SACRAMENTO – Kings coach Mike Brown was in a good mood following Monday’s 111-98 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, but it wasn’t just because of the win.
After two games of leaning heavily on Sacramento’s starters and having them play far longer than he had hoped and planned for, Brown did a much better and more effective job of spreading the minutes around Monday.
While all five Kings starters logged at least 33 minutes of playing time, only two – point guard De’Aaron Fox and center Domantas Sabonis – were on the court for more than 35 minutes. The rest of the minutes were spread out as Brown mostly used a nine-man rotation.
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That was in contrast to the Kings’ first two games, when Brown didn’t really reach too far down the bench for help.
In Sacramento's season-opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, DeMar DeRozan and Keegan Murray each played for more than 42 ½ minutes.
Two days later against the Lakers in Los Angeles, Fox played 41 minutes, Murray for nearly 40 and DeRozan more than 37 minutes.
It was a workload Brown knew he had to correct, and the Kings coach took a good step in that direction Monday.
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It worked out so well that Brown paused while addressing the media postgame to give himself a pat on the back.
“I’m going to give myself a pat on the back because I’ve been killing our guys,” Brown said. “To get these guys at a decent number of minutes in tonight’s game is very pleasing. Hopefully we can continue trying to find ways to keep those guys in that range that we talked about before the game.”
It’s a situation that’s somewhat similar to the challenge facing Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, albeit it with a twist.
Kerr has said repeatedly that Golden State’s roster is the deepest that he’s coached in the NBA, and he’s willing to go 12 or 13 deep on any given night. That’s due to an abundance of talent that Kerr believes the Warriors have.
The Kings have an abundance of talent, too, but most of it is at the top, which is why Brown has had to rely so heavily on his starters.
Brown knew he couldn’t sustain the blueprint that he had been using. Ideally, the Kings coach said he would prefer to play Fox, Murray and Sabonis for about 36 minutes each game while limiting DeRozan to 34-35 minutes.
Obviously that’s a flexible plan. Game situations and the health of certain players could force additional adjustments.
“If we have a group out there that’s rolling, I’ve always tried to let a group roll,” Brown said. “But then because I’m still feeling all these guys out, I got to be able to adjust quicker on the backside of it. Game 1 I really didn’t. Game 2 I did a better job of it.
"Hopefully going forward I’ll be at least close to on target to where we need to be.”