What we learned as Kings rally against Mavs to end six-game skid originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – Domantas Sabonis appears to be feeling much better since missing a game the day after Christmas due to illness. The Kings big man was in fine form and turned in another masterful performance with 17 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists in a 110-100 win over the short-handed Dallas Mavericks on Monday at Golden 1 Center.
De’Aaron Fox had 33 points, six rebounds and six assists to help the Kings (14-19) end their longest losing streak of the season while giving Doug Christie his first victory as a interim coach. Malik Monk added 14 points while Trey Lyles scored 14 and was plus-31.
A longtime assistant and former Kings player, Christie took the reins after management decided to fire former NBA Coach of the Year Mike Brown last Friday. The Kings lost to the Lakers on the road Saturday in Christie’s debut as head coach.
For most of the night, there wasn’t much difference between the team coached by Brown and the team coached by Christie. There were a lot of the same mistakes, and at one point in the first half the Golden 1 Center crowd went wild with a light burst of boos.
That all changed when the Kings took a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and didn’t let it slip away, as they have done many times this season under Brown. As the final seconds ticked away, the fans stood up and chanted “Light the Beam” and the good times flowed.
Certainly, the Mavericks looked like a MASH unit. Stars Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and others all missed the game for various reasons. For a team hungry for good news after one of the most tumultuous periods in Sacramento history, the Kings will take every moment of it.
Fox led the way with a consistent evening. He scored eight points in the first quarter, seven in the second, eight in the third and 10 in the fourth.
Here are the takeaways from Monday’s game:
Ddefend the bow
A coaching change has done little to improve the Kings’ inability to effectively defend the 3-point shot.
Two days after allowing the Los Angeles Lakers to lose 14 of 26 from behind the arc in Christie’s first game as interim coach, the Kings surrendered 12 more 3s to the Mavericks, even though Dallas was without its three best distance shooters.
One of Brown’s biggest complaints was the Kings’ fundamental failures in defending the 3-point shot. It’s gone but this problem still exists.
Len to have more time
Whether that was the plan before Brown’s firing or whether it was a Christie rotation, Alex Len got more playing time. The 7-footer, who played 11 minutes against the Lakers, played seven minutes against the Mavs and had four points and eight rebounds.
Because the Kings didn’t use Len much, Sabonis had to play most of his time at center where he was often outsized. Even though the two weren’t on the court together much, playing Len for extended minutes allowed Sabonis to rest.
Before Brown left, Len was averaging just over seven minutes, but he was on the court for 22 minutes against the Detroit Pistons in the last game Brown coached in Sacramento.
Ssurviving Fox’s collapse
The Kings were able to work around a tough situation in the third quarter after Fox picked up his third and fourth fouls, as well as a technical for bracing the officials for 18 seconds in the third quarter.
Dallas led by three at that point and Fox went to the bench for three and a half minutes. It was a dicey time and the Mavs could have pulled out, but credit to the Kings for weathering the storm without their point guard and keeping the game close until his return.
