Last night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers might just have been the Kings’ worst game of the season. Without Deandre Ayton and Shaedon Sharpe, Portland still steamrolled the Kings to get the 130-113 win, handing the Kings their seventh loss of the season by at least 15 points.
Coming into the game, the Trail Blazers averaged 108 points per game and 42 points in the paint. Usually, they encounter teams that actually play defense, however. The Kings didn’t really do that last night and allowed 60 points in the paint.
Offensively, it didn't look quite as bad, but also not very good. De’Aaron Fox recorded 43 points, hitting 7 threes, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. Domantas Sabonis pitched in 34 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 assists. Otherwise, there wasn’t much going on.
When your two All-Stars combine for 77 points, you should not lose the game, but the Kings did just that. Mike Brown criticized his team’s effort defensively, saying that Fox and Sabonis were just as much at fault as everyone else.
“We turned it into a track meet…We weren’t focused really on trying to slow them down, and they never felt us the entire night,” he told reporters in his postgame interview.
This loss was on everyone, but let’s look at three Kings who were massive disappointments last night.
3. Keegan Murray
Before last night, Keegan Murray was playing really well. He averaged around 20 points per game for the month of December, scoring double-digits in all games except for one.
Last night, he couldn’t buy a bucket, putting together a stat line of 5 points, shooting 2-11 from the field, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block. Everyone has bad games, even the league’s brightest stars.
It is especially disappointing to see Murray have a bad game, however, when he was playing so well before and in a game the Kings really should have won.