It was a tough night for the Sacramento Kings, mostly thanks to Isaiah Hartenstein. He dumped a massive double-double on Sactown, exposing exactly how bad the Kings are at defending the paint. Hartenstein absolutely owned the Kings in their end of the court, and it was hard to watch.
The Kings have been terrible on defense for a long time. That being said, there have been signs of improvement under Doug Christie. He has pushed his team to play with a stronger defensive mindset. That has made a difference as fans can see the improved effort.
Bringing in players with a stronger mindset on defense doesn't hurt the situation, either. Both Dennis Schroder and Precious Achiuwa are known as tenacious defenders. Plus, Drew Eubanks has been working under the rim, collecting a few blocks this season. It was nowhere near enough.
Hartenstein destroys the Kings
Isaiah Hartenstein was a key factor in the Thunder winning the championship last season. He's a powerful center who is great on defense and can be a huge factor on offense. But against the Kings, he took things to another level. How lucky for Sacramento.
He finished the game with 33 points, 19 rebounds, three assists, one steal, and three blocks. The man shot 14 for 17 from the field and five for six from the free throw line. Hartenstein has always been a good player, but performances like this show how utterly dominant he can be down low.
Teams facing OKC expect this kind of behavior from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who walked away with his own 30-piece. But Hartenstein absolutely dismantled the Kings in the paint at both ends of the court, putting on an impressive offensive display as well as an equally impressive show on defense.
Kings' defense is rough in the paint
Overall, the Kings are weak on defense, but things look even worse under the rim. Hartenstein did all his work in the paint, running through Sacramento's defense like a tornado through wet Kleenex. Sure, Domantas Sabonis was out, but he isn't exactly known for his defensive presence.
This is not the first time the Kings have had issues with this specific part of their defense. It wasn't as drastic a loss, but the Bulls also took control of the paint at key times. The difference with the Thunder game was that Hartenstein owned them all night.
To be honest, the Kings are lucky they only lost by 31 points. What little defense they had fell apart in the second half, and their offense ground to a halt. A big part of that was an unrelenting Hartenstein grinding them down and demoralizing them on the court.