for 13, and those are good excuses. But it was a winnable game by Sacramento, who made the Wolves look like the Warriors with just plain bad defense.
During the fourth quarter the Sacramento Bee’s Jason Jones tweeted these staggering stats:
No fastbreak points, 18 turnovers and the Wolves are up 95-82. That's pretty amazing.
— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) November 28, 2015
This was an ugly game overall and the Kings played with no energy. A high combined score by halftime is becoming the norm for Sacramento with the game 53-47 Wolves at the half. The Kings perimeter defense was poor once again allowing Minnesota to shoot 54 percent from three.
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Ricky Rubio did not play, which was a good thing for the Kings going into tonight’s game. Up until tonight, the Timberwolves lost 16 straight games when Rubio did not play.
Andrew Wiggins scored 22 points and was able to make several second chance points off of offensive rebounds.
Rajon Rondo had 11 of his 16 assists before the third. It’s his fifth game this season with 15 or more assists. Rajon also finished with 16 points.
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The Kings bench showed up offensively for the Kings with Darren Collison, Marco Belinelli, and Omri Casspi combining for 42 points.
Starting in place of DeMarcus, Kosta Koufos had another solid night tallying a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
But these good sounding stats aside, the Kings couldn’t buy a basket in the second half and looked confused on defense the entire game. With the Wolves playing poorly at times as well, the Kings let the game slip through their fingers.
Next: Preview: Timberwolves At Kings
The Kings, hopefully with a healthy Cousins, is traveling to Oakland tonight to face the undefeated Golden State Warriors tomorrow.