ESPN reacts to Kings debunk the Magic, late free throws by Fox lead Kings past Magic 109-107
All of them by one possession it seems like all of them in dramatic fashion that Kings team has a ton of confidence against the Orlando Magic they made big shots knocked down 15 threes here tonight magic couldn’t get it going from Beyond The Arc they left five free
Throws on the line 13 costly turnovers here tonight but give Sacramento Credit I mean they came in here and stole this one yeah and we mentioned at halftime that turnovers were going to be one of the two things we had to we had to eliminate and we ended up uh 13 turn
Turnovers but for 19 points which in a game like this is huge you know when you’re going back and forth neck and neck with the team all night long but uh you know give it to Sacramento for playing the way they did on the road and
Uh you know tonight the three ball just wasn’t right wasn’t with us tonight well it wasn’t and sabonis is allowed to level people all game but if we have any contact it goes the other way so I I still can’t quite figure that one out but anyway in a one possession game
That’s big a lot of turnovers that way too but uh give them credit sabonis and dear and fox he loves coming here Brian he loves playing in this building he’s had big games in this build at 37 and the game winner on this floor last year
And he goes for 31 tonight yeah he’s just such a good player so good with the ball and he’s got the whole package you know he can step step behind the three and knock down shots he’s got the mid-range game because he can get anywhere he wants to go with the ball
You know look at this play right here I I thought he lost total control of the ball on that play and he and he ends up throwing a floater in and of course uh you know he’s got great athleticism to go along with it he’s our play of
Fitness top performer here tonight with that 31o performance he’s uh he’s been an Allstar and for a good reason 10 of 22 from the floor hit eight of nine free throws 12 points in a critical fourth quarter stretch I think he had eight in a row to start the fourth quarter he was
Really good and uh obviously very difficult to overcome that but you could have overcome that you could have overcome Keon Ellis but they have Keegan Murray that’s why having Shooters is so important because if guy Malik monk didn’t have it tonight yeah but you’re able to go to Keegan Murray as we go
Down court side and check in with David steel and Jeff Turner guys no way they get this basketball game without the performance of Keagan Murray here tonight well there’s no question about it he was really good uh played a year of high school basketball here in Central Florida at DME Academy
University of Iowa he’s a three-point specialist Jeff you know he picked up his fourth foul his fifth foul fifth foul with about seven and a half minutes to go in the fourth quarter and Coach Mike Brown left him in roll the dice didn’t he left him in made two threes
Right after that yep big plays huge huge big in the fourth quarter but he was big all night long 22 points but it was the long ball six of seven from downtown and in that fourth quarter a perfect three of three they run some great actions very similar to what Denver does with
Jamal Murray and joic look at him coming off that screen by sabonis and just able to set those feet and knock those down so we take a look at his final numbers you see there’s that 607 also defensively not too bad a couple of Big Blocks that was early
Couple of assists big time and I thought guon Ellis was really good tonight as well they got great performances on a night but they didn’t get a whole lot off their bench their starters particularly this guy uh Murray was very good for them yeah Murray you sort of
Expect him to have a big game I think Ellis might have been the real X his best game as a pro well he’s played about 27 minutes a game in their last six after herder went out with an injury in those six games he averaged six
Points a game tonight uh he lit up the magic uh from distance he had 19 points in the game a career-high uh you you could say he was the difference tonight in in terms of the Kings able to hold off a very good Orlando team back to you
Don take yeah he certainly Was Keegan Murray five threes in his last four games combined knocks down six here tonight why not uh let’s be done with Sacramento and let’s move on to Golden State with a couple of days off great a thrilling basketball game just a heartbreaker for the magic great job
Tonight guys get a couple of days off get a few practices in next up will be the Golden State Warriors Keegan Murray last game was two for four from three before that 0 for five two for eight 1 for seven 5 for 10 he has had a game
Like this all year but it came UNT he was du there you go was due and great Shooters have great nights like that that’s exactly what happened I’ll tell you who was due how great was it to watch Jonathan Isaac oh man here tonight I mean you think about the last 11 games
And into the playoffs this guy is absolutely unbelievable to watch right now he tied a career high Brian take us through all the phenomenal things that Jonathan Isaac did tonight uh where did you start I mean he came in the game and and we were down nine and he took us to
A tie by the end of that uh third quarter but uh since ational all night long blocking shots playing great on ball defense getting out in transition uh Cole Anthony who finished with six assists gives him one right there uh another another maybe not a block but he
Alters the shot he was just Sensational and then any time he’s knocking down the three ball like he was tonight uh three for four from behind the three-point line 10 of 13 from the floor um just a sensational effort and basically every time time we went down uh by by high
Numbers his effort at one end of the floor or the other brought us right back into the game every single time and listen the starters were due they just they didn’t have it tonight they were kind of flat and and the starters for Sacramento were the difference but
Jonathan Isaac as you mentioned kept them in it every single time it was just an absolute Difference Maker here tonight let’s take a look at our final stats here unfortunately magic come up on the losing end Brian another game where you where you lose by two and you
Left five on the free throw line those turnovers were costly as well and and again it’s becoming a problem just get kind of getting run out of the gym at times these fast break points 26 to 10 yeah that was big and and uh four turnovers in the fourth quarter for
Eight points uh was big also um and uh you know that that contributes to those 26 Sacramento fast break points but you know I I thought in the fourth quarter especially in the last three or four minutes there were too many times where we settled for threes no question when
We could have been looking to go to the you know attack the basket if not score get to the free throw line right you know don’t try to get it all back with knocking down a three ball but get in the paint try to make something happen
In there well including the last few possessions you know you’re down by one you didn’t need a three right uh but you kept going for it and unfortunately came up short got good looks though hard default the looks but unfortunately didn’t go their way and uh the magic
Fall again to Sacramento how about Brian’s baller here tonight what how do you make that decision I I’ve uh well uh ji is obviously the you know the player of the game I got to go with Cole Anthony I I thought Cole was special tonight great effort it defensively but
16 points this is a pretty good line for a a guy uh 16 points seven rebounds six assists 7even for 15 from the floor you know we know Cole has that ability to score pretty much anytime he wants to but you know this little in between game
Is where he’s just gotten so much better as Tack and getting into painting and pulling up and scoring uh he was big for us tonight uh you know with Gary Harris out and then with with uh uh Caleb Houston going down with an injury uh we
We needed every one of those points from Cole tonight and the rebounds and the assists to be competitive well you’re right he was he was everywhere we had seven rebounds and six assists to go with it and we thought for a moment he might have the game winner and he had
Degree of difficulty on that shot tough shot absolutely off the off the and he had a couple of looks late I know he’d love to have those back again magic come up just short here tonight but fought like heck here down the stretch follow B
Caro that got him going over the top of Harrison Barnes but too much de Aon Fox for Sacramento he goes for few seconds left the called that got to Pao you know what did you see on that play and what were you trying to get uh well they did
A great job of pushing Paulo off the spot trying to get him a curl to that basket uh screening our own in and they did did a great job of pushing him off the spot making a catch making a catch a little further out than needed obviously the first game with the
Kings went to double overtime you guys have you guys have had some crazy ones against them just what can you take away from a game like tonight where you know it’s it’s back and forth it’s it’s high high stakes late I mean 19 lead changes
You know tied 13 times I mean that’s the battle we’ve had with them I mean similar to the game there uh with being a being down bodies at the same time but again our the the Poise the resilience the ability to fight back uh as they go
On their runs and we’ll just have to keep looking at these films and how we can learn from these situations in addition to that final shot what did you want on that play before the final shot where you guys had multiple chances what was what was uh
What were you w in there I mean I don’t know that you can get better we had two layups at The Rim missed the three um I just think you know you get great looks at that it just didn’t happen to fall Jamal how do you assess
Um how your team played tonight both the negatives and the positives well that’s one of those ones Josh honestly go back and look at the film you know because the emotions of it right now would say that you know we did some good things and we did some things
That we have to improve on uh you know 13 turnovers is you know is a low number but it still gave up 19 points so we got to make sure we’re taking care of the basketball and the Open live ball turnovers is the ones that hurt the most
Um I think you know depending on what you know what angle you’re looking at the foul situations uh being able to defend without fouling at the right times I think that’s one thing you have to continue to look at but obviously going back and looking at the film will
Be the way to you know analyze it a little more on the F on the foul call against Jaylen that on that sequence that nearly resulted in a back court violation like I think it was the last 30 seconds uh did you attempt to get a CH to get a
Challenge by the time I did he was already at the free throw line was that the uh explanation from the from the officials that it was too late I’m not going to get fine Josh I’m not I’m not going to go into the conversation with him it was four3 for Sacramento in that
Fourth period of play Keegan had three of them did you want to see you know you guys try to run Keegan Murray off the line a little bit more or what was the game plan just defensively for him in that fourth period looking back jumping into his body you know jumping over
Screens getting over screens he hit some tough ones uh there was offensive rebound that came back out to him just finding a way to get to him but again I I think he hit some very tough ones that I think they were highly contested getting to his body a little bit quicker
Um but he didn’t give him credit he hit some tough shots beyond the fourth quarter there’s a 130 run I think in the second second in the third quarter um and went five minutes without without scoring what what did you see during that stretch that that maybe needed to be tweaked and
And eventually did get get did get tweaked and and what does it say about this team to be able to respond and and get back into the game just desite going so long without scoring well it says a lot about our ability to get back and
You know just stay stay poised uh no matter what um I think there was often times that we just missed a lot of open looks and I think that’s how the game started as well I mean we had layups at The Rim we missed we had open threes
That we missed uh so again it wasn’t like we weren’t getting good looks I think a big portion of it was shots were not falling you have a game where it’s you know everyone says maker Miss League when you have a game where you know
Maybe you go back and look at the tape and see that there are a lot of good looks do how do you do you just shake it off and and chalk it up to that or how how do you respond to to something where maybe you’re executing the shots aren’t
Falling and you don’t get the result you want but you’re still doing the right things you have to stick to the process uh I mean this is one of those games that they they the shots were not falling they hit some big ones and we missed a lot of big big shots and
Similar to that the last scenario where you know we get three looks at it three good looks at it the ball doesn’t go in and so our ability to take the process you know over the results in this moment is is something that we’ll have to continue to learn from
Coach uh ji had a you know Titus career high of 25 points was really good on the defensive rebounds and uh just altered so many shots at The Rim can you just talk a little bit about his his play tonight and what you saw from him I
Thought he was great I thought he did a great job defensively uh you know obviously finding areas on the floor they were finding him for his wide open shots did a great job on the glass uh just played with a a level of intensity and energy uh that we needed on both
Ends you went away from Wendell in the fourth quarter what what led to that was just Jonathan Isaac or what led to not going with Windell late I think we just asked that question is you know how great ji was playing I think you got to
Go with the Rhythm and the flow of the game in those moments and that’s what what it was for the you know for tonight coach how is uh how’s Caleb doing first of all you talk about U also uh Paulo’s ability again to battle back
After a slow start I I think that’s the thing that you know he’s continuing to do you know recognizing how teams are playing him they mixed the defenses up uh did a did a good a good job of just trying to find open spots open looks uh
Passing the basketball I mean finding a way to get 27 assists tonight uh for as a team um if you drop a couple more you know shots then you have more more assists but uh Caleb I think is going to be reevaluated tomorrow just a sore ankle coach you’ve got three days until
Your next game how appreciative are you that you get this time off after a loss like this that’s great I mean the guys get be able to recover well uh as hard as we play we got to make sure that we cover recover the right way and be ready to Spee Spe e for changee fore speee Fore speee okay Speee speeech foreign speech for foree spee Spe foree speech Speech fore speech spee Foreign go I te fore spee fore keep Jo spe for for For s
ESPN reacts to Kings debunk the Magic, late free throws by Fox lead Kings past Magic 109-107
