SACRAMENTO -- Effort and energy, that is what fans want to see when they walk into Golden 1 Center. Against a quality Memphis Grizzlies team, that is exactly what Sacramento Kings fans saw from their young team.
It wasn’t a perfect game, but the Kings earned their standing ovation from the Sacramento faithful Wednesday evening with a 97-92 victory over Memphis. It was the first win at home for the Kings and the team now stands at a surprising 2-3 through five games.
“I think we’re willing learners,” Willie Cauley-Stein said following the win. “Our ability to learn on the fly is pretty impressive for how young we are. So yeah, it is going to be chaotic and we are going to make really dumb mistakes, but we push the pace so much, we’re going to get those possessions back.”
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Sacramento came into the night averaging 122.2 points per game, which ranked fourth overall in the NBA. They were also giving up 129.5 points a night, which ranks 29th in the league.
That isn’t the style of game that fans were treated on Wednesday. In the early going, Memphis dictated the pace of the game and forced Sacramento into taking tough shots. The Kings trailed by as many as 14 in the first half, and Sacramento went to the intermission down 52-44.
“There were times where we over attacked,” coach Dave Joerger said. “It seemed like we were frantic and playing in crowds a little bit. We work on that and that’s what we talked about at halftime.”
In the second half, the Kings were back to their standard mode. De’Aaron Fox pushed the tempo in the third, scoring eight points of his 21 points in the quarter. Buddy Hield heated up as well as the Kings tracked down the Grizzlies midway through the period.
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Memphis showed some resiliency, pushing the lead back to five with a little over a minute left in the third quarter, but the Kings closed out the final 60 seconds on a 5-0 run to tie the game heading into the fourth.
After some back and forth to start the final quarter, Sacramento got out and transition and posted a 9-0 run to get some separation at 89-80 with 4:35 remaining. They made some silly mistakes late, but the Kings were able to hold on down the stretch and do enough to come away with the win.
The Grizzlies came into the game at 2-1 and they were coming off a big victory over in Utah over the Jazz on Monday night. They had Tuesday off in Sacramento and were waiting for the Kings who were coming off a ugly loss in Denver Tuesday night and playing their first back-to-back of the season.
“For myself, I was really thinking of it as a makeup game for yesterday,” Fox said. “I was really bad, the team was bad and today was really something we had to make up.”
Playing against a seasoned veteran in Mike Conley Jr., Fox held his own, but that same thing could be said for most of the Kings’ players. So far this season, it’s been a team effort when the team is in games, and even when they aren’t, plenty of players are contributing.
“They like each, they play for each other, they play hard and they believe that if we play fast, we’ve got a chance,” Joerger said.
Joerger won’t admit it, but he loves knocking off his former team. After spending three years as the head coach in Memphis and six years as an assistant for the Grizzlies, wins like this always have meaning.
The Kings don’t have long to bask in the glow of victory. They’ll take Thursday off and then prepare for the Washington Wizards on Friday evening. Washington will come in sour after being tuned up by the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday by a final of 144-122.