Two teams struggling with defensive issues of late hope to pad their offensive stats at the other’s expense when the Charlotte Hornets visit the Sacramento Kings on Monday night.
The Hornets have not responded well to one of the season’s biggest shockers — a 100-97 road win over the Los Angeles Lakers last Wednesday — with 129-115 and 141-88 thumpings at Denver and Portland, respectively.
Saturday’s 53-point whipping at Portland ties for the worst setback in franchise history. Charlotte also lost by that amount in a 135-82 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 16, 2023.
The Kings were faring no better over that stretch, beaten 140-133 in overtime at New Orleans before returning home for a 132-108 shellacking at the hands of the Golden State Warriors on Friday.
In their last two games, the Kings have given up more points than any other team (136.0 per game) while allowing 51.9-percent shooting and 44.1 percent on 3-pointers, which rank as the fourth- and third-worst, respectively, in the NBA over that stretch.
The Hornets have permitted the second-highest percentage of field goals (54.1 percent) and highest 3-point success (45.3 percent) while serving up the second-most points in the league (135.0).
Even in the seventh of nine straight road games, Hornets coach Charles Lee expects better from his guys in Sacramento.
“It happens sometimes in this league where you don’t have your best effort in terms of shot-making, or maybe you’re just a step slow defensively in rotation,” Lee said. “I would say, for most of the season, we’ve been able to dig ourselves out of those holes when we’ve had some slow starts, but (Saturday at Portland) we just dug ourselves too deep.
“I think this group, the people that I know in that locker room, the care factor and the character, will be better next game.”
The Hornets and Kings will be meeting for the first time this season. A rematch is set for April 4 in Charlotte.
A visit to Sacramento means another home-state game for LaMelo Ball, the former Los Angeles-area prep phenom who had an enjoyable homecoming with 27 points in last week’s win over the Lakers. He still has visits to Golden State (Tuesday on a back-to-back) and the Los Angeles Clippers (March 16) on his upcoming schedule.
The dazzling point guard has put on a show in each of his three previous visits to Sacramento, going for 24 points and 12 assists on Feb. 28, 2021 win, 24 points and 13 assists in a loss on Nov. 5, 2021 and 23 points and 12 assists in a win on Dec. 19, 2022.
If there’s good news for the Kings — other than a visit from a road-weary, 14-win team — it’s that they’ve lost two in a row. It’s their fourth two-game losing streak since Jan. 23. On each previous occasion, they won the next time out.
Kings coach Doug Christie believes the key to continuing that trend is to limit turnovers. The Kings, adjusting to life without traded guard De’Aaron Fox, had 24 in Friday’s loss to Golden State, resulting in a whopping 38 Warriors points.
“The biggest concern is offensively, you’re turning the ball over with live-ball turnovers; there’s not a lot of defense for that,” Christie said. “Guys are getting (fast) breaks, they’re drawing fouls, they’re getting to the basket, they’re collapsing what defense you do have back in the transition, and they’re kicking the ball out (for 3-pointers).”
The Warriors made 20 3-pointers on 43 attempts against the Kings.
