The Handoff – Who Are the Sacramento Kings?
Damien barlings here of D and Casey they’re coming up here at noon a tough one for the Kings last night man yeah it is um well first of all send some love to the Golden State Warriors yeah absolutely tragic that story is tough yeah tough tough tough tough uh yeah it
Was a bad loss um it’s it’s difficult I don’t know what to I don’t know what to I don’t know what to say at this point about this team they’re finding different ways to lose games like in the in the last three games you know they get blown out by Philadelphia they lose
Uh an incredibly competitive buzzer beater uh game against the bucks but a game that they were in firm control of is I I know this phrase is silly but like they were in control of whether they won or lost yeah with one of the most fundamental things that you do on a
Basketball floor on the free throw line and then to watch what happened last night I just shook my head it’s like this is they this is incredible they blew a 20s something point lead in six minutes like they threw the ball out of bounds repeatedly they showed no like
Urgency um they just stopped doing everything that got them that 22-point lead and you know whether it’s mental toughness whether they’re soft whe they’re entitled I don’t know what it is I don’t know what to say about this basketball team anymore we’re going to spend four hours trying to figure it out
Yeah but you know they’re in the playing now for the first time they’ve slipped out of the top six yeah they’ve flirted with danger for too long they’ve relied on teams like the Pelicans losing now you got a team like Phoenix who’s starting to creep up on them you you’ve
You’ you’ve put yourself in a position where you know now you at some point you’re G to have to string some wins together yeah and if you don’t then you’re going to have to win some games that you didn’t I this this this isn’t a team that’s going to miss the playoffs
In terms of the postseason like they’re they’re not going to miss the top 10 right but they could very very easily be a team that that has to win in the playing tournament to get back to the playoffs yeah but if they if they don’t fix something for sure I think last
Night and James and I talked about this a lot and I’m interested to get your thoughts on it last night so much of it to me was a Debon sabonis not being involved late and beat to me that’s where he has to demand the basketball like he has to
Be the guy who says Hey Kevin Durant is a good is like a good Defender it’s not to say that Kevin heran is is a is bad but Deon sabonis can get him into the post and move him he should be able to get easy buckets in a spot where there
Were so many times last night where okay they cut it to 12 it’s like okay King’s get a bucket and a stop they’re good is need a okay they’re down okay bucket maybe a couple stops and you’re good and they just never got the bucket Keegan Murray got a off defensive Rebound with
Like a minute left a little over a minute I was like okay that’s they were up three at the point I was like that’s it okay settle down take time off the clock you get a basket you’re fine it this this sucks to be clear this is
Terrible but you’re going to win this game and it’s fine right and Darren missed another I don’t even think he took he might have taken a three it might have been a long two but Darren you know got the clock down to five seconds took a shot they missed
And wound up the way that it wound up yeah no you need more from your second best player in that spot that’s what it came down to I just think the adjustments weren’t there and like and it can be at some point you have to put on your
Big boy pants as a player and make the adjustments on the court yourself it can’t all be about what’s happening you know with your coaching staff at the moment and like look I’m not saying that Mike Brown wasn’t coaching because he was but if they go with five Shooters and DeMar deonis sabonis
Races down on the defensive end and goes down in the post you’re done you’re cooked It’s Over The Possession is over they’re moving too quick they’re down too many points they’re coming right down and firing and no one is guarding somebody somebody’s wide open because your big ran down waiting for another
Big man to go like fight him in the post yeah and that’s what we got to and then again he didn’t we didn’t see some of the adjustments on the offensive end or again sabonis in that situation go go down in the block get all the way down
In the block and just dominate them it’s not what they do but it’s it’s also it’s not even what sabonis didn’t even try that it’s not that he failed to go down and and go post up he didn’t even go try and it’s like the the mindset didn’t
Shift that they went small and the way to beat a small team is to do this this and this like when a team goes into a Zone and the Kings tried that for like two seconds and like oh no no no no no no no what are we doing here um you know
When a team goes into a Zone deonis simonis knows the first thing to do is run to the free throw line put his hands up and destroy the Zone like he’s a Zone breaker but in this situation they didn’t catch on to what the suns were
Doing the the pace got frenetic and out of control the fans were fully involved it became like a hostile environment where you’re watching a lead slip away they have the moment where Fox is yelling at one official and domos is yelling at another and a guy goes right
Down for a wide open dunk on the other end and Kevin’s like like come on man what what are we doing so there were like some mental breakdowns but I was telling Kyle I like these are games that you can learn from you can’t learn from the Philadelphia game you can’t learn
From losing to bad teams by like you can learn from something but at some point you’ve got to execute it right if I learn F you know I I learned chemistry I can’t execute it you’ve got to be able to execute what you learn and and that’s why that’s why Mike’s press conference
It’s funny it’s haha the the the the screen hey give me the video Let’s show the video that’s fine privately you you had to have a completely different discussion with your team privately yeah like hey that I’m gonna take the fine for that but I need everybody to see
What we’re dealing with Y you in this locker room you need to make free throws and stop turning the goddamn ball over in the fourth quarter yeah and that right there they didn’t learn how many turnovers in the fourth quarter yesterday more turnovers in the fourth quarter yesterday than the entire game
Yeah and domas had uh he missed a free throw in crunch time with with like three minutes left two minutes left so if you’re not executing are you really learning like what what did you really learn from the Bucks game at this point yeah but I I would say that’s one game
That’s one game to the next that’s that’s a three-day stretch that should be the freshest if I cram for a test the night before the the that’s my best shot at passing now if the test is a week away man I might have forgot something
On the way new song came out I memorized those lyrics God knows how long I was on Tik Tok I was tweeting I was watching games I might have forgotten what I studied it was two nights later and they couldn’t execute in the fourth quarter yeah it’s becoming a problem for this
Team yeah it’s not becoming a problem it is a problem eight turnovers in the fourth quarter six the rest of the awful yeah awful really bad my bigger my bigger concern is getting just mollywop by people like stop getting thumped I’d much rather see this where you can
Actually use the game footage the other ones where this team doesn’t show up those are way more concerning to me and I get it they need to be better but you need to be better the the fifth game of uh a five game Road Trip that you need
To be better like against three really good teams I I get that but at the same time like I I would prefer a tight game that you found a new way to lose over not showing up which this team has done way too many times this year yeah I
Guess at least they showed up they just didn’t show up in the last five minutes well that’s it’s it’s great all right hey participation trophy yeah if you’re team that wants to win games if you just want to show up and not be the 2019 or
2020 Kings well fine I’m all for it but if you’re you you you had the nerve to talk about playoffs in training camp you had the nerve to talk about championships being a contender in training camp you’ve you’ve moved the bar a little bit for yourself now if you
Want to backtrack that’s fine backtrack but at this point I’m not I’m not I’m not applauding them for not being for for for not being the 2019 Kings anymore yeah they’re better than that yeah got to be all right anyways standing on business standing on business that’s
What they’re going to do next Dilo and Casey we’ve been The Insider sponsored by JY
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