Harrison Barnes described the Kings’ narrow loss to the Denver Nuggets as a battle of defense and “many chances” to win once the team starts to gel with its new-look players.
On Saturday night, NBA fans were treated to a marquee matchup between two of the league's fiercest big men.
In the Kings' 115-110 loss to the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena, Sacramento center Domantas Sabonis squared off against the reigning NBA MVP, Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic, for the second time in three days.
Sabonis and Jokic are two of the league's best all-around big men and displayed as much on the court against one another. Neither of them lit up the stat sheet with scoring, but it was Jokic (18 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) who finished with a triple-double against Sabonis, who finished with 14 points, 16 rebounds and 7 assists on the night.
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Sabonis and the Kings as a whole did an admirable job against the reigning MVP.
“I thought he did a great job on him," Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry told reporters postgame. "It’s really tough because you’re talking about a guy that not only has great footwork but just a super intelligent player. I thought Domas did a good job of just staying down. It’s tough to play him because they go to him so much and he puts so much pressure on you. But I thought we did a good job on him, I really did. Domas did a good job of staying down, not biting on the pump-fakes or anything like that and that's all you can ask him to do.
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“I thought a couple times we did a really good job when he turned his back of coming in and attacking and having him turn the ball over a couple times.”
As Gentry reiterated postgame, Sacramento has played a different style of basketball ever since the move to acquire Sabonis from the Pacers. Both the offense and defense now run through him and it's benefiting the entire team on both ends of the floor.
“Obviously he’s a high-IQ player and not just from an offensive standpoint, just a general basketball standpoint," Harrison Barnes said postgame. "He does a lot for us on both sides of the floor. Obviously being more of a point forward, playing at the post on offense and defensively being an anchor for us. I think as we all continue to get more comfortable with each other, he’ll just continue to be better for us and we can continue to be better helping him out.”
“He helps everybody," De'Aaron Fox said of Sabonis. "A team that has a big as good as he is, it’s great for everybody because he can score the ball, he’s looking to pass the ball. So just being able to cut off him and going to work. He’s been great for us, I think defensively tonight he showed he’s able to guard people. You’re guarding the MVP of the league and I think he did a great job on him. Obviously, he had foul trouble early on, but both sides of the ball I think he was good for us.”
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Despite Sacramento posting a mediocre record of 2-4 with Sabonis, it's crystal clear just how big of an impact he has on the floor.
With 20 games remaining in the regular season, the Kings -- who are still just four games out from the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference -- will lean heavily on their big man down the stretch if they look to have any chance of somehow sneaking into the NBA Play-In Tournament.
