The Sacramento Kings look to halt a season-worst six-game losing streak when they host the short-handed Dallas Mavericks on Monday night.
The first five losses of the skid were under Mike Brown, who was fired on Friday in an unconventional manner. Assistant Doug Christie was named interim coach and oversaw a 132-122 road loss against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday.
Sacramento had high hopes entering the season but sits six games below .500 with the campaign about 40 percent complete.
The killer setback for Brown came Thursday against the visiting Detroit Pistons. The Kings led by 10 with less than three minutes to go but eventually lost 114-113. Detroit’s Jaden Ivey converted a game-winning four-point play stemming from a foul on De’Aaron Fox with three seconds left in the game.
Brown sharply criticized Fox following the game. Brown then conducted practice and handled media responsibilities on Friday. A short time later, he was fired before the team boarded its flight to Los Angeles.
Now the club is trying to regroup, with star Domantas Sabonis saying it is time for a turnaround.
“We obviously know we haven’t been performing at our best,” Sabonis said. “And we have to do a better job. Me, as one of the leaders of the team, I got to make sure that that happens. We got to win all the games that we can.”
Sabonis had 14 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in the loss to the Lakers. Fox recorded 29 points, 12 assists and four steals. DeMar DeRozan added 25 points and Malik Monk scored 20.
With the Kings mired in 12th place in the Western Conference, Fox is feeling a sense of urgency.
“Obviously, the conference continues to get better,” Fox said. “But us, you know, we kind of got a little stagnant, and that is what it is. We have to find a way to get better.”
Dallas will be playing its third game since losing star Luka Doncic to a strained left calf on Christmas Day.
The Mavericks are 7-3 without Doncic this season, a mark that includes a 126-122 loss to the host Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday.
Dallas never led in the contest, and four Portland players reached the 20-point mark. The Trail Blazers led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter.
Kyrie Irving carried the Mavericks with a season-best 46 points, including 20 in the final quarter.
“Kai, our leader, he got us back in that game,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “It’s just unfortunate we couldn’t make the right plays on both ends when we got it down.
“That’s just who he is. Kai’s a leader and wants to help the team win. Being able to score 46 wasn’t easy.”
The loss was just the fifth in the past 20 games for the Mavericks.
But it felt painful to Irving, who wasn’t pleased about the club digging such a huge hole against one of the worst teams in the Western Conference.
“We definitely could have done a better job keeping the game a lot closer,” Irving said. “Getting down like that, I don’t want to say it’s characteristic for us, but we’re used to it to a certain degree to get out of holes like that and give ourselves a chance. Most teams would give up, especially on a back-to-back. But our identity is we don’t want to give up.”
Dallas will be without Naji Marshall, who will miss his second contest as part of a four-game suspension for his part in an altercation with Jusuf Nurkic of the Phoenix Suns on Friday. P.J. Washington, suspended one game for his role in the scuffle, will return on Monday.
Mavericks big man Dereck Lively II (hip) is listed as questionable. He has missed the past two games.
–Field Level Media
