The Sacramento Kings recently pulled off an unexpected victory over the Knicks to extend their winning streak to three. As great as that is, an old Kings' pattern reared it's ugly head when New York staged a fourth quarter comeback, and nearly turned a Sacramento win into a loss.
Outside of a brief period in the first quarter, the Kings led for the vast majority of the game. It was nice to see because that scenario doesn't happen very often. On the rare occasions that it does, Sacramento often ends up dropping the ball, sometimes literally, in the second half.
The Kings have a bad habit of playing well in the first half, then snatching a loss from the jaws of victory in the back half. Their biggest enemy is the fourth quarter, the traditional time when Sacramento loses steam and their opposition takes the game over to get the win.
Even in games that the Kings ultimately win, this still comes up. Against the Knicks, the Kings were up 96 to 76 by the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, the Knicks staged a comeback and won that quarter 25 to 16. The final score was 112 to 101, but that's probably closer than it should have been.
Once again, the Kings have to play full 48 minutes every game
Time and time again, Sacramento takes their foot of the gas at some point in the second half and often lose because of it. Had Jalen Brunson not gone out injured in the first quarter, that fourth quarter collapse might have played out differently, if the Knicks weren't already in charge.
This was a great win and there's no need to diminish that. Yet, the Kings' full 48 issue keeps coming up. It might be because of veterans DeMar DeRozan, Precious Achiuwa, Zach LaVine, and Russell Westbrook. They played an average of 37.3 minutes each, with DeRozan coming in at 41 minutes.
There's no question that they played well, and defintely won this game. They were also obviously gassed by the time the fourth quarter rolled around. Doug Christie loves to lean hard on his veterans, but getting younger players some more minutes might help keep the vets fresher down the stretch.
It seems weird to question what's working after three straight wins for the first time this season, but a pattern is a pattern. And it's one that has hurt the Kings quite recently in several losses. Sacramento needs to play a full game every time, and not let it fall apart in the back half if they want more wins.