Kings 111, Pelicans 109: That’s enough

With recent wins over the Rockets, Spurs and Jazz, the Sacramento Kings have slowly worked their way back into NBA relevance after a disappointing start to the 2024-25 season. Add to that the 5-20 heavily injured New Orleans Pelicans and the chance to get the organization back to .500 – this game almost felt like the Kings had to win in that sense tilt After beating the Pelicans at this point in the season, my optimism that this group can actually turn things around decreases significantly.

As Will pointed out in his preview, the Pelicans are quiet dangerous enough beat this team, but that says more about the Kings than the Pelicans. Despite the injuries, they have Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III and have beaten the Kings six games in a row. Sacramento needed this game more and ultimately won with a 111-109 victory, but it was too close for my liking. Let’s dive in.

Sacramento’s poor 3-point shooting was an issue all night, starting in the first quarter. As a team, the Kings shot 20% from three in the first quarter, but were saved by the efficient volume scoring of Domantas Sabonis. The Kings center scored 12 points on 4/5 shooting while the rest of the squad shot a combined 5-20 from the field, but it was good enough for the Kings to take a 2-point lead in the 2nd quarter. Sabonis finished with 32 points and 20 rebounds on 11-15 shooting, and the Pelicans simply had no answer to his size and strength all evening.

The weak offense continued into the second quarter, where the Kings’ weak bench failed to provide substance to the team. Mike Brown did his typical search and tried all of Colby Jones, Isaac Jones, Alex Len, Keon Ellis and Kevin Huerter, but couldn’t get a real spark from any of them. CJ McCollum and Dejounte Murray started cooking for the Pelicans, and that was enough for New Orleans to take a 55-53 lead into halftime. It was starting to feel like one of those nights where the Kings didn’t have the focus or dedication needed to take down a weaker team.

Luckily for DeMar DeRozan, the third quarter was one of the best quarters of Sacramento Kings basketball of all time. DDR shot 3/3 from distance in the third period and finished the quarter with 16 points on 5/7 shooting. I wouldn’t call it particularly offensive, but the team needed someone other than Domas to start hitting, and tonight it was DeMar.

It seemed like the Kings would take a relatively easy win from here. They won the third quarter 38-28 and built a 13-point lead by the end of the fourth quarter. Hurrah, I thought.

CJ McCollum had other plans and the Kings were dangerously close to blowing things. Sacramento led 104-94 with 4:29 left, and McCollum hit three 3s and a tough 1 to wipe out the Kings’ lead and make it a two-point game with 1:24 left. McCollum is a very capable shooter who caught fire in the fourth round. It would have been nice if Sacramento’s defense had been able to contain him better, but a good offensive NBA player made good plays. I can live with that.

My frustration with the partial collapse here had more to do with Sacramento’s offensive execution down the stretch than their inability to contain McCollum. A crucial floater from Keegan Murray was the only point Sacramento scored in the final 3:00 minutes of that game – an unacceptable result for an offense of supposedly superior players against an inferior team. Those ugly final minutes included terrible shot selection, brutal turnovers and a worrying lack of concentration.

In the final :60, the Pelicans had the ball twice and had a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime, but Sacramento’s defense held them off. First it was a good defensive possession by De’Aaron Fox on a McCollum drive, and on the next play it was an overwhelming Malik Monk blocking/stealing the ball when he beat a Dejounte Murray jumper. The Kings win on defense 111-109.

Considering who the Kings were for most of the season, this was a pretty typical performance. Acceptable offensive performance from the majority of the starters. Absolutely nothing from the bank. Poor and almost crippling three-point shooting. Lack of focus and execution at several key moments.

But it was good enough for a win tonight, and I’ll take that. The Kings improved to 13-13 this season and still have plenty of time to work out some of those recurring issues and get a lead in the Western Conference playoff race. Will they? That has yet to be decided, but it remains within reach.

Next up: Kings vs. Nuggets in Sacramento on Monday night.