SACRAMENTO -- It’s the little things. A turnover here. A missed assignment there. At the NBA level, you have to play as close to 48 minutes as possible and even then, sometimes it comes down to a little bit of luck.
The Sacramento Kings have lost nine of their last 10 games, including plenty of opportunities against sub-.500 teams on their home floor. At 13-23, they are scuffling and this is the softest point in their 2019-20 schedule.
“As a team we just have to grow in our maturity,” forward Harrison Barnes said. “A lot of the things we're struggling with are things we can control.”
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In the Kings’ loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night, it was the turnover bug that stung the home team and then burrowed its way under their skin.
“I think we turned over the ball, which led to them getting out in the open court and getting some easy buckets,” veteran Cory Joseph said following the Kings’ 117-115 loss. “Our transition defense wasn’t that good. They were passing the ball over our head and getting And-1’s and whatnot.”
Sacramento finished with 21 turnovers as a team, which led to 29 points for the Pelicans. Many of those came in transition, where New Orleans outscored the Kings 17-14.
“Tough way to lose, but the message and the main learning point is that it’s in the details,” coach Luke Walton said. “Again, it was lost with our 21 turnovers - 29 points for 21 turnovers. That’s a problem we have fixed and we gave really good with taking care of the ball.”
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Of the 21 turnovers, seven were by shooting guard Buddy Hield. After burying back-to-back 3-pointers over a 38-second stretch in the final three minutes of the game, Hield forced the action at the 1:53 mark of the fourth and then threw the ball out of bounds for his final mistake of the evening.
“Little mental mistakes here and there, but we didn’t give up,” Hield said. “That’s one things about this team - it’s not going to give up, but it’s not about giving up, it’s about finishing up and the end result and winning basketball games.”
In the locker room following the game, no one played the blame game unless it was to point a finger at themselves.
“I was bad in every aspect of the game and I was out there in crunch time and just didn’t make plays for us,” point guard De’Aaron Fox said.
Fox struggled in the final 12 minutes, shooting 1-of-5 from the field and he also knocked just 5-of-11 from the free throw line., But it’s a team game and almost every player who stepped foot on the floor had a moment that they wish they could have taken back.
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The 22-year-old showed flashes of brilliance, but the misses at the line seemed to weigh heavily on him. Once the free throws started hitting the front rim, he stopped being as aggressive and the rest of his shooting seemed to follow suit.
“Missed layups and a lot of things that go the other way in other games, for me, it’s just being consistent with everything I do,” Fox said.
The Kings will practice on Sunday in preparation for a back-to-back against the Warriors and Suns on Monday and Tuesday. They will have to regroup once again after another devastating last-second loss.