The Kings have had a rollercoaster 2023-24 NBA season – and the fright and thrills of said ride only intensified Friday night.
As the game clock's final seconds ticked down, De’Aaron Fox and Keegan Murray had clear game-winning attempts rim out before guard Colby Jones, who attempted a tip-in, took a hit to the face.
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No foul was called by NBA referees, ending the Kings’ late resurgence with a last-second 101-100 Celtics win at TD Garden and prompting Sacramento coach Mike Brown to sound off on Friday’s officiating when speaking to reporters.
“Fox got a great look, Keegan had a good look on the follow-up and then Colby gets smacked right in the face with 1.7 [seconds] to go,” Brown told reporters.
Brown claims he quickly called for a foul, only for his remarks to get dismissed.
“And you're yelling, 'Foul, foul,' and they say nobody got hit -- it was just physical, clean basketball,” Brown added. “And that's tough to swallow when you see a guy get smacked like that in the face. That's tough.
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“I don't know. Maybe we didn't deserve to win. I'm not sure. We for sure wanted to win. You just got to call the game how it is. I don't know how you miss that one. But we've got to move on and get ready for Brooklyn.”
The Kings, who were evidently missing the 3-point shooting prowess from Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk against the Celtics, are in the midst of a final regular-season road trip littered with inconsistency.
Against the New York Knicks, Sacramento squandered a 21-point lead.
In Boston, the Kings, who erased a late 19-point deficit and earned the chance to win through Fox’s 40-point performance, ultimately failed to keep their second-quarter offensive pace and capitalize on an overall superb defensive showing.
“We were able to fight back,” Fox said. “Obviously, you’d love to walk away with a win, knowing the position that we’re in right now in the standings, but we let that win get away from us.”
Mike Brown and Co., with NBA play-in tournament basketball officially in the forecast after the Houston Rockets’ loss on Friday, are set for stops in Brooklyn and Oklahoma City before a three-game homestand to cap the regular season.
But ultimately, the Kings, with officials caught in the middle, suffered a dramatic last-second loss and clinched a top-10 seed in the Western Conference on the same night, epitomizing the rollercoaster ride Sacramento can’t seem to get off of.