LOS ANGELES — Of course Doug Christie would start his tenure as the interim head coach of the Sacramento Kings in Southern California for a road game against the Los Angeles Lakers. That bit of fate was not lost on him ahead of Saturday night’s game.
“This is Los Angeles,” said Christie, 54, addressing the media for the first time since the organization fired head coach Mike Brown on Friday following a winless five-game homestand. “It’s a lot of history here. It’s a lot of history in this building, in that hallway. And for it to be this team, yeah. It’s, wow. It’s big time. And for me to be with my team, yeah.”
You see, Christie began his 15-year NBA career with the Lakers on March 12, 1993 after being drafted 17th overall in 1992 out of Pepperdine by Christie’s hometown team, the Seattle SuperSonics. On Oct. 13, 1994, the Lakers traded Christie to the New York Knicks, where he played for Lakers legend Pat Riley. Eventually, Christie established himself as a starter with the Toronto Raptors before landing in Sacramento for the 2000-01 season, during which he earned the first of four consecutive All-Defensive team selections. Christie was a part of Kings teams that lost to the Lakers in the 2001 Western Conference semifinals and the 2002 Western Conference finals.
Christie played more games with the Kings (355) than any of his other six teams, which also included cameos with the Orlando Magic, Dallas Mavericks and LA Clippers. Getting his first official win against a Lakers team he still hates like any other Sacramento Kings fan would have been storybook.
“I mean, we are in Hollywood,” Christie said. “So, you couldn’t write up a better script … how it turns out, whether it’s a love story or a horror story, we don’t quite know yet. We’ll find out tonight in a little bit.”
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On Saturday night, Christie and the Kings learned they’re going to need more than one game after a coaching change to head back in the right direction. The Lakers beat the Kings 132-122, sweeping the regular-season series against Sacramento for the first time since 2010. The Lakers’ 132 points tied their season-high and were the most allowed by the Kings all season. The loss also marked the sixth time this season Sacramento has scored at least 120 points in a loss. The Kings had only five such games last season.
Saturday, the first and third quarters were the Kings’ biggest issue, as they allowed multiple 40-point quarters in the same game for the first time since their 176-175 double-overtime road win against the Clippers on Feb. 24, 2023. The Lakers led 40-31 through one quarter of play, with the Kings allowing a 73.9-percent shooting in the first quarter, their worst mark allowed in an opening period of this season. Sacramento was able to fight back after trailing by 11 points, taking a 66-65 halftime lead behind a masterful first half from small forward DeMar DeRozan (14 points, 7-of-8 shooting, six assists and no turnovers). But then, the Lakers ended the third quarter on a 9-0 run to cap a period in which the Kings allowed 42 points, their most allowed in a third period all season.
“It’s been a crazy 24 hours,” Christie said after the Kings trailed by as many as 20 points in the final period. “I did like offensively, there were a lot of things that we did. I think defensively, what I’m asking them to do, the level of intensity that I would like to see, it’s difficult. It is. I did it, and I told them that. I understand. I want you to play so hard that you raise your hand and say, ‘I need to come out of the game.’
“But I’m proud of the fight that they put out, and we will be better, on both sides of the ball,” Christie said after the game.
Although Christie has grown in NBA familiarity over the recent decades, he is seeking to downplay Sacramento’s latest coaching change being about him. In the visitors locker room, there were three words written on the whiteboard: Joy, Compete, Together. Christie wants to have the Kings playing hard and with pace, while simplifying the overall approach and raising the vibes somehow.
“It’s just basketball, is what it is,” Christie said. “It’s a super-high level, and there’s a lot at stake. But the ability to keep them grounded and let them know that we’re here to compete at a high level, we’re here to do it together, and we want to do that every single night. Me trying to do something special is not what it’s about. It’s all about them. It’s not about me. So, I’m here as a conduit to try to get them to be the best version of themselves. That’s really been my message to them. And I’m hoping that the compete level for them stays at an extremely high level every single night. That’s the one thing that I can’t vacillate on. And I think they understand that.”
So much of what happens to the Kings will start with their top players. All of those players are in different places in their careers, though. And, even against the Lakers, their ups and downs were quite unique within themselves.
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Domantas Sabonis has made the last two All-NBA Third Teams, and is set to make $49.9 million in salary by the 2027-28 season, the last year of an extension signed in 2023. The 28-year-old center has had a rough week. On Thursday, due to an illness, he missed Sacramento blowing a 19-point lead against the Detroit Pistons, which marked Brown’s final game as head coach. That same illness caused Sabonis to miss Brown’s final practice on Friday, which preceded Brown’s dismissal, and Sacramento’s leader in triple-doubles did not fly with the team to Los Angeles. Sabonis joined the team for shootaround Saturday morning and played in the game.
“It’s hard to get me off the floor,” Sabonis said Saturday night. “If there’s any chance I could play, I wanted to play and be here, especially with everything that happened at the time I was gone and Doug being the coach now. I feel like I had to be here and try and give anything I had today.”
While Sabonis finished with 12 rebounds and seven assists, he only scored 14 points while racking up as many fouls (six) as field goals (out of 13 attempts). Lakers center Anthony Davis hadn’t won a game against a Sabonis team before this season in 10 tries, but Davis made each of his first five field goals Saturday night while relentlessly targeting Sabonis:
Sabonis was in foul trouble before halftime, leaving backup power forward Trey Lyles to get regularly feathered and tarred by Davis:
Then, the Kings were truly cooked by what is arguably their biggest weakness: their tendency to foul. Sabonis picked up his fifth foul while helping to double team Davis with 4:17 left in the third quarter. The Lakers turned a 92-85 lead into a 110-90 lead moments into the fourth quarter. For good measure, Christie burned a timeout and his final challenge on Sabonis’ sixth and disqualifying foul with 5:20 remaining in the matchup. Davis finished with a game-high 36 points on 12-of-16 shooting, while making as many free throws (11-of-13) as the entire Kings team (11-of-15).
“It’s tough when we lose our biggest guy, our most dynamic guy,” said 16-year NBA veteran DeMar DeRozan, who is in his first season with the Kings. “Somebody out there to give AD some type of issues, especially defensively. When you lose that, it’s tough, especially being undersized. AD did what he is supposed to do. But losing Do definitely hurt us in that final stretch.”
When the Kings did play their best basketball in their first game under Christie, they were running and gunning. Sacramento scored 10 of its 22 fast-break points in a second quarter that saw the Kings outscore the Lakers 35-25. DeRozan was masterful in the second quarter, making all six of his shot attempts, and he was one of three Kings to compile six first-half assists. While De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk each had one turnover in the first half, DeRozan was spotless. Overall, 24 of the Kings’ 28 baskets in the opening half were assisted. Sacramento finished with 38 assists, one shy of a season-high, to go with only 10 turnovers. And this was despite the Kings missing 29 of 40 3-point attempts.
Asked DeMar DeRozan about balancing his status as the most experienced player on Kings roster (16th NBA season) with being one of the new players as well
DeRozan: “That’s the beauty about sports. That’s the beauty about life, you know. You never got it completely figured out.”
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— Law Murray 📘 (@lawmurraythenu.bsky.social) December 29, 2024 at 1:17 AM
“I mean, we’re top-10 in offense,” said Fox when asked about DeRozan’s acclimation to Sacramento Saturday night. “It’s a numbers league, and the numbers don’t show that we’re struggling offensively.”
So much comes down to Fox, who is now working with his fifth head coach in seven NBA seasons with the Kings. The 27-year-old knows that so much of what needs to be better with the Kings comes down to him: the offense, defense, 3-point shooting, pace, clutch-time performance and mood.
“Looking at the NBA, teams that are usually those higher-paced teams aren’t usually great defensively,” Fox said Saturday night after I asked him about balancing pace with defensive control. “You want to be able to find that balance, because obviously, the higher pace you play, the more possessions there are. And naturally, it’s going to be higher-scoring games. But I don’t know, you have to try to find that balance. And when we’re on defense, being able to buckle down. You can play a slower pace defensively while also, once they score or once they miss, being able to get out in transition a little more.”
There are more things Christie can do in the short term. There’s playing guard Keon Ellis more after the Kings outscored the Lakers by seven points in Ellis’ 13:24 of playing time on the floor. Ellis said he is close with Christie, while the latter used Ellis as an example of a player he wants to shoot and bring energy:
Asked Doug Christie about Keon Ellis, who was the only Kings reserve to score in double figures (11 points, 4/4 FGs, 3/3 3s)
Kings outscored Lakers by 7 in Ellis’ 13:24; were outscored by 17 in the 34:36 that Ellis sat.
Christie to Ellis: “I’m going to require a lot out of him” pic.twitter.com/s65WytCg9b
— Law Murray ⚛️ (@LawMurrayTheNU) December 29, 2024
The Kings also have rookie guard Devin Carter (drafted 13th overall this year), who could debut as soon as next week after being cleared from shoulder surgery. But with a six-game losing streak, time is running out on the Kings. They made a coaching move, but even Fox knows that more moves might be necessary.
“Obviously, the conference continues to get better,” Fox said after Saturday night. “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. For us, that’s players that aren’t in this locker room or the players in this locker room, we have to be able to buckle down and get better. So, at the end of the day, that pretty much is where it comes down to. I don’t think we’re much worse last year than we were the year before. But the conference is continuing to grow, so we have to grow with (it).”
(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images )
