It's no secret that Sacramento Kings' head coach likes to lean on his starters hard. He did it last season, and he's doing it again this season. When you compare the Kings' numbers between starters and their bench to what the Spurs did, the problem of Christie's ethos becomes incredible apparent.
Anyone who thought the Kings stood a chance against the Spurs has not been paying attention. Sacramento got their butts handed to them by the Clippers, Blazers, and Grizzlies. If they couldn't even be competitive with those teams, San Antonio was always going walk all over them and did.
The numbers that came out of that 130 to 103 beating are incredibly interesting, especially if you compare the shots taken and the points scored by their respective starting lineups and benches. What you see is the reason why Kings are having so much trouble and how Christie is failing.
Losing by the numbers for the Kings
During the course of the game, the Spurs took a total of 90 shots while the Kings took 93. Those are easily comparable numbers. The difference is in who took them. San Antonio's starters took 56 of their shots while Sacramento's starters took 65. That's a nine shot difference.
It gets even more stark looking at the benches. The Spurs bench took 34 shots and collected 48 points while the Kings' bench took 28 shots to finish with 14 points. That level of efficiency for the Sacramento bench is absolutely abysmal. San Antonio's bench outscored them by 34 points.
Even more surprising is that the Kings' starters actually outscored the Spurs' starters by seven points. If Sacramento's bench shot with the same level of efficiency as the San Antonio bench, the Kings would have won the game by a score of 137 to 130. Those aren't the only numbers to consider.
Time, and what's done with it, matters
If you look at the distribution of minutes between starters and the bench, there's a much deeper issue for the Kings. They had four starters who played 30+ minutes while no one else cleared 20 minutes. On the other hand, only one Spur played 30 minutes with at least two bench guys over 20.
San Antonio did a much better job of managing time on the court, not exclusively leaning on their starters, and empowering their bench to succeed. That has certainly not been the case for the Kings, which becomes even more apparent when you go back to the number of shots taken.
Without question, the Spurs' bench was far more efficient than the Kings' bench. They also got to take more shots overall than Sacramento's bench did. What that shows is the Kings are not getting the ball into the hands of their secondary players when they're on the court.
The Christie mindset
This is what fans have been seeing from Christie as the head coach since he took over. Whoever his starters are get the lion's share of the work, even if it doesn't lead to victories. One of his biggest weaknesses is managing both time and usage between starters and bench guys, and it's a problem.
On the Spurs, the starters took 24.4% more shots than their bench. For the Kings, that difference was 39.8%. NBA teams who don't involve their benches in a meaningful fashion are dead in the water. Depth is everything in the modern NBA. The Kings have it, but Christie chooses to not utilize it.
Sacramento's bench needs work. There's a lot to do to turn them into a well-oiled machine. At the same time, not setting them up to grow and evolve isn't going to accomplish anything. Giving them minutes without purpose doesn't help anyone in the long-term.
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