3 Kings who were massive disappointments in embarrassing loss to Mavericks

2. Domantas Sabonis

All season long, Kings fans have been complaining that Domantas Sabonis doesn't get the respect he deserves. He just broke the record for the longest consecutive streak of double-doubles in a season since the merger. 

He has been having a historical season statistically. We have all been saying it, blaming other fans and coaches for not voting Sabonis onto the All-Star team. Yesterday was his chance to prove the doubters wrong on national TV against a Mavericks squad that has no star center. 

Sabonis struggled with Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively, however. He kept his double-double streak alive with 12 points and 11 rebounds, but it wasn’t pretty. The points were especially hard to come by, as Sabonis only shot 3-10 from the field. 

That is terrible efficiency, and 10 shots simply aren’t enough from one of your two stars when the team is struggling to get the offense going. We have seen this from Sabonis before. He is not the kind of player who just takes over games, but the Kings needed more from him. 

This season, he has played incredibly well against Nikola Jokic, Anthony Davis, and the Timberwolves’ bigs, for example. Why couldn’t he do the same against Gafford and Lively? 

Hopefully, he will come out looking for revenge in the rematch on Friday.