SACRAMENTO -- Mike Brown will have his hands full of film to critique after the Kings’ 115-108 season-opening loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
But that’s no problem for the Kings’ new head coach. He’s looking forward to it.
“For us, tonight, I watched us do stuff in this game that we haven’t done all of preseason, all of training camp,” Brown said after the loss. “… I’m excited to go watch the film, as crazy as it sounds, because I did not recognize the team that was out there most of the night.
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“I thought the guys tried to compete, but they didn’t compete the right way and we lost the game because of it.”
Sacramento made things too easy on Portland. The Trail Blazers went to the charity stripe for 33 free-throw attempts, knocking down 26. Portland had 11 offensive rebounds, 19 second-chance points and outscored the Kings 56-38 in the paint.
The Kings committed 16 turnovers, half of those being sloppy mistakes by guard De'Aaron Fox, who had an otherwise impressive season debut.
"We shot better than them from 3, we shot better than them (on) 2-point field goals, but we don’t do the little things and that hurt us," Brown said. "And then our defense was compromised quite a bit."
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After going on a 16-1 tear in the second quarter to retake the lead before halftime, the Kings took a commanding 10-point advantage in the third quarter.
The ball was moving. Kevin Huerter, who finished the night with 23 points, was splashing 3-pointers. De'Aaron Fox was getting to the basket and tallied 33 points, his most in a season opener.
But momentum halted towards the end of the third quarter, and was nonexistent down the stretch as Portland scored 11 of the game's final 13 points to steal the win.
“I thought we played right in spurts," Brown said. "And we always say, ‘Hey, we want to compete and play the right way for as close to 48 minutes as possible.’ And we probably played, in a 48-minute game, about 15 minutes the right way, which isn’t good."
The road doesn't get any easier for Sacramento. The next four games -- three at Golden 1 Center -- are against teams expected to make deep postseason runs: the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies and Miami Heat.
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With the upcoming slate against championship contenders, losing to the Trail Blazers -- a team anticipated to hang around the Kings in the Western Conference standings and vie for a playoff spot -- stings a bit extra. So does disappointing a sellout crowd of 17,611 cowbell-ringing fans at Golden 1 Center.
But, of course, not all hope is lost. It was one game. A win Wednesday night wouldn't have clinched a playoff berth, either.
And when Sacramento suits up Saturday night against the Clippers, rookie Keegan Murray is expected to make his NBA debut.
Brown has his work cut out for him the next two days, but he'll likely get a better look at his new team Saturday with its promising rookie in the rotation.