Kings hit new low, issue apology to fans: ‘We're out there playing like crap'

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No excuses, from top to bottom, the Sacramento Kings have to be better. After a three-game eastern swing that included blowout losses in New York, Washington and Atlanta by a combined 91 points, the Kings have hit a new low.

“We owe Sacramento, our fans, better than what we’re showing them, like tonight,” veteran point guard George Hill said following the team’s 46 point loss to the Hawks on Wednesday evening.

The Kings couldn’t buy a basket against Atlanta, shooting just 35.2 percent from the field. Poor offense led to even worse defense. Atlanta destroyed Sacramento in the pick-and-roll, turning journeyman Dewayne Dedmon into an All-NBA first teamer for one evening.

Dedmon is no Kristaps Porzingis. But for one night, the 28-year-old center who averages 4.7 points for his career, went off for 20 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals in just 23 minutes of action.  

“Losing is one thing, but we’ve got to do a better job of competing,” a clearly frustrated Dave Joerger told reporters following the loss. “You don’t have to be an a-hole to play a competitive, get in it, get after, aggressive basketball.”

Luke Babbitt doubled his season scoring average in the first half, hitting flat-footed wide open jumpers. It was reminiscent of what Courtney Lee did to the Kings during New York’s 27-point win Saturday.

Once Dedmon and Babbitt got it going, Dennis Schroder took over and the game quickly slipped out of control

“You can’t back down from it, we got our butt kicked and we have to take it on the chin ourself,” Hill said.

“Coach can only coach,” Hill added. “We’re out there on the court. As players, we have to take full responsibility of ourself. We’re out there playing like crap so that loss is on us as individuals and as players.”

So far this season, Joerger has allocated minutes evenly throughout his roster. Rookie De’Aaron Fox leads the team in minutes per game at 26.1, but 10 players average 18.7 minutes a night or more. It sounds like that is about to change.

“We’ve got a lot of nice guys,” Joerger said. “I love em, I love em, but we’ve got to find - I never said that I would split the minutes between 10 guys or 11 guys. I’m looking for guys who jump up and say, ‘You know what, I play so hard you should be playing me. I’m playing so well, you should be playing me.’ And we’re not getting that collectively right now.”

Slow starts have plagued this team throughout the season. The Hawks scored the first nine points of the game and by halftime, it was already a 29 point blowout.

The New York game started in similar fashion with the Knicks scoring the game’s first 10 points. Despite changes to the opening unit, the slow starts have almost become the norm.

The 46-point loss was the sixth worst in franchise history. Sacramento came into the night with a 10-game losing streak at Philips Arena, dating back to 2006, but Atlanta was just 2-11 on the season and hadn’t secured a home win before the Kings rolled through town.

Who is to blame? There is plenty to go around in a drubbing of this magnitude, but the woes so far this season will take more than a 14-game sample size to find a culprit or two. There are contributing factors coming into the season, but eventually, you have to look past a shortened training camp and 10 players with three seasons of NBA experience or less.

This is the squad the Kings will take into battle every game and they have to play better. Be it the Atlanta Hawks or the Portland Trail Blazers who roll into Sacramento on Friday evening, the effort and intensity has to increase or this is going to be a very long season of Kings basketball.

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