Post-Game Notes: What Went Wrong For The Sacramento Kings In Mexico City?

Despite Rudy Gay scoring 18 points off 13 shots, it didn’t stop the Boston Celtics from handing the Sacramento Kings their 13th loss of the season in a blowout 114-97. With the game located in Mexico City for the NBA Global Games, it sure seemed like the Celtics were the home team (Kings actually the home team), as they punished the Kings on both sides of the court.

Notable players for the Celtics were Kelly Olynyk with 21 points and, of course, Isaiah Thomas who again continues to punish his former team by finishing with 21 points and 9 assists.

The biggest concern that fans should take away from this game is that the Kings continue to struggle whether DeMarcus Cousins is not playing or struggling on the court. Tonight was the only game this season where Cousins has really struggled throughout an entire game, scoring 16 points off shooting 4-17 from the field.

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The Kings this season have high expectations for themselves as they are on a quest to making the playoffs this season. If they continue to heavily rely on the performance of Cousins throughout the rest of the year, that is simply is not a good recipe to bank on for developing good teams. They need more players to step up and perform efficiently on a gamely basis.

Another discouraging note to take away from this game was the defense of Sacramento maintains to be lethargic against their opponents. Boston last night had fours players (Isaiah Thomas, Kelly Olynyk, Jae Crowder, and Avery Bradley) score 20 or more points for the night, which largely contributed to Boston scoring a total of 114 points for the night.

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Whether it was players jogging back to the defensive end, or opponents continuing to carved up the Kings defensive rotations, coach George Karl needs to find a better solution to the current defensive woes Sacramento is suffering. It’s going to be an even bigger challenge for Karl, considering rookie Willie Cauley-Stein suffered an open dislocated finger on his right hand last night, sidelining him for 4-6 weeks.

Overall, Sacramento’s defense and heavy reliance on Cousins bit them in the butt last night in their loss against Boston. These are issues that the Kings continue to display in the 20 games they have played so far, and until we as fans can start to see the purple and white win games on a consistent basis these problems will remain present.

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The next matchup the Kings have is tomorrow against the Houston Rockets in the Toyota Center. Houston’s record may be bad at the moment (8-11), but the Rockets are a squad filled with talent. The Kings will need to have a well balance performance to come out with the victory.