Brown says Kings fans ‘deserve better’ after loss to Pacers

Brown says Kings fans ‘deserve better’ after loss to Pacers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SACRAMENTO – Ten days ago, the kings were riding a three-game winning streak and appeared poised to stamp themselves as contenders in the NBA’s Western Conference.

Four consecutive losses later – all at Golden 1 Center – the mood in the state capital is very different.

Instead of emerging as a contender, the Kings now more realistically look like a team that will struggle to just make the NBA play-in tournament, similar to the situation they faced last season.

Sunday’s 122-95 home loss to the Indiana Pacers was just the latest setback.

The Pacers entered the day with a record below .500 and were the Eastern Conference’s no. 8 seed, yet they handled the Kings with relative ease.

“Their tempo, whether it’s full court or half court, was at a high level,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “We were always a step or at least half a step behind them when it came to trying to defend them in the second half.”

Even though it came three days before Christmas, it was hardly the type of effort and production expected from a team that still sees itself as a legitimate playoff contender.

After a somewhat sluggish, transparent first half, the Kings simply stopped playing in the second half. The Pacers put up 70 points over the final two quarters and cruised to a 27-point victory, Sacramento’s lopsided loss of the season.

It came on the heels of the Kings’ one-point loss to the Denver Nuggets followed by back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Had they pulled out the win against the Nuggets, split the two games with the Lakers, and then held serve at home against the Pacers, the outlook for the Kings would have been much more optimistic and bright than it is now.

The game got so bad Sunday that fans at the Golden 1 Center repeatedly rained down on the Kings throughout the second half.

“The fans definitely deserved better than what we showed today,” Brown said. “When you look in the mirror, you want to say you left it all on the floor and you try to play the right way. It’s understandable why the fans let us have it.”

Brown remains confident that the situation can be fixed, albeit with a few tweaks needed here and there. The Kings’ coach mixed up his rotations a bit against the Pacers in hopes of igniting a spark, but the changes didn’t produce the desired results.

“It’s pretty low,” Brown admitted. “We’ve had some other tough moments. But the one thing that I firmly believe is that if things are going well, you can never get too high. In this league, that will change in a heartbeat. Like, if things don’t go well, it will turn around, so don’t get too low.”

Perhaps no one knows that better than Malik Monk.

The veteran guard never had a winning season during his first four NBA seasons in Charlotte, then spent a brutal losing season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

What the Kings are dealing with now is basically a speed bump compared to what Monk has been through in the past. He has leaned on those experiences as he tries to help Sacramento navigate its current funk.

“We get a great half, then we go back to one-pass shots, no-pass shots, stuff like that,” Monk said when asked what the issues appear to be. “We just have to keep moving the ball and I feel like that’s contagious.”

There has been talk of a possible disconnect between Brown and his staff and the players in the Kings’ locker room.

No one has addressed that question publicly, but Brown remains confident in the approach the coaching staff has taken.

“We’ve been doing it for almost 2½ years now, and we’ve been doing it at a pretty high level,” Brown said. “That’s why I’m going to keep preaching it and try to make a little adjustment here, a little adjustment there and keep looking for someone to step up.

“I can’t just sit back and let things snowball and say it’s going to work out because we all want more than this. The reality is the fans definitely deserve more.”

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