The Kings haven’t been able to find the remedy to stop Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets just yet, but they almost squeaked out a win Wednesday, falling 106-100 at Golden 1 Center.
Sacramento lost all four matchups against Denver this season.
Jokic continues to make his case for another MVP run. He finished with a game-high 38 points, along with 18 rebounds and seven assists.
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Not far behind him was Kings’ guard De’Aaron Fox, who notched a double-double of his own, scoring 32 points to go along with 10 assists and five rebounds. The performance was Fox’s 10th game scoring at least 30 points this season.
“I thought we competed as hard as we possibly could,” Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry told reporters after the game. “It’s just a play here and a play there that you have to make when you’re playing against this team … Obviously, Jokic just controls the whole game. He’s a point guard, he’s a forward, he’s a center, he’s whatever he needs to be at that particular time.
“I like the way we competed, after the disastrous third quarter that we had the other night, we came out and competed like crazy and we held them to 17 points in the third. You gotta be able to come up with those last couple of plays to close the game and they did and we didn’t. That was the difference in the game really. I thought it came down to the last couple of plays in the last two, three minutes of the games, and they made them and we didn’t.”
And while the Kings have lost every game this season against the Nuggets, there’s been a common theme to each battle: the Kings don’t stop fighting.
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Sacramento was down by 18 at one point before finding itself within one before eventually taking a brief lead.
After being down 12 at the half, the Kings came out rejuvenated in the second. More aggression and intensity on the defensive end put pressure on Jokic, something not many can do.
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And even though it wasn’t enough to lock down the Joker, there was still a lot to take away for the Kings in a Domantas Sabonis-less game.
With just 14 games remaining in the regular season, Gentry's focus will be on building a culture around the Kings franchise.
"In some kind of way, we have to establish a culture here," Gentry told reporters. "And that culture has to be that every night we compete. I think the fans here will accept this team if they know we're playing hard and competing every night because that's what they're all about. Anybody that knows the fans here, if you're going to go out and give an honest effort and compete like crazy, there's going to be some wins and there's going to be some losses, but I think the fans here will embrace your team if they know you're giving them everything you got when you step out there."