The Sacramento Kings are trying to position themselves for a strong playoff push coming out of the All-Star break.
They’ll play two games in two nights against the Pelicans in New Orleans beginning Wednesday before having a week off.
Kings interim coach Doug Christie, who has led the team to a 14-8 record since replacing Mike Brown in late December, said “a decompression needs to happen” during the break after the team made a series of moves at the trade deadline last week.
“It’s not an elephant in the room,” Christie said. “Everyone understands that this is all judged by winning. We need to win ball games, put ourselves in a really good position coming out of the All-Star break.”
Sacramento is caught in the middle of a logjam of eight teams vying for the final playoff and play-in spots in the Western Conference. They’re adjusting to a roster makeover in which they shipped out star guard De’Aaron Fox and brought in two-time All-Star guard Zach LaVine and backup center Jonas Valanciunas.
Christie had toyed with playing Valanciunas and star big man Domantas Sabonis together. He finally went to the pairing in the fourth quarter Monday night, and the duo triggered a comeback that produced a 129-128 overtime win at Dallas.
“Things weren’t where we wanted them to be,” Christie said. “I thought those guys were great. They’re really going to battle on the backboard and that’s really what we needed — to limit possessions to one attempt per possession.”
The Kings finished with advantages of 50-33 in rebounds and 18-5 in second-chance points.
Rebounding could be an important factor against the Pelicans, who rank 27th in defensive rebounding and 24th in total rebounding and sit in last place in the West.
Christie was concerned about Sacramento turning the ball over 21 times, leading to 36 Dallas points. New Orleans was even worse in its last game, committing 23 turnovers that led to 40 Thunder points in a 137-101 loss at Oklahoma City on Monday.
“We talked about it, we watched it, we went over it,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said, “but when you touch the floor against a really good team, you’re in the fire and over and over we’ve got to be consistent with making the right plays, the right passes.”
The Thunder made a franchise-record 27 3-pointers in 55 attempts and 11 players made at least one shot from the beyond the arc.
The loss was the ninth straight for New Orleans, which lost at Sacramento 123-118 on Saturday despite racing to a 29-9 lead.
Zion Williamson scored a season-high 40 points against the Kings, but had just 17 as Trey Murphy III led the team with 23 against the Thunder.
The Pelicans made a significant trade of their own at the deadline, sending former All-Star forward Brandon Ingram, who hasn’t played since Dec. 7 because of an ankle injury, to Toronto in exchange for guard Bruce Brown, center Kelly Olynyk and two draft picks.
Both players hope to make their New Orleans debuts Wednesday. Olynyk’s arrival is especially timely because the Pelicans traded center Daniel Theis to the Thunder last week.
