Three Takeaways From Kings' Disastrous Loss to Clippers

The Sacramento Kings are in the midst of one of the worst preseasons in recent memory. They've lost all three games, Keegan Murray is out for at least 4-6 weeks after having surgery on his hand, and now Domantas Sabonis has a hamstring injury that forced him to leave the game against the Los Angeles Clippers early.

And not only is the unfortunate injury news piling up, but the Kings looked truly lifeless in a 91-109 loss to the Clippers. The young guys once again brought the game closer towards the end of the game, but Sacramento trailed nearly the entire game and fell behind by as many as 29 points. Here are three key takeaways from the Kings' third preseason game.

Three-Point Shooting Woes

Last year, the Kings had the terrible combination of not being able to defend the three and not being able to make their threes. That put them in a nightly deficit from beyond the arc that made it nearly impossible to make up, and was one of many reasons they finished the season with a disappointing play-in loss.

So far in the preseason, they've been better at defending the three, but their shooting from deep has yet to come alive. They shot 9-of-42, 21.4%, from three against the Clippers, with only Nique Clifford hitting more than one three.

Sabonis and Devin Carter missed all five of their attempts, Dario Saric made one of his four looks, and even Zach LaVine, who was on fire during the first two games, went 1-of-5. Through three preseason games, the Kings have shot 30-of-109, 27.5%, from deep. fingers crossed it's just a rough preseason shooting stretch and not the start of a season-long trend.

Hint at Power Forward?

The biggest question coming into this game was who would start at power forward with Murray's injury. Dario Saric got the fist shot at the starting spot, and had some nice moments where he moved the ball well, but finished with 5 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist on 33.3% shooting from the field and 25% from three.

Isaac Jones got the next chance, entering the game with 7:31 left in the first quarter and all four of the other starters still in the game, but he didn't fair much better than Saric, finishing with 5 points and 3 rebounds on 66.7% shooting from the field and making one of his two threes.

The Clippers are an extremely hard matchup to gauge the power forward matchup against. They have the hyper-athletic duo of Derrick Jones Jr. and John Collins, both of whom had great games with 12 and 24 points apiece, respectively.

The Kings still have one preseason game to experiment with lineup combinations, but early indications are that Saric or Jones will get the nod at the starting spot.

Nique Clifford Looks Ready