Kings’ defense keeps giving their offense little chance

That’s where Sacramento stands at 1-8. There are individual developments worth liking, but the defense keeps making them mostly irrelevant to the result.

Friday’s 124-109 loss to the Spurs offered another example. Sacramento surrendered 75 first-half points, allowing San Antonio to make 10 of 16 attempts from three before the break, as Kings On SI detailed⁠.

The Spurs finished 15-of-30 from deep. Even a productive offensive night becomes a fairly steep climb under those circumstances.

Acuff remains a reason to watch. The rookie looks comfortable creating offense, but San Antonio deliberately tested him defensively, including with post-ups. He picked up two early fouls.

That’s part of learning the league. The problem is that a backcourt featuring Acuff and Zach LaVine, with Domantas Sabonis behind them, gives coach Doug Christie plenty of defensive issues to address at once.

Leaky Black at least offered something different.

Starting with De’Andre Hunter out because of illness, Black scored 12 points, made four threes and added four assists and two steals in 40 minutes. He also handled difficult perimeter assignments, making a case for continued rotation minutes.

Dylan Cardwell’s return supplied another encouraging development, with nine points and three blocks in 15 minutes.

Those are useful contributions. They also underline the larger problem.

The Kings can find a rotation piece, get production from their rookie and move the ball well. Until they make opponents work harder to score, those positives will keep coming with explanations for another loss.