Doug Christie urges Kings to ‘calm down' after loss to Clippers in season opener
Doug Christie urges Kings to ‘calm down' after loss to Clippers in season opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Kings’ season opener got away from them in a hurry. Doug Christie wants them to calm down.
Sacramento trailed 41-29 after the first quarter Wednesday night, and that came against a Clippers team missing Brandon Ingram, Max Strus and Bradley Beal. The Kings trimmed the deficit to five early in the third quarter but never led, and Los Angeles pulled away for a 121-96 win at Intuit Dome.
It was not the group Sacramento planned to open with. Malik Monk was ruled out with left ankle soreness shortly before tip-off, and Ben Simmons is out for the season after tearing his Achilles in Sunday’s practice.
Christie did not point to the absences afterward. He pointed to the defense first.
“Got to be able to keep people in front of you,” Christie said. “It comes from the pride of defensive intensity, keeping the ball in front of you.”
The Clippers scored 27 fastbreak points, 19 of them in the first half. Christie did not hide his reaction to that number.
“They had 27 fastbreak points, just unacceptable,” Christie conceded.
Christie traced the problem to the other end of the floor. He said the Kings cut the deficit to five, 61-56, but lacked the ball movement to build on it.
“Sometimes we were just letting our offense affect our defense, and it just can’t happen,” Christie added.
His fix is built around patience. Christie said the opposition would be happy to see the Kings settle for contested mid-range shots, and he wants them to keep driving and kicking instead.
“We have to continue to trust the process of winning the close-out, attacking the rim. If somebody collapses, spray the ball out,” Christie said. “Just keep continuing on down, drive, kick, swing.”
The reward, he said, is a better look.
“If we continue to drive, kick, swing, we are probably going to end up with a very high shot quality of a 3-pointer, hopefully it’s a corner three, which is the highest percentage shot,” Christie said. “It takes patience and poise to continue when you look up, and there’s 10 seconds on the clock. Don’t freak out, calm down, there’s probably two more drive-kick-swings in that.”
Christie also tied the free throws to the transition problem. When Sacramento makes its free throws, he said, the defense is set instead of scrambling back, and the Kings missed 12 of them on a night when the Clippers kept running.
“We missed 12 free throws, and that is not something that just, like, popped up,” Christie added. “We haven’t been good in the preseason shooting free throws, so there’s a level of concentration, a level of confidence that you have to have when you step to the line and knock them down.”
The Kings did get a few strong individual nights. Domantas Sabonis, playing his first game since Feb. 4, had 18 rebounds, a Sacramento-era record for a season opener, and Zach LaVine scored 28 points. Christie’s focus afterward, though, was on the team’s habits, not the box score.
Rookie Darius Acuff Jr., the No. 7 overall pick, took a game-high 24 shots in his NBA debut and made five of them, going 0-of-7 from 3-point range. Christie did not mention Acuff by name, but his plea for patience and better shot quality might apply to a night like that.
After a night when everything came too fast for Sacramento, Christie wants his team to calm down and trust the pass. The Kings get their first chance to show it Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers at Golden 1 Center for their home opener.
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