Kings must play ‘right way' in final stretch with NBA play-in looming
Zach LaVine believes it’s important that the Sacramento Kings focus on themselves right now before turning their attention to the Dallas Mavericks.
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Kings must play ‘right way' in final stretch with NBA play-in looming originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – All the math and calculations are over.
The Kings are locked into the No. 9 vs. No. 10 seed game and will be facing the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA play-in tournament bracket. The only question remaining is whether the game will be played in California at Golden 1 Center or in Texas at American Airlines Center.
While Sacramento has two games left on the regular-season schedule, interim coach Doug Christie had an inkling that this would be the way things played out, so he sent assistant coach Will Scott to scout Dallas last week.
The Kings already had a good read on the Mavericks, having won all three head-to-head matchups between the two teams this season. That gives Sacramento the tie-breaking advantage should it come down to that.
It probably won’t.
The Kings finish the regular season with home games against the playoff-bound Los Angeles Clippers and the Phoenix Suns, who have been in roll-over-and-play-dead mode for a while now.
Dallas closes out against a sub-.500 team in the Toronto Raptors before going on the road to play a hungry Memphis Grizzlies squad trying to improve its own playoff positioning.
Barring a complete meltdown, the Kings will play host to the Mavericks in that 9-10 showdown on April 16 at G1C.
While Christie has his staff already doing some advanced scouting, Zach LaVine said it’s important that the Kings focus more on themselves right now before turning their attention to the Mavericks.
“We understand we‘re going to play them, but we’re more worried about ourselves on how we can get in the right rhythm and continue to play good basketball,” LaVine told NBC Sports California after the Kings’ 124-116 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday. “Even tonight with the loss, we played good basketball, gave ourselves a chance. We’re going to see [the Mavericks], we’re going to play them, but these next couple of games, let’s make sure we play the right way.”
In spite of Wednesday’s loss, the Kings left G1C with a fairly positive vibe.
After a rocky first half when it fell behind 66-58, committed six turnovers and allowed Denver to shoot nearly 47 percent from the floor, Sacramento got going after halftime and made the Nuggets sweat out the final few minutes of the night.
“That was a tough one,” Christie said. “We’re gonna have to lick our wounds and come back and be ready to get it it because the Clippers are going to be coming.”
Christie lamented the Kings’ inability to sustain their attack against the Nuggets, so he didn’t get overly excited about Sacramento’s surge in the final minutes.
It basically was lipstick on a pig, and Christie knows it won’t be good enough in the postseason no matter who the Kings line up against.
“There is a level that I’m going to demand that we play at,” Christie said. “The consistency at which you play at that level in this league determines the altitude, how high you fly in this league. If you’re up and down constantly, you’re probably going to take a lot of losses. If you do not reach that level, you’re going to get the hell beat out of you.
“We’re not here for that.”
