For much of the Sacramento Kings' Tuesday night tussle against the Phoenix Suns, they were in the driver's seat. They were ahead by 17 at the half, 68-51, and they still took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter. In fact, that 12-point Kings lead had even ballooned to 22 with 8:22 left in the fourth quarter after De'Aaron Fox made a three-pointer. The Kings, however, proceeded to score just eight points the rest of the way while allowing the Suns to get everything they wanted on offense en route to an inexcusable 119-117 loss.
Both teams had one full day of rest, so this defeat cannot be chalked to an unforgiving schedule. Thus, according to Kings head coach Mike Brown, this loss couldn't be attributed to fatigue, but rather, the team simply let their foot off the gas pedal and became “lackadaisical”, allowing the Suns to inch closer and closer until they had the game won.
“I wouldn't point to [fatigue]. We had the ball in the right people's hands at right time down the stretch. We just got real lackadaisical and or we just couldn't finish. Or we didn't stick with our principles,” Brown said, via Kings on NBC Sports California on Twitter (X).
The Kings head coach also pointed out that the Suns' major adjustment, which was to go five-out with Kevin Durant at center, simply stretched their defense beyond belief. One common strategy when facing the Suns is throwing blitzes to get the ball out of their stars' hands, but Phoenix made them pay by nailing six three pointers during their comeback from 22 down.
“The tough part about it is we had to blitz. We blitzed. When you blitz, you're gonna give up open shots. And they hit their open shots,” Brown added.
Given how top-heavy the Suns roster is, blitzing isn't exactly a bad idea. However, when the Suns go five-out with Kevin Durant at the five, it's always a difficult task for any team, let alone the Kings' 17th ranked defense, to rotate to a spread-out floor.
The Kings had to make the Suns pay by feasting on the interior and crashing the glass, but a bunch of turnovers and inability to take advantage of their size ultimately doomed them in what is one of their most crushing losses of the season.
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