Luka Doncic Earns First Career Win Over Kings
Jan 15, 2020, 10:22 PM | Updated: 10:22 pm
Photo by: Kimani Okearah
Heading into Wednesday night’s game in Sacramento, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks had yet to defeat the Kings in four tries over the last two seasons. But, after a 25 point, 17 assist and 15 rebound triple-double, Doncic finally got his revenge on the team that passed him up with the 2nd overall pick in the 2018 Draft. Mavericks won 127-123.
“Did a lot of good things. Again it’s right there, right in our face, why we have to continue to play defense and get stops,” said Kings head coach Luke Walton.
Sacramento allowed Dallas to shoot 51% for the game, and struggled to stay in front of any Mavericks ball handler on the perimeter. The Kings were also demolished on the offensive glass, giving up 13 offensive rebounds resulting in 22 second chance points.
One thing the Kings did well was play with pace, scoring 23 fast break points, but Walton feels that translated to a lack of focus on the defensive end.
“When you play fast, you get fatigued. When you get fatigued, you make mental mistakes.”
De’Aaron Fox recognized the poor defense, but disagrees that playing fast had a negative effect, “I don’t think they should go hand in hand. When we are scoring, we should get stops…”.
Fox had another great performance, and appeared to be playing angry for most of the night. After picking up a technical foul in the third quarter, De’Aaron fought his way to a 27 point, 12 assist double-double. His only real struggles came from the free-throw line, where he went just three of nine.
“(It’s) something that I work on. For me to get the the next level I need to start making seven, eight or nine of nine. That’s the next big step in my development.”
Sacramento, now 15-26 on the season, begins a five game road trip Saturday night in Utah. They will return home for a meeting with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, January 29th.
