3 Players who failed to step up with the Kings’ season on the line

1. Trey Lyles

On paper, Trey Lyles is the perfect role player for the Kings. He is big and physical and can shoot the three. For most of the season, he was the only reliable bench player behind Malik Monk. 

Last night, the Kings needed all of that from him. They needed Lyles to bring some fight off the bench, battle defensively, and hit some threes. Especially the shooting would have been big with Huerter and Monk sidelined. 

Keon Ellis does not have the same pull on defenses as Huerter, and Davion Mitchell is not the same kind of explosive scorer off the bench as Monk. Lyles should have helped Mitchell and the rest of the team much more than he did. 

The Pelicans had three bench players who scored in double-digits. Sacramento, meanwhile, had Mitchell, who scored 10 points. Other than that, the bench was pretty much not present and a lot of that is on Lyles. Alex Len and Sasha Vezenkov are fringe rotation players and not the guys you would expect to step up with the season on the line. Lyles is. 

He only took one shot, however, and finished the game with 3 rebounds and 2 turnovers in 13 minutes of playing time.