Sacramento outplayed by San Antonio in loss

Despite a late desperation comeback from the Kings, the Spurs took the 110-105 win when the clock hit zero. For the majority of the game needless to say the Spurs controlled the whole entire game. In this game the Kings could not contain Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Kawhi Leonard who all scored over 20 points. Pau Gasol had 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 assists. Aldridge scored 21 points had 6 rebounds, and 2 assists. While Leonard chipped in 20-6-1 of his own. The Spurs had a field day with the Kings in last night's contest. San Antonio is playing as one the best teams right now and are now 6-0 on the road.

For the Kings they were unable to get any flow going on both ends of the floor. It seemed as if they are still getting into the flow of things on offense and the effort with this team was not in this game at all outside of the final couple minutes when the Kings tried to make their comeback but they ultimately just fell short. Don't let the 5 point loss fool you. The Kings defense allowed 40 points in the paint which is very unexceptionable. This defense in the post needs to improve soon, Although in some cases the Kings did in fact play good defense but the Spurs were simply breaking down Sacramento on defense and they would keep doing this to the Kings. Sacramento would also get cut on screens made by San Antonio and that would open up for them to make threes. The Kings also had some turnover issues and the Spurs are a very good time when it comes to running out in transition for points off of opponents turnovers. Simpy the Kings need to play better defense with more effort, passion, and more communication on the floor that will help win more games significantly.

On the offensive the Kings effort and flow was not their although they did show flashes of good play here and there but it was overshadowed. They seemed they were in practice just going through the motions and not playing hard enough to put it in simple terms. Outside of DeMarcus Cousins the starting lineup did not play well at all. Arron Afflalo shot just 3/8 from the field. Kosta Koufos only managed to score one point and was 0/4 from the field and was missing some hook shots and had troubles catching the ball and rebounding it as well. Ty Lawson didn't play well either and failed to dish out an assist. Also, Rudy Gay shot a dismal 3/11 from the field for 11 points. To add in to this I did find that Koufos and Lawson and some others had struggles with the spacing on the floor as well. The starting lineup failed to live up to good play in this game. Next time out for the Kings I except Head Coach Dave Joerger to replace Ty Lawson and Kosta Koufos in the starting line up.

Even though were negatives in this game there were some positives. The Kings at the end of the game didn't give up and continued to fight through their woes and struggles. But the game is not played for the last few minutes you must play with this effort in all 48 minutes of the game. Sacramento has shown this effort numerous times and this is a good thing for this team. DeMarcus had a solid outing and had 26 points, 17 rebounds, 6 assists in 37 minutes of play and went 7/16 from the field, with about just under half of his points from the free throw line going 11/14. The bench played outstanding and held their own. Ben McLemore had an impressive 14 points, Matt Barnes went 6-9 from the field and 2-4 from the free throw line with 15 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists. Willie Cauley-Stein played well and had 11 points and 4 rebounds of his own. Collison had 10 and Temple chipped in 7. Altogether the Kings bench was able to produce 57 points which is impressive, Also Sacramento out rebounded San Antonio 46-37. They also did shoot very well from beyond the arc shooting 45%.

In the end if Sacramento was able to get a good solid play out of their starting lineup and played better defense along with the great bench play this game would have resulted in a win no doubt. The Kings have 4 games remaining on their 5 game home stand versus good contenders. This roster has the potential to go on a good run but all the pieces need to mesh better together. Which i think they will soon. Sacramento will host the Los Angeles Clippers tomorrow live at 7:30pm PST on ESPN and CSNCA.