The Kings blew another big lead in front of their home crowd Monday night at Golden 1 Center in a 113-109 loss to the Chicago Bulls that still sings for many Sacramento fans.
After taking a 91-77 lead into the fourth quarter, the Kings were outscored 36-18 in the final frame following a fourth-quarter collapse. Kings coach Mike Brown attributed a part of the loss to a decision he made in the third quarter in which he sat De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis for longer than he believed he should have, a decision he admittedly regretted while speaking to reporters the following day.
"During the game, I wish I went back to Foxy sooner," Brown said Tuesday. "When I watched the film, we got some good looks during that little stretch. So it wasn't as bad as I thought, but having said all of that, yes if I could do it over again, I would have had Fox on the floor. And a lot of is not just because Domas was off, that's a part of it, but also because if I had him on the floor, when I brought Domas back after a few minutes in the fourth, I would've taken [Fox] out and given him a couple of minutes in the fourth.
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"And then he could have finished the last six minutes or whatever. Because sometimes, we do this, sometimes running [Fox] 12 straight minutes and asking him to close a game can be pretty taxing. So mainly from a rotational standpoint, I wish I would have done it, yes."
At the 4:45 mark in the third quarter, Kings guard Malik Monk, as he typically would, entered the game for Fox as Sacramento held a comfortable 20-point lead at the time. But about 30 seconds later, Sabonis was replaced by Kings 7-foot big man Alex Len after picking up his fourth foul.
Sacramento went on to play the next four minutes without either of its All-Stars before Fox checked back in with 12 seconds left in the quarter -- and the team paid for it. Chicago took advantage and went on a 12-6 run to close the quarter, before ultimately outscoring Sacramento 13-1 in the final four minutes of the game to pull off an incredible comeback victory in front of a stunned Sacramento crowd.
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Bulls star forward DeMar DeRozan finished with 33 points, including 20 in the fourth quarter that helped catapult his team to the win. Colby White dropped a game -- and career-high -- 37 points on 14-of-19 shooting from the field and 5 of 9 from 3-point range.
It wasn't the first time the Kings blew a large lead, either.
While it's been an obvious trend that has been denied and downplayed by Kings players and coaches, this one felt like the worst loss of the season given the timing of it with the playoffs around the corner.
But the game is about learning from your mistakes and moving on, and Brown and his squad hope to do just that.