Kings Under Review: Sacramento bullied by veteran Clippers at Staples Center

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It's not the way the Sacramento Kings hoped to finish the road trip. They flew to Los Angles with a chance of returning home 3-3 on their season-long six-game swing across the country. With their disappointing effort against the Clippers resulting in a 122-108 defeat, a .500 trip was lost.

After nearly two weeks away, the Kings flew home following the game to regroup and prepare for a long homestand. They'll have two days to get acclimated back to their regular surroundings before facing off with the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday afternoon.

The Kings finished the road trip 2-4 to fall back to 25-25 on the season. Here are the positives and the negatives from the loss.

NEGATIVE

Bullied 

The Clippers are a veteran squad and they got physical with the Kings from the jump.

Patrick Beverley and Avery Bradley tried to push around Sacramento's guards, but De'Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic made adjustments. 

Motrezl Harrell was a handful on the blocks, as was two-way player Jonathan Motley and the Kings had no answer.

Los Angeles gummed up the Kings' offense, beat them on the boards and dropped in 122 points. They were the aggressor from the opening tip and the Kings couldn’t handle their physicality.

NEGATIVE

Harrell's Energy

Dave Joerger is still waiting for someone to put a body on Harrell.

The 25-year-old big outmuscled the Kings in the post, scoring 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting. He grabbed seven rebounds, including five offensive boards. Joerger tried different looks on the 25-year-old big, but when the game was on the line, no one could keep him away from the basket.

Sacramento is a young team. They have players that are still growing into their bodies. They have to figure out how to match a player like Harrell’s energy or they’ll keep giving up big games

POSITIVE

Usual Suspects

Fox, Bogdanovic and Hield. Fox, Bogdanavic and Hield. Fox Bogdanovic and Hield.

The Kings' trio continues to put up big numbers night in and night out. Fox is the slasher, Bogdanovic is the creator and Hield is the sharpshooter.

Against the Clippers, Fox took the lead for long stretches, finishing the night with 21 points, four rebounds and three assists. Bogdanovic got it going late, scoring 19 points despite shooting just 1-of-7 from behind the arc. Hield finally got a 3-pointer to fall against the Clippers after missing 13 combined attempts in the first two matchups. Hield finished the night with 16 points and five assists. 

Joerger came into the season not knowing what to pencil in from anyone on his roster. 50 games into the year, Sacramento has this threesome to count on.

[RELATED: Fox, Hield reportedly heading to All-Star Weekend]

POSITIVE/NEGATIVE

Shooting Shumpert 

The veteran has been in a funk for nearly a month, but coming into Sunday he'd hit a new low. Iman Shumpert came in 1-for-16 over the previous two starts, including 0-for-8 from behind the 3-point line.

After missing the first two field goal attempts of the game for Sacramento, Shumpert finally got one to fall. And then he kept shooting it. 

Shumpert finished the game with 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field and 3-of-9 from long range. 

While the veteran found his offensive game, he ran a team worst -25 for the game in the plus/minus category. 

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