SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The strangest stretch of the Sacramento Kings’ condensed early-season schedule came a couple weeks ago. They had a four-games-in-five-nights stretch that sent them from Sacramento to Utah to Atlanta to Toronto. The Hawks and Raptors road games were back-to-back, which wouldn’t have fatigued the Kings as much if they turned back toward California after the Toronto game, or at least didn’t retrace their flight path.
But they instead turned southeast again, flying from Toronto back over Atlanta and landing in Miami for the fourth game of a packed, logistically confusing road trip.
“I’m sure I’ve had (a crazier stretch),” 17-season veteran DeMar DeRozan said. “I played in a lockout year (when there were back-to-back-to-backs).”
Fast forward two weeks and an air of relaxation could be felt in the Kings’ Thursday afternoon practice. They opened their season with 15 games in 25 days. After a Monday loss to the Hawks — which DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk missed due to minor injuries — the Kings became the last team in the league to finally receive a multi-day break between games. They took Tuesday completely off, went live briefly Wednesday and had a light session on Thursday.
Through 15 games, the Kings have a slightly disappointing 8-7 record, considering the recent string of beatable opponents and narrow defeats. But it felt like a refreshed team with reinforcements on the way. DeRozan and Sabonis, who’ve missed the past couple games with back tightness, practiced in full and should return against the LA Clippers on Friday. Monk, who has missed a handful of games with a bad ankle sprain, is also on the precipice of a return, doubtful for Friday but not ruled out.
“Using this to reset, get a rhythm back shooting the ball,” DeRozan said. “Get everyone’s legs back under them.”
There’s a reason DeRozan specifically mentioned shooting. The Kings sit at 34 percent on 3s currently, ranked 24th in the league. They were dead last about a week ago and recently ticked up only because De’Aaron Fox has been scorching hot from everywhere and Keon Ellis made nine 3s in a game recently.
But the collective is still in a team-wide slump. Kevin Huerter, a career 38-percent shooter from deep, is at 31 percent and went 1 of 10 on 3s in a one-point loss to the Hawks. He’s been back nearly a month from his offseason shoulder surgery, missed a few games with an illness he said has swept through the team, but said he believes this time of rest and reset could allow him to generate a bit more consistency.
Monk was 12 of 43 from 3 before he sprained his ankle. Fox sat just below 30 percent before this recent hot streak blasted him up to 35 percent. But the biggest current shooting concern is Keegan Murray, the catch-and-shoot threat who set an NBA rookie record with 206 made 3s in his first season (at 41.1-percent accuracy). His percentage has fallen as his responsibilities have heightened.
Murray bulked up the last two seasons. He’s become a versatile defender who now often gets the toughest perimeter assignment. The Kings want him to test himself offensively with more off-the-dribble action and occasionally post him up against smaller defenders.
But opponents most fear Murray as a tall, quick-release catch-and-shoot weapon from out to nearly 30 feet in a half-court setting. That’s where he busted onto the scene as a rookie. It’s also where he is currently struggling.
“He’ll be fine, man,” DeRozan said. “We’re all going to have some point of the season where we have a slump, we have a struggle. It’s a matter of not letting it bleed over. We’re all going to have games where y’all gonna question some of us. It happens.”
Kings coach Mike Brown specifically mentioned a hesitant Murray possession from the fourth quarter of the Hawks loss. The ball was swung to him in the corner and the smaller Bogdan Bogdanović closed out late with his hands down. Murray had a clear window to fire up a barely contested corner 3. Instead he pump-faked, drove into traffic and threw up an off-balance missed fadeaway floater.
The Kings prefer he just takes the catch-and-shoot 3 in this type of situation.
This isn’t a dire moment for the Kings. The numbers actually deliver them a level of internal optimism. They’re still sixth in the NBA in offensive rating (115.9) despite shooting inaccuracy they believe will even out. They’re also a respectable 16th in defensive rating (112.6), but know stiffer tests are ahead.
Brown called their transition defense against the Hawks the worst he’d seen in his three seasons as Sacramento head coach, but said he wouldn’t “panic” about it because they’d generally been solid in that area this season.
Even without Monk, Sabonis and DeRozan, the Kings nearly won that Hawks game. Fox, who went for 60 and 49 points in back-to-back nights recently, had a drive at the buzzer to win it, but was stripped by Dyson Daniels. Narrow losses — including overtime defeats to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Raptors — have sunk their record to 8-7 when the numbers might suggest they should have nine or 10 wins by this point.
Heavy minute totals for DeRozan and Sabonis may have led to the back tightness that led to missed time. The Kings have four players (Fox, Murray, DeRozan, Sabonis) currently in the top 14 in minutes played per game. Brown said he’d like to scale them back to 35 maximum and said he feels like he’s getting a bit more of a feel and trust in his bench to allow for that.
In strategic meetings, Brown’s staff likes to split up their season into subsections of five games. Through 15, they are 8-7. This stretch of needed off-days allowed for a reset. Their next five: at Clippers, home against the Nets and Thunder, at Timberwolves, at Blazers, give the Kings a reasonable chance to gain some traction.
(Photo of Keon Ellis, Mike Brown and De’Aaron Fox: Rocky Widner / NBAE via Getty Images)