SACRAMENTO – In this, the most inconsistent of seasons on so many fronts, the one constant for the Kings has been their ability to stick together.
In spite of the few peaks and many valleys, a few wins sprinkled in with a mountain of losses and a seemingly unending rash of key injuries, Sacramento coach Doug Christie takes it as a sense of pride that his squad hasn’t yet fractured and splintered into players having their own agenda.
“That was my message to them tonight was, you know, family things,” Christie said after the Kings got flushed by the Denver Nuggets 136-105 on Thursday. “You go through a lot of different ups and downs and bumps and experiences and all these different things. But the one thing that is the constant is that in family we stay together and we lock arms and we go out and we compete at a high level, we fight for each other.”
The results haven’t been showing up, and for the first few minutes against the Nuggets the Kings didn’t put up much of a fight at all.
Sacramento allowed Denver to score 41 points in the first quarter, 77 in the first half then cruise to an easy win.
Considering the Kings were without Domantas Sabonis, Dennis Schröder and Zach LaVine, that was a predictable outcome. Yet this was pretty much the same team that beat the Nuggets almost two weeks ago in Denver, albeit Schroder and LaVine played in that one.
All three men sat out Thursday’s game, and given the one the night started, it could have turned a lot more ugly than it did.
Although there’s no moral victories in losses, though, the fact that the Kings insist they remain united is at least something to hold onto in an otherwise lost season.
“Togetherness, it’s crazy,” Malik Monk said. “We’re good. It’s just on the court we have a few slip-ups then we let it get trickled down and we have losses like tonight.”
There’s also nearly two months until the trade deadline, so the Kings’ roster – at least as of now – is the one they’ll have to work with the rest of the way.
“(Us) in the locker room, we’re gonna be playing with each other until the deadline happens so that’s something we look at,” Monk said. “We know we’re gonna be here so that’s how we look at that’s how we look at it.”
For Christie, he’s seen this type of attitude from his players for most of the season. The results haven’t always gone the right way but the attitude and spirit have.
“We have to make sure that we are locked in,” Christie said. “I believe the family aspect of what we are building here in Sacramento, that part is the rough and the bumpy part, but you have to go through that in life. If it was easy, then everybody would do it. But that’s just not the case.
“So understanding that in staying together through that … you’re positive, like, ‘Where we headed? We’re headed in the right direction. We’re doing the right thing in practice.’ We are transferring what we’re practicing to the game. Tonight that didn’t happen.”
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