Washington Wizards guard Tyus Jones had a strong game in the team’s 143-131 loss at the Sacramento Kings. | Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images Stats, analysis, commentary. It was the second night of a back-to-back, and the Wizards played like it. Facing a Sacramento Kings team with De’Aaron Fox back in the lineup, Washington took a slender four-point lead into the second quarter and then ran out of gas. The Kings outscored the Wizards 85-60 in quarters two and three. Washington trimmed the final margin to just 12 with their traditional garbage time rally. Against Sacramento, the Wizards offense was good. They shot well on twos (54.2%), threes (18-37, 48.6%), and free throws (83.3%), and avoided turnovers . It wasn’t close to enough because their defense seemed predicated on creating paths for Fox to drive to the basket, and for Domantas Sabonis to score inside. Just five of Sabonis’ 16 field goal attempts came from outside the restricted area under the basket. While the Wizards shot well (62.4% effective field goal percentage), the Kings efg was an excellent 61.5%, and they got nine offensive rebounds to Washington’s five, and had four fewer turnovers. Musings & Observations - A second straight superb game from Tyus Jones — at least on the offensive end. He scored 16 points on 10 field goal attempts, was 2-2 from three, and produced nine assists to zero turnovers.
- Jordan Poole had a productive game for one reason: he made shots. For the game, he was 10-18 from the floor and 8-13 from three-point range. His decision-making, shot-selection and all-around game was suspect, and his defensive effort nonexistent. In 29 minutes, he had zero rebounds, just two assists and a turnover. But the iffy shots he attempted went in.
- After going 3-10 from the floor with three turnovers in the first half, Kyle Kuzma went 5-6 from the floor and grabbed six of his eight rebounds in the second. He had just one assist against those three turnovers.
- Bilal Coulibaly set a new career high in free throw attempts with seven. He also had a pair of assists and a stunning block on Sasha Vezenko in the second quarter in which he seemed to teleport across the lane to swat the alley-oop layup attempt.
- A day removed from his career night against the Phoenix Suns, Daniel Gafford got overwhelmed inside by Sabonis. While Gafford is the better run and jump athlete, Sabonis is stronger, better at using leverage, and far more skilled with the ball.
- A rough night for Deni Avdija. He was 3-8 from the floor, 1-3 from deep, and 2-4 on free throws. He had five defensive rebounds, three assists, and a steal, as well as two turnovers and five fouls. The Kings were happy to give him jumpers from anywhere, and his reluctance (inability?) to make them pay bogged down Washington’s offense for stretches of the game.
- I liked the Keegan Murray “cheer” the Sacramento crowd did whenever Murray scored, which was quite a lot. For those who didn’t watch, when the arena announcer would shout, “Keeegaaannn!” and the crowd would shout back, “Muuurrraaaay!” It started in pre-game introductions and continued throughout the night. Good stuff.
Source: https://www.bulletsforever.com/2023/12/ ... abonis-fox