Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks was not happy with the effort his team brought against a playoff-pushing Sacramento Kings squad. Brooks singled out young big man Thomas Bryant, who failed to play with the right level of intensity. Bryant played only 19 minutes and didn't miss a shot, but the Wizards were outrebounded by 11 by a non-dominant team on the boards.

Brooks praised Bryant at the start of the season, considering he made use of his opportunity last season as Dwight Howard's backup and thrived as the fill-in starter, which eventually earned him a three-year, $25 million deal in the offseason. However, Brooks turned into a critic after Tuesday's 133-126 loss:

“We all get paid a lot of money to do our job and do it the best we can and play hard and have fun doing that and that’s how he got paid a big contract,” Brooks said of Bryant, according to Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. “But we need it every time. We can’t hope that he brings it every time because there’s a lot of good players in this league.”

Those can be considered fighting words coming from a coach. Brooks didn't sugarcoat his thoughts after the Wizards went into halftime trailing by 27 points, then caught up by the end of the third, and let that effort go to waste on the fourth as Sacramento pulled away late. Brooks wishes the intensity would have been there all game:

“We gave them everything they want … [but] that third quarter gave us a chance because we played hard,” said Brooks. “We played with physicality and I thought [Bryant] gave us some toughness, and it’s unfortunate he didn’t start the game that way and we’ve got to be able to do that throughout the game.”

Since returning from the All-Star break, Bryant is only averaging 4.2 rebounds per game and has yet to play over 20 minutes in any of his six games after returning from a right foot stress reaction.