What we learned as Kings' bad habits return in streak-snapping loss to Suns

What we learned as Kings’ bad habits return in streak-snapping loss to Suns originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SACRAMENTO – Two days after maybe their most inspiring victory of the season, the Kings got into the wrong holiday spirit against the Phoenix Suns and laid an egg at Golden 1 Center, losing 112-100 on Wednesday night.

The game started out brutal, got a little bit better for a few brief moments in the second half until the Suns ultimately prevailed and ended the Kings’ first winning streak of the season, albeit it was only two.

Playing again without do-it-all center Domantas Sabonis and Dennis Schroder, Sacramento struggled to gets much going consistently on offense and allowed Phoenix to have its way in the paint almost all evening.

Keegan Murray provided a few of the highlights with 19 points and eight rebounds, including back-to-back 3-pointers that helped the Kings get within single digits in the third quarter.

Russell Westbrook had 19 points and eight rebounds, Malik Monk scored 15, Precious Achiuwa had 14 and Zach LaVine added 13.

The Kings remained winless (0-3) in NBA Cup play while the Suns improved to 3-0.

Sacramento trailed the entire game but made it close late.

Westbrook connected on his third 3-pointer of the night that pulled the Kings within 93-84 with 8:34 remaining.

That in itself is encouraging.

The Suns led by 25 at the end of the first quarter and were on pace to win 164-64. The Kings showed a lot more fight in the second half, and although they fell short, it was infinitely better than the way the night began.

The Kings fell to 5-14. They were 9-10 after 19 games last season, about a month before the decision to fire then-coach Mike Brown.

Here are the takeaways from Wednesday:

Pre-Tryptophan Effects

The game started about 17 hours before most folks were to gather for the holiday feast, but it sure appeared that the Kings’ players might have gotten to the turkey a little early because they came out as if they were in a tryptophan coma.

Phoenix built an 18-point lead in the first quarter when a soft chorus of boos rained down from the Golden 1 Center crowd. The gap extended to 25 points at the half, then 2 1/2 minutes into the third quarter, the Suns had the Kings doubled up with a 46-23 lead.

That went on all night, as Sacramento seemed a step or two behind. As a result Phoenix was able to get its fastbreak initiated quicker and got to the rack for easy tip-ins.

Missing The Big Fella

The Kings haven’t been a very good rebounding team all season, and things have continued in the wrong direction since Sabonis got hurt. The Suns, who have been marginally better than Sacramento on the boards, continued that trend the night before Thanksgiving when they feasted all night in the paint.

At one point late in the first half, Devin Booker missed a deep 3-pointer that bounced off the front of the rim. Three Kings players were positioned for the rebound only to see Phoenix’s Jordan Goodwin sneak through to get the putback.

Backup center Drew Eubanks started and was decent — 10 rebounds and four points in 14 minutes — but his impact was minimal and he finished minus-12.

With Sabonis expected to miss at least two more weeks, the Kings need to more from the interior on both ends.

Back That (Point Guard) Thing Up

With Schroder unavailable because of a sore hip, the Kings turned to Keon Ellis to handle the majority of minutes at backup point guard, and he had mixed results with six points and one assist.

Monk also took a crack at it and was much more effective. The former Sixth Man of The Year runner-up was more in flow with the rest of the offense and made several clutch buckets in the second half, including a 3-pointer that pulled the Kings within 83-73 heading into the fourth quarter.

The result was predictable.

Sacramento had only five assists on 18 buckets in the first half and finished with 20. Nine different players had at least one assist but no one had more than three.

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