Well, the Sacramento Kings are now zero and four to start the season after getting blown out by the Spurs. That wasn't a shocker as San Antonio is a better team with fewer major injuries. Still, there were some surprise success stories, not to mention some major disappointments for Sactown.
The Spurs walked into this game with a record of one win and two losses, which was a bit of a surprise. This is a team that just competed for the NBA Championship and has both the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and the reigning Sixth Man of the Year. It's a bit of a cold start.
Yet, they probably felt pretty good about hosting the Kings at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio as it would likely be an easy win. And it was, with the Spurs taking the victory by a score of 130 to 103. If the Spurs hadn't been able to beat the Kings, it would have been a huge warning sign for their season.
Sacramento showed up with several key players on the bench due to injuries, no defense to speak of, and a disjointed starting lineup that has no flow. Frankly. Victor Wembanyama probably could have won this game with just a local junior varsity team as his backup. The Kings are not looking good at all.
The good, the bad, and the very, very ugly
Fans have to give De'Andre Hunter credit on this one. He was the top scorer on the Kings, dishing out 24 point while shooting five of nine from the arc. Domantas Sabonis picked up yet another double-double and Zach LaVine had one more 20+ point shooting performance. It's good to see.
The Kings continued their development strategy of just letting Darius Acuff Jr. shoot whatever he wants and hope it works out. He finished with 19 points on eight of 20 from the field. That wasn't great, but he did shoot better from the three-point line where he went three for seven.
It was disappointing to see the rookies and sophomores continue to get both inconsistent minutes and usage. The bench rotations are in absolute disarray, which is causing problems across the board. Sure, the Kings are missing a variety of players due to injury, but that's no excuse.
The worst of the worst was the defense. San Antonio basically got whatever they wanted, particularly from long-distance. The Kings didn't bother closing out on three-point attempts, essentially giving the Spurs free reign. If Doug Christie can't get this fixed, this season might be worse than projected.
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