SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Close but no cigar is no longer satisfactory for Kings coach Doug Christie.<\/p>\n
After watching Sacramento put up a good fight Friday before being tripped up by a third-quarter scoring drought and ultimately coming up short to a quicker, more talented Warriors team, Christie made it clear his frustrations have reached their limit and there is no bittersweet feel to any of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a theme [of] good enough to win but also good enough to hang in and get beat,\u201d Christie said after the Kings\u2019 suffered a seventh consecutive loss, a 137-103 beatdown<\/a> at Chase Center. \u201cFor me, that’s all bitter. There’s nothing sweet about it, man. There’s absolutely zero sweetness to that. We’re not playing the game to hang in there. We’re not playing the game to play for 45 minutes. We’re playing the game to play for 48 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe mental toughness that it takes in that moment, we have to find that and it’s in there. You just have to go through it and find it.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of the issue, according to Christie, is that the Kings aren\u2019t doing a good enough job of separating their struggles on one end of the court from the other. Mistakes made on offense tend to bleed over to defense, and vice versa.<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s the mental toughness because one thing should not affect another. I get it in life, but in sports you got to be tough enough to say, \u2018You know what, that’s OK. Hey everybody, let’s get together. Let’s lock down. We just need one stop.\u2019 And then go down, get organized and get a bucket, take a deep breath and go at it again.\u201d<\/p>\n