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The Sacramento Kings got blown out of the gym against the New York Knicks on Thursday night, 140-121. Their latest defeat marks their ninth in a row and drops them to 12-20 on the 2020-21 season. It's safe to say Kings star De'Aaron Fox hasn't been a fan of the way they have been playing this season. In fact, Fox likened their play to that of “middle school” basketball and emphasized their lack of effort and mental lapses are not due to coaching.
Via Jason Jones of The Athletic:
Fox said mental lapses, effort aren't about coaching. "(Like) giving up offensive rebounds, like we're going to go back to middle school stuff in practice, like boxing out? There's nothing that Luke or Rico or anyone on the coaching staff can do about that. That has to be us."
— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) February 26, 2021
As if their nine-game losing slide isn't alarming enough, giving up 140 points to the Knicks certainly rang the alarms bells even louder. Sacramento gave up at least three 38-point quarters to New York on Thursday night, including 77 in the first half alone.
Fox may have done his part on offense, dropping 29 points and dishing out 11 dimes in the loss. However, rookie point guard Immanuel Quickley put up 25 points off the bench on the other end, while starting point guard Derrick Rose scored 18 points of his own.
Over this losing streak, Sacramento has given up an average of 126.3 points to their opponents. It's definitely going to be tough to win in the NBA if the Kings continue to play that kind of defense and give up that many points on the scoreboard. This has been a trend all season, with Sacramento playing historically bad defense.
The Kings have missed the playoffs for 14 straight years, and it's looking very likely that No. 15 is well on its way. This marks the longest active playoff drought in the NBA.
This is just getting downright embarrassing for the franchise. They may have found foundational pieces in Fox and rookie guard Tyrese Haliburton, but the fact that they have been this bad for this long is a testament to their struggles as an organization.
