The Kings’ regular-season road finale was a quintessential tale of two halves.
Sacramento came out the gates rolling, with De’Aaron Fox and Keon Ellis combining for 11 3-pointers in the first half alone.
But, ultimately, the Kings fell victim to a steady constant this 2023-24 NBA season: squandering leads, dropping the regular-season road finale 112-105 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night at Paycom Center.
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Sacramento was on pace for an emphatic road victory but ended with a painful, down-the-stretch defeat — and as the playoff push trims down to three games and the race to the top intensifies, the timing couldn’t be worse.
"I thought in the first half, our ball movement was beautiful, and I thought we got bored with it in the second half,” Brown told reporters. “We touched the paint and took some tough shots, got our shot blocked a couple of times, evened off our offensive rebounds.”
What began as a 3-pointer bonanza for Fox and Ellis, who set career highs in total points (26) and 3-pointers made (8) against the Thunder, resulted in the Kings making just 20 of their franchise-record 58 3-point attempts.
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In 38 minutes, Keegan Murray ended with 15 points in 38 minutes, shooting 3-of-10 from beyond the arc, while Trey Lyles, Davion Mitchell and Harrison combined for two 3-pointers on 15 attempts.
“It’s hard when you have a formula of success to go away from it. And then, a couple of guys missed some shots – we had some wide-open shots, and we just turned them down, turned them down and started driving in the defense,” Brown added. “The basketball gods will make you pay if you turn down a wide-open shot in the NBA.
“It’s just tough to see how beautifully we played in the first half. And I don’t care if we make or miss shots, we just played the right way. In the second half, we tightened up and we tried to do too much on our own or we passed up open shots. To me, that was, probably, one of the most biggest problems in the ball game."
Despite his 13 rebounds, Domantas Sabonis’ record-setting 61 consecutive double-doubles streak came to an end, with the Kings center falling two points shy of double digits and tallying a team-high six turnovers.
For Sacramento, the focus now shifts to the final, three-game homestand of the season as Mike Brown and Co. look to finish as high as the Western Conference’s No. 6 seed – that’s if they win out and the New Orleans Pelicans lose their final three games (against the Kings, the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers).
But what’s certain is that if the Kings want to clinch the said best-case scenario, they’ll need to play two complete halves – not one.