The Kings were unable to pull through in a critical Western Conference matchup on Wednesday, falling to the New Orleans Pelicans by a final score of 125-95 at Smoothie King Center.
An off shooting night from the Kings led to a second-half collapse, as the Pelicans held Sacramento to just 34 second-half points.
“In the second half, we just didn’t do the little winning things,” Domantas Sabonis told reporters after the game. “You know, getting back in transition, they had a lot of layups, just miscommunication apart from missing a lot of easy buckets. I feel like it translated to our defense and we weren’t as locked in as we should have been.”
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The Kings shot 39.3 percent from the field and an underwhelming 22.9 percent from the 3-point line.
Down just four points at the start of the third, Sacramento couldn’t get a stop on the defensive end.
And Brandon Ingram took advantage of that.
The 6-foot-8 forward finished with a game-high 33 points on 15-of-19 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting from behind the arc. He also dished out six assists and collected five boards.
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For the Kings, it was De’Aaron Fox who led the team in scoring in the Big Easy. He posted his 10th straight game with at least 20 points, finishing with 25 points and three assists.
Sabonis racked up his seventh double-double in his eighth game with Sacramento.
The Kings’ newest big man was what the Kings for so long have needed to tame Pelicans’ big man Jonas Valanciunas, but New Orleans’ depth was too much for the Kings to handle. All five of the Pelicans starters scored in double-digit figures.
And that was what the Kings lacked on Wednesday -- help.
With Fox, Sabonis and Harrison Barnes doing their part, combining for 59 points, the Kings’ other two starters couldn’t get it going offensively.
Justin Holiday and Trey Lyles combined for nine points on 2-of-9 shooting.
The loss pretty much sealed the deal on any hopes the Kings had of landing a spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament.
And with 18 games remaining, interim coach Alvin Gentry explained how the guys will continue to battle despite Wednesday’s playoff-determining loss.
“We don’t have a choice,” Gentry said. “If we’re going to stay and have any kind of situation where we’ll stay alive as far as the goals that we set, then we gotta find a way to win this game.”
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Fox added to that, detailing how the team will bounce back on Thursday vs. the San Antonio Spurs.
"We keep playing,” Fox said. “We play until the last game of the season. That's pretty much the mentality you have to take. As a team, as a basketball player, you go out there to win every game, to get better every game."