Photo credit: @SacramentoKings

By Morris Phillips

SACRAMENTO–With seven seconds remaining in the third quarter, the chirping from the Kings’ bench could be heard loud and clear, “Foul to give, foul to give.”

But after three passes, Charlotte’s Frank Kaminsky calmly drained a jumper at the free throw line area over Willie Cauley-Stein marking the Hornets’ 100th point on the evening as the horn sounded.

12 seconds into the fourth quarter, the Hornets were made to feel like even more welcome guests as Kaminsky passed to Jeremy Lamb beneath the hoop, where he converted from point blank range.

And so it went for Sacramento on Tuesday in a 131-111 loss, the Hornets pushed, but the defenseless Kings didn’t push back in a contest that for long stretches had the feel of an exhibition given how many open shots the visitors were afforded.

“Teams come in confident they can score,” coach Dave Joerger admitted. “It is what it is, until it’s not.”

The Hornets–one of the NBA’s worst shooting teams from distance–made a season-best 15 threes on 32 attempts, shot 57 percent from the field, and put up the aforementioned 100 points in just three quarters in their highest-scoring game of the season. A win last week in Oakland over the Warriors provided momentum, and this one provided even more confidence for one the NBA’s most disappointing teams to this point in the season.

“We need to carry that over because our offense has not been very good up until this point, up until this trip,” Hornets coach Stephen Silas said. “But things are starting to click a little bit and it’s good.”

The loss was the Kings’ third straight on a six-game home stand that started with the impressive win over the defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers. Since then, the Kings have allowed 111 points to the Suns, 114 to the Grizzlies and now 131 to the Hornets. Consequently, a couple days of practice leading up to Saturday’s home contest against the Nuggets couldn’t come at a better time. The Kings need a defensive presence about themselves in the worse way, and as quickly as possible.

Offensively, the Kings acquitted themselves quite well.  Zach Randolph, the pick-and-pop master, had a 10-point first quarter and 24 for the game on 11 of 18 shooting.  Bogdan Bogdanovich showed that he can initiate the offense for the Kings, and score and distribute in the high post area using his size and broad shoulders. Bogdanovich finished with 11 points, five assists in 24 minutes off the bench.

De’Aaron Fox returned to the floor after missing two weeks with a partial tear of his quad muscle and played well too. Fox started, played 33 minutes, scored 17 points along with four assists, and looked almost completely healthy.  But similar to when the other six young Kings that saw action were on the floor, the defense suffered when Fox was on the floor, shown by the minus 19 the rookie point guard posted in the plus/minus category.

Joerger captured the issue of his younger players’ acumen defensively, saying “when we score, we relax defensively.”

The Kings conclude their home stand with Denver on Saturday, then play San Antonio on Monday.  The following night they travel to Los Angeles to face the Lakers. Rookie Frank Mason was scratched from Tuesday’s game with a heel contusion he suffered in the loss to the Grizzlies.