Brown said Kings fans ‘deserve better’ after loss to Pacers first appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – Ten days ago the Kings were there riding a three-game winning streak and appear ready to stamp themselves as contenders in the NBA’s Western Conference.
Four consecutive losses later – all at Golden Center 1 – The vibe in the state capital is very different.
Instead of the Kings showing that they are a contender, the Kings now look more like a team that will struggle to just get to the NBA playoffs, similar to the situation they faced last season.
Sunday’s 122-95 home loss to the Indiana Pacers was just a new reaction.
The Pacers entered the day with a sub-.500 record and were the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed, yet they easily handled the Kings.
“Their speed, whether it’s full court or half court, is at a high level,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “We’re always one step or at least half a step behind them when you’re just trying to defend them in the second half.”
Even though it’s three days before Christmas, it’s hardly the kind of effort and production we’d expect from a team that still sees itself as a legitimate competition contender.
After a slow, see-through first half, the Kings just held their own in the second half. The Pacers poured in 70 points over the final two quarters and cruised to a 27-point victory, Sacramento’s worst loss of the season.
That came on the heels of the Kings’ one-point loss to the Denver Nuggets followed by back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers.
If they draw a win against the Nuggets, share two games with the Lakers and then perform at home against the Pacers, the outlook for the Kings will be much more hopeful and brighter than it is now.
The game got worse on Sunday as fans at Golden Center 1 repeatedly booed the Kings throughout the second half.
“Definitely the fans deserve better than what we showed today,” Brown said. “When you look in the mirror you want to say that you leave it all on the floor and you try to play the right way. It’s understandable why the fans let us have it. “
Brown remains confident that the situation is fixable, albeit with a few tweaks needed here and there. The Kings coach jumbled up his rotations a few times against the Pacers in hopes of a spark, but the changes didn’t produce the expected results.
“This is small,” Brown admitted. “We’ve had other tough times. But one thing I firmly believe is if things are going well, you can’t get too high. In this league, it will change in a heartbeat. Like, if something isn’t good, it will change, so don’t underestimate it.”
No one knows that perhaps better than Malik Monk.
The veteran guard didn’t have a winning season during his first four NBA seasons in Charlotte then spent a devastating losing season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
What the Kings are doing now is essentially a speed bump compared to what Monk has gone through in the past. He’s drawing on those experiences as he tries to help Sacramento navigate through its current funk.
“We’ll have a big half and then we’ll go back to one-pass shots, no-pass shots, things like that,” Monk said when asked what the problems looked like. “We just have to keep moving the ball, and I feel like that’s contagious.”
There has been talk of a possible connection between Brown and his staff and the players in the Kings locker room.
No one has publicly addressed that issue, but Brown remains confident in the approach the coaching staff has taken.
“We’ve been doing it for almost 2 ½ years now, and we’ve been doing it at a pretty high level,” Brown said. “That’s why I’m going to continue to preach it and try to make a little bit of correction here, a little bit of correction there and keep looking for someone to step up.
“I can’t sit back and let something snowball and say it’s going to be okay, because we all want more than this. The truth is, the fans definitely deserve more. “
