It was a rough Monday night for the Sacramento Kings. After leading to a massive 22-point lead with three minutes in the third quarter, the Chicago Bulls ended up pulling out a late comeback win on Sacramento's home floor, 113-109. It drops the Kings to a 34-28 record, and gets stuck at the 7th-seed in the Western Conference.
Coach Mike Brown spoke with the media after the Kings' loss, praising the Bulls' game plan that led to their stellar fourth quarter:
"You give Chicago credit, because they won the basketball game. They did exactly what they do. They played a lot of pick and roll. They tried to get downhill, but the biggest thing is they swarm that paint, and they get deflections and they get out and they run. So, you give them credit, because they followed their game plan."
The Kings were outscored 18-36 by the Bulls in the fourth quarter, which led to the disappointing result of this game being what it was for Sacramento. De'Aaron Fox had a solid game returning from injury (20 points, 10 assists), and Domantas Sabonis had a monster night on the glass (18 points, 21 rebounds), but a high team total of 17 turnovers allowed Chicago to get too many opportunities to get back in the game.
Chicago saw some huge production from Coby White, who scored a career-high 37 points, as well as DeMar DeRozan, chipping in for 33. The Bulls continue to strengthen their Play-In bid in the East with this win, jumping to a 29-32 regular season record.
Coach Brown continued to discuss the feelings in the Sacramento locker room after the loss:
"Obviously, the mood, everybody's down because it was a winnable game. Even though we feel like we didn't play well, we still felt it was a winnable game. So, we felt like we let this one slip through our fingers. It's tough right now. It's tough for anyone to swallow this one."
The Kings will get their chance at redemption during their next game on Wednesday as they take on the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.
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