In the Sacramento Kings’ last performance against the Chicago Bulls, they showed everyone that they still have a long way to go before achieving their goals.
The month of November was productive for the Sacramento Kings, despite having to face obstacles along the way. Without the services of their two young stars in De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley, the purple and white remained competitive against any team they faced which made them remain relevant in the playoff picture.
Now that the December schedule is here, which contains a lot of winnable games for the Kings, they have the chance to make their way into the top eight of the West entering 2020. Unfortunately, the Kings started December slow as they lost their first game to the Chicago Bulls.
Kings Became The Kangz
It was a game that the Kings should have won. They played well in the first 10 minutes of action as they got easy shots on offense and defensively took advantage of the Bulls’ lack of execution. But once the Kings started to fizzle out, the Bulls became hot. The Kings’ shot selection suddenly was poor and their discipline on defense was not any better.
It was not until the later stages of the game when the Kings woke up. But at that time, the Kings already dug themselves a big hole, resulting in a 113-106 loss.
The Problem With Sacramento
After enduring turmoil to begin the season, it seemed like the Kings were on the come up. But their home loss to Chicago shows that the team possesses the same trait as their teams in the past did.
A great quality that the Kings hold is that they can beat any team on any given night. They have shown they can compete with contending teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, and Boston Celtics. But at the same time, the Kings also have shown the capability to lose to any team like they showed Monday night.
For the Kings to not only become a playoff team but a championship contender one day, they need to be more consistent by the game. It does not matter who the opponent is, Sacramento needs to dial in and play with the same effort game in and game out.
If the Kings remain to be competitive against the top-tier teams in the league while beating their inferior opponents, they will start to make more progress in their rebuild and eventually make the postseason.
The Kings have a handful of tough opponents this month, but also have a good number of winnable games too. This month of basketball could either get the purple and white back in the playoff picture or dig themselves a huge hole going into the new year.