A Kings team of Fox, Sabonis and a bunch of maybes will never challenge NBA elite | Opinion

The Kings bear no shame in losing to a better team. They lost six times this season to one the New Orleans Pelicans. Friday’s loss in the play-in game hurt the most because it ended the Kings’ season. Even without Zion Williamson, their best player, the Pelicans gained control of this one late in the first quarter and never looked back.

The final score of 105-98 for New Orleans made the game seem closer than it was. The Kings never gave up, even when the outcome was as obvious like a bad rerun you’ve seen too many times.

How far the Pelicans will go in the playoffs is unknown, but we know this: They are much better than the Kings in every way.

Opinion

Kings leader De’Aaron Fox was brave and bold, but he was forced into five turnovers. Center Domantas Sabonis brought everything he had, as he always does. But for too much of this game, the Kings were effectively comprised of Fox and Sabonis and not much else.

“I thought we were a little passive offensively,” Kings coach Mike Brown said in his postgame news conference. “... And not all of us were aggressive with our play tonight.”

Even before Keegan Murray went down with an injury in the second quarter and left the action, he looked nothing like the force he was on Tuesday, when the Kings eliminated the Golden State Warriors in Sacramento.

The Western Conference is tough

In a sense, this final loss of a winning yet difficult season was emblematic of why the Kings were not able to make an extended playoff run their fans hoped for and seemed to expect.

They just didn’t have enough to compete with the most talented teams in the NBA’s brutal Western Conference.

With sixth-man Malik Monk sitting in street clothes Friday night and shooting guard Kevin Huerter out until next season, the Kings had to rely on unexpected contributors such as Keon Ellis. They needed big minutes from Trey Lyles and Davion Mitchell. They needed Murray to play at a level beyond his years and experience.

At times, before Friday, they got big contributions from these players. But they didn’t on Friday because all of them have developmental limitations that left Fox and Sabonis exposed against a big, physical team like New Orleans.

Before Friday, Ellis was generating a lot of buzz. He sparkled against Golden State.

By the end of Friday’s game, he had zero points. The same goes for Lyles. Murray had 11 and who knows how much he was slowed by the nasty spill he took in the second quarter. But the current state of the Kings is such that victory requires much more than 11 points from the young man.

“I thought Keegan could have been a little more aggressive,” Brown said, talking about his play and his injury. “... He’s a young guy going through this and I’m sure he’s going to grow from it and realize what he can do better to help us going forward like everybody else.”

Talented, not deep

It was sad to see this Kings season end, but not surprising. If you watched this team all season, you knew they were talented but not deep. On any given night they can beat any other team in the league except the one that beat them Friday night.

The Kings took steps forward this season, but took a few backward as well. This squad is not bereft, but didn’t have enough to go further than last year’s team.

Listen, two straight winning seasons for the Sacramento Kings are cause for celebration. Brown and GM Monte McNair have got something going with Fox and Sabonis and, potentially, Murray.

Maybe Ellis can be a solid rotation guy for the Kings next season. Maybe Monk will come back. Maybe Huerter will regain his shooting touch.

But the Kings need more reinforcements for Fox and Sabonis. They need players who will rise to games like Friday in a way the Kings supporting cast did not.

Otherwise, the Kings will remain a team that plays well enough to raise hopes before dashing them.

So what now?

This game was there to be won.

The Pelicans were wobbling early. Their body language was bad. During timeouts, their coach was picked up by the network microphones imploring his team to lose their hesitancy. To show confidence and seize the moment.

They did but with a lot of help from the Kings.

The Kings turned the ball over five times in the first quarter, which ended with a 24-22 Kings lead that looked to be bigger before the Kings got careless.

Fox was great as always, and Sabonis was important early, but the team couldn’t hit 3-point shots. Worse still, Kings players who were so big in Tuesday’s win over the Warriors were invisible in the first half.

Mitchell looked shaky at times and only had two points in a half in which the Kings had almost as many turnovers as assists.

By midway through the second quarter, the Pelicans had grown into the game and were dominating the Kings as they had during their five victories over the Kings before Friday.

The length and size of the Pelicans pressured Kings players into nervous mistakes. Most of the Kings’ 15 turnovers were from sloppy passes or blocks swallowed up by long arms and big bodies in Pelicans red. The Kings looked like they were maneuvering through a forest of redwoods at times.

So what now? The Kings have a big need to add length, size, perimeter shooting and defensive toughness to challenge rivals who have much more than two stars and a supporting cast of maybes. They have topped out if they remain about Fox and Sabonis and a bunch of maybes.

The Kings did well enough to make you hope for more next season, but nothing is promised in this league, and next season is far, far away.