The Sacramento Kings made the first big move of the 2021-22 NBA season when they fired head coach Luke Walton after a 6-11 start. They were hoping that would light a fire under the team and get them going, as they are looking to snap an NBA record-tying 15-year playoff drought.
Things turned around slightly at first with Alvin Gentry taking over as the interim head coach, as they went 5-3 at the start of his tenure. That success was short-lived, as it has looked more similar to when Walton was coaching the team in recent weeks.
Part of the reason the team has struggled is that they, like plenty of other teams in the NBA, have been hit hard by positive COVID-19 tests. That has thrown rotations out of whack and forced teams to sign and use players for rotation minutes that are on 10-day contracts.
While it has been something difficult to work through, it is something everyone has dealt with. Some teams are handling it a lot better than the Kings, who have lost seven of their last nine games and now have a record of 7-10 with Gentry as the lead man.
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On Sunday night, the team suffered a blowout loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, falling 127-102. It was the second time in nine days and the third overall time that Sacramento got blown out by Memphis.
The last six games and eight of the last nine that the Sacramento Kings have lost have come by at least 14 points. Following Sunday’s loss, things reached a boiling point as Gentry went off on his team for their performance.
“It’s the most disappointed I’ve been in 34 years in the NBA, I can honestly say that,” said Gentry. “That performance was absolutely ridiculous. We didn’t play hard, we didn’t compete. We didn’t guard the ball, we didn’t guard screen and rolls. We didn’t follow the game plan. No competitiveness whatsoever. They basically toyed with us. I’m totally disappointed and everybody in this building should be disappointed.”
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The Kings actually held a one-point lead at halftime, but following a monstrous third-quarter dunk from De’Aaron Fox, the Grizzlies woke up and went on a 24-5 run in less than four minutes.
Shellshocked, the Kings fought back and cut the lead down to 12 early in the fourth quarter, but surrendered another massive Grizzlies’ run that put the game away. As Kings’ guard Terence Davis put it, teams are not afraid to go on the road to play the Kings, instead, relishing it knowing they have a chance to get back on track themselves.
“I feel like teams come in here licking their chops for sure,” Davis said. “It’s up to us to protect our home court. We have to fix the little things. No excuses whatsoever. Once we get on the same page, all aboard, this team is very talented. It’ll come along.”
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The Sacramento Kings are now two games behind the 10th place San Antonio Spurs for the final spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament. They are well on their way to becoming the sole owners of that playoff-less streak if they do not figure some things out and turn this season back around.
