On Monday night, the Chicago Bulls and Sacramento Kings square off as two teams attempt to avoid earning a play-in spot in the quickly approaching NBA playoffs. The two clubs come into the last game of their two-game regular-season series as the play-in teams in their respective conferences after playing poorly lately. The Kings have dropped six of their last 11 games, and the Bulls have lost four of their last six.
Neither club has played since Friday, when Sacramento defeated the Timberwolves 124-120 in overtime to end a two-game losing streak while Chicago Bulls was humiliated 113-97 at home by the Milwaukee Bucks.
The clubs played on February 3 in Chicago, where the Kings defeated them 123-115 with to a triple-double from Domantas Sabonis (13 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists) and a scorching 41 points from De’Aaron Fox. With 26 points, Coby White led the Chicago Bulls, followed by DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, who each had 24.
After going 4-for-7 from 3-point range and going 10-for-18 overall in the defeat, White went on to score 53 points in his following two games, making 17 of his 33 shots and nine of his 16 threes. But in his last four games, the 24-year-old has struggled, going 6-for-32 (18.8%) from beyond the arc.
His teammates’ offensive struggles against the Bucks resulted in two more technical fouls, an expulsion, and a reminder that anger seldom ends well in the NBA.
“We were doing some pretty good things; they made some tough shots on the other end,” said Vucevic, the Bull who got ejected. “We’ve played some tough games. Maybe fatigue got into us a little bit. We just let our frustrations get the best of us for a little bit. We all know we have to do a better job with that. It usually doesn’t help you in any way.”
In their previous matchup, the Kings defeated the Bulls 45-33 from beyond the arc, although Sacramento has recently struggled offensively. The Kings scored just 96 points in a 21-point loss at Denver two days after being restricted to 110 points in an 11-point home loss to the Miami Heat on Monday.
Even though the offense (115 points in regulation) wasn’t as efficient as normal, the Kings responded to a players-only meeting with the victory at Minnesota, even though Fox missed his second straight game due to a bruised left knee.
Mike Brown, the coach of the Kings, was ecstatic to leave the arena on Friday—and not just because his team had triumphed.
Regarding the team gathering, he declared, “I freaking love it.” “I’ve been saying to our team, coaches, and front office internally that until you guys (the players) take ownership, we won’t be able to reach the heights we can.” You can only push and carry the team so far in your role as head coach. There must come a moment when it originates internally.
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