The Sacramento Kings were handled with ease on Friday night by the Washington Wizards. Despite the final score being within 14 points, 125-111, that final tally is misleading for anyone who just checked the box score after the game wrapped up.
The Wizards were ahead by 30 points at one point in the game and simply dominated the strong majority of the contest. Specifically, the Wizards took over in the second quarter when they outscored the Kings 40-23 and established themselves as the far superior team on this night.
The Wizards were the better team without a doubt. That’s problematic for the Kings given the Wizards significant struggles recently. Sacramento was outperformed (significantly) by a team that had lost 10 of their last 11 coming into this one.
This happened at home, too. The performance was summed up nearly perfectly by Kings guard Malik Monk postgame. Harsh but accurate, Monk stated how the Kings were simply ‘Punked’ by the Wizards in this one.
Monk believes the Kings were "punked" by the Wizards tonight 😬 pic.twitter.com/3emXtVTO4K
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) December 24, 2022
It’s hard to disagree. While no positives can come from this kind of night, it is somewhat refreshing and assuring to see a player like Monk make these comments. Clearly, the Kings know this performance isn’t going to cut it. It was similar to their outing a few days ago against the Charlotte Hornets and those games should frustrate and motivate players.
Hopefully, we’ll see some on-court developments that support our theory sooner rather than later. All the positives we have seen from the Kings this year get forgotten when they play bad teams and get absolutely pushed around like their not supposed to be on the court with their opponent.
The Wizards bullied them in this one, which goes in line with the term getting punked. Sacramento scored 50 points in the paint as opposed to the 70 scored by the Wizards. It was the kind of effort that isn’t acceptable against any opponent, but it’s especially frustrating when it happens against a bad opponent.
Monk and his teammates will look to bounce back when they take on the Denver Nuggets on December 27th. Hopefully, they can recharge the batteries a little bit and enjoy their holiday before coming back fully checked in and ready to make some noise.
More Kings News
- Domantas Sabonis recorded his second consecutive triple-double in the loss to the Wizards but left the game with an injury late in the fourth quarter. The game was out of reach and there is no update on the severity of the injury yet. It appeared to be his right hand.
- Former Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield had a bit of a viral moment during a teammate’s interview just the other day. We won’t be linking or sharing the actual clip because of the profanity used. To sum it up, he made it clear he does not think highly of the Kings organization. It was a bit much if we’re being honest, and only supports the argument that the Kings were right to move on from him instead of keeping him as a building block.
- Another former member of the Sacramento Kings, Tyrese Haliburton, scored a new career high on Friday, December 23rd. Haliburton dropped 43 points in the Indiana Pacers 111-108 victory over the Miami Heat.
More NBA News
- There will be no NBA games played on Saturday, December 24th. The classic Christmas Day lineup is the next slate of NBA games. Five games will be played on Christmas Day.
- NBA All-Star voting is officially open.