On Saturday, the Sacramento Kings pulled off a big win against a Western Conference adversary (the Houston Rockets), despite not having their best player for almost all of the game.
A big reason why the Kings were able to survive against such a worthy opponent without Domantas Sabonis is because they had Jonas Valanciunas (one of their three trade deadline additions) there to fill in his place.
In nearly 30 minutes of action, Valanciunas posted a box score line of 15 points, 14 rebounds, four steals, and three blocks. The Kings were a +6 in his minutes. That is a great performance and one the Kings desperately needed, given the circumstances. However, if the Kings keep leaning on Valanciunas like this, they will learn something the New Orleans Pelicans (his former team) knows all too well.
Jonas Valanciunas struggles in the playoffs
Let's get one thing straight: Valanciunas is a good basketball player. You don't make it over a decade in the best basketball league on the planet if you are not.
For Valanciunas, his blend of power and touch around the rim make him a great paint scorer and rebounder. He's also incredibly durable. From 2022-24, Valanciunas played 161 of 164 possible regular season games.
Those qualities make Valanciunas a great regular season player. In the regular season, you get to play all 29 other teams. So, Valanciunas can use his strength and skill to take advantage of teams with weaker defensive personnel, and since he's very reliable, you can almost always count on him being available to play.
Unfortunately, Valanciunas also has some major flaws, and in the playoffs, since you only usually play really good teams, weaknesses get exploited.
Valanciunas is not a strong defender (1st percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus, per Dunks & Threes), and he can't space the floor (27.6% from three). So, opposing teams can hunt him on defense while also ignoring him when the ball isn't in his hands on offense.
Last postseason, in a series that was supposed to be a good matchup for Valanciunas because Oklahoma City Thunder struggled on the glass, the veteran big was limited to just 22.5 minutes per game, and the Pelicans were a -17.9 per 100 possessions in his minutes.
The bottom line here is not to take away the joy that stems from his impressive showing on Saturday. Rather, it is to taper expectations. Valanciunas is a very useful regular season player, but the Kings better be careful of how much they ask him to do in the playoffs.