Preparing for the Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks Rematch | Locked On Kings

Preparing for the Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks Rematch | Locked On Kings

We’re still recovering from the Beatdown at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks last night on lockon Kings and I guess part of the healing process is collabing with locked on Mavericks Nick angstead joins me we’re going to talk about last night’s game preview Friday’s massive rematch right here on locked on

Kings you are locked on Kings your daily Sacramento Kings podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and now ladies and gentlemen it is that time time for another episode of lock on King hello and welcome into locked on Kings your podcast hub for Sacramento

Kings coverage all season long my name is Matt George I have the privilege of being your host here I’m a Sacramento Sports Anchor and reporter for ABC 10 News well I hope you got a good night’s sleep last night I hope that it was able to uh wash away all the feelings and

Frustrations and pain of the Kings 36o loss to Dallas the biggest game of the season so far for Sacramento and they got their their heads kicked in for lack of a better turb the good news is they have another shot at the Mavericks on Friday they’re already up 2-1 on the

Season series meaning they win and regardless of what happened yesterday they have the tiebreaker they’re even with the Mavericks in the standings but because you would have the tiebreaker in that situation you’re essentially even you’re you’re ahead of the Mavericks even though you’re tied uh in the

Standing so there’s still a lot for the Sacramento Kings to play for they have shown a tendency over these past two seasons to bounce back really well after bad losses so that should be both the hope and the expectation for the Kings inside the golden one Center on Friday

Night that is something that Nick instead and I talk about in great detail we’re going to ask I’m G to ask Nick some questions from the the Maverick’s perspective on what happened he’s going to ask me if the perspective on what happened last night and then we’re going

To focus on and preview a lot of what needs to happen for both teams to be successful on Friday so please enjoy this crossover episode with lockon Mavericks and Nick angstead all right welcome in Nick angstead from lockon Mavs here with Matt George from lock down kings and we’re here to talk about

Mavs vers Kings this mini like playoff series that felt so contentious until the game was actually played and then then the Mavs got the win uh shot an insane percentage from three but we’re going to do this I’m going to ask questions about the Kings to Matt Matt’s

Going to ask questions to me about the Mavs and then at the end we’ll share one thing that each team needs to do to win the next game which is incredibly important so Matt let’s start with you ask me some questions about the Dallas Mavericks and their 132 to 96 win over

The Kings okay question number one I blacked out in the second half what happened oh my goodness gracious I’ll tell you I’ll tell you the good news about it Luca dones scored two points in the second half that’s that’s great King’s defense right what I the what I take away from

That is Luca was a scrub in the second half that that’s what I take away from that luuka was absolutely not good King shut him down benched in the fourth quarter Jason kid LCA you know what they don’t need Luca no they don’t Marvin Bagley would

Had 30 last night I just want that to be 30 seconds played that’s what I mean or 30 injuries regardless hey man like look I expect Dallas Mavericks fans to take their Victory laps I will say this raccoon Squad get the hell out of my comment section you trash

Pandas you absolute Nick sent me go away go away Squad coming through strong last night in the comment section scoreboard still says 2-1 okay two1 Sacramento Kings although ultimate bragging rights go to the Mavs right now because they’re ahead in the standings I get that Friday’s game is massive what I want to

Start with is this um I mean the Kings what they’ve done recently a lot better Nick is defend the three-point shot that has been like the bane of their existence this season they’ve been giving up way too high percentages from three the eight games before last night’s loss to the Mavericks they’ve

Done a much better job defending the three guys not named Luca and Kyrie went 14 of 22 from three-point range last night should I I guess should Kings fans or should the Kings themselves feel pretty confident that they can’t hope that this is what’s going to happen for

Them to win on Friday but should they feel pretty confident that the Mavericks aren’t going to be able to shoot that well The Supporting Cast is not going to be able to shoot that well again I’m gonna go full politician with this answer so I’m going to answer with the

Thumb as well pointing uh yes and no so the answer is the answer is of course not like I I would not I did not expect them to shoot that well now the Mavericks were due for a good shooting game they had solid three-point Shooters like Tim Hardaway you know Luca Kyrie

Whoever just not shooting well at all even PJ Washton has been shooting like 19% from three in the last couple of weeks just you know he’s a he’s normally like a 35% three-point shooter but just shooting way under his numbers and so the Ms were due for some kind of

Regression they just got it all in one game basically from all these guys the other the thing about it though that like yes the Mavs aren’t going to shoot that well from three in the next game probably but the other thing is the Mavs have won games not shooting the three

Ball well since these trades before the Mavericks made the trades for PJ Washington and for Daniel Gafford and I say I see a lot of things on lockdown Mavs now pre- trade and post trades because it’s just completely changed the entire complex of this team right the Mavericks before the trades this season

Were 0 and seven in games they shot under 30% from three since then I think they’re six and two now because they won a game the other night in games where they shot under 30% from three so they’re shooting under 30% from three in like a lot of

The games that they’ve played since then but they find they find other ways to win and so yes the three-point shooting is going to come back down to Earth but they do find other ways to win they get in the paint they have the pick and roll

Threats all the time they get out in transition they score you know fast break points I know the Kings didn’t do a lot of that last night but uh the Mavs like they scored points off turnovers like they just find different ways to score and then Luca and Kyrie can give

Them just enough and so that the three-point shooting is kind of one of the big focuses and it kind of is for the Mavs too to try and get like all right can we get any kind of three-point shooting because it just hasn’t been great so far even though they’ve been

Finding ways to win without it a couple things stood out to me from from the Kings postgame perspective I’ll present them both to you each with a question attached the first one is the kings were caught off guard a little bit or caught by surprise with how Dallas defended

Them it’s no surprise that the kings are trying to get downhill they’re trying to touch the paint get spray threes which is a pillar of Mike Brown’s offense something that the Mavericks did an excellent job of Mike was talking last night like the Mavericks beat the Kings

At their game last night with the fast break the spray threes everything but but what the Mavericks did that the kings were pointing out a lot that they didn’t necessarily expect was they were defending high they were coming up Gafford who whoever it was The Bigs were

Coming up and and and playing high and and forcing the Kings to to scramble a little bit and not really get into their offense start at the perimeter not just in the paint where of course the defense would then collapse if the Kings tried to get inside which is normal what did

You see did you see anything that the Mavs did differently defensively last night to what they normally do or were the Kings just not prepared for a a MAV style of defense last night the Mavs defense has been predicated for oh my gosh years now it seems it seems like

Predicated on effort and predicated on all right we have this rotating defense where we’re going to you know rotate and help help over here and then the guy that’s farthest away has to run over and rotate and like when the Mavericks aren’t putting in that effort when Luca

Or Kyrie or Tim Hardway Jr or somebody I’m not going to name names even though I just did when somebody doesn’t put in the right effort and like rotate to the guy they’re supposed to the defense completely falls apart and just like the bottom falls out and so the Mavs very

Recently had a stretch where they lost five of six games and they played two games against the Pacers where their defense looked like like not NBA defense at all like it looked like I mean it was worse than the Wizards basically it was terrible to watch it didn’t look like

Any of their fundamentals were there it didn’t look like the Mavs were even trying and so I was at the point where I was like man they’ve got to they’ve got to change something get this right something coaching staff is not getting any kind of semblance of Defense out of

This group and if that’s going to be the case then get rid of Jason kid now because this team’s never going to win if they don’t and then they’ve completely changed it around since then and they always have kind of had this in the Luca era they’ve kind of had this

Like all right we’re going to turn it a little bit on defense because it’s a predicated on effort it’s predicated on finishing plays getting rebounds they’ve gotten much better as a rebounding team since the trades you know adding Gafford so they have Lively or Gafford on the

Court at all times PJ Washington’s a bigger Wing than Grant Williams was and so finishing plays putting that right kind of effort I think that’s been the big thing that that changed I don’t know that I saw anything schematically against the kings that was like very different than what the Mavs have done

The thing that kind of stood out to me that I talked about in in on lockdown Mavs is I thought like there Lively did a great job on sabonis in the third quarter sabonis like three or four times tried to take it to him in the post and

After Lively bit on that pump fake in the first quarter that was just like really embarrassing uh he didn’t bite on it at all after that and just did a really good job defending him what did you what did you see on that side of it um from like them defending sabonis well

I thought they were patient to your to your point about not biting on the pump fakes but I thought what they did a very good job of is they swarmed the basketball sabonis lik to he likes to play phal they played straight they took it in the chest even

Though some of you people like to take that and run with it and pretend he plays dirty when he absolutely does not he is the pushiest player in the NBA he plays pushes per minute is like the highest I think he is undersized as a center and you can’t be talking about

Pushes when Luca donic uses a stiff arm every time he he dribbles the basketball dear fo shoulder it’s a stiff shoulder sorry stiff shoulder Fox gets called for it and Luca doesn’t by the way but we’re not we don’t have to go down that rabbit hole but to answer your question I

Thought the Mavs did a good job of staying patient with sabonis uh swarming sabonis when he got deep position and then doing a good job of cutting off the passing Lane so sabonis couldn’t get the ball out and even when he did get the ball out the Kings weren’t knocking down

Shots so they were they were making the right gamble of Daring someone to beat them on the perimeter it was the right call last night but the other thing postgame that that stood out to me Nick that I wanted to ask you about really quickly and I talked about this a lot on

Lock on Kings Mike Brown and I kind of flipped the script last night because a lot this season I’ve talked about man the defense the defense is bad but the offense man the offense is what the kings are known for and it just hasn’t been good enough and Mike’s been

Typically answering my questions with like the offense is fine defensively we got to be better we got to be better last night Mike Brown said we lost this game because of our offense the Kings gave up 130 plus points but he’s saying we lost because of our offense and he

Said the king’s offense led to a lot of the offensive opportunities led to a lot of the Rhythm for the Dallas Mavericks I’m curious the way you look at that game the Kings got beat on both ends of the floor no ifs ANS or butts about it

But where did you see the biggest weakness for Sacramento was on the offensive or defensive end or what caught you by surprise that the Mavs were able to dominate more yeah I was surprised by the the king’s offense too I heard you say that on the on the

Postgame show and I was surprised that the Kings uh I felt like they settled for a lot of shots felt like they you know in the second quarter it felt like Fox had started to get into a rhythm and figuring out how to get to his spots and

And pull up for floaters then I thought okay Mavs are going to have to adjust here and then they’ll kick out to to Shooters but when the Mavs are rotating and like they got lucky on a couple of you know a couple of shots Kings what

Shot 36% from three but they only took 30 like it didn’t feel like the kings were playing their their own style of offense really correct the Mavs were were very physical with him I was joking ear we were joking earlier about the the pushing back and forth but it was a very

Physical game and the refs let him let him away with a lot of stuff last night like a lot of stuff under the rim and all that and then the perimeter if you grabbed somebody it felt like it was a foul it was like a very very weirdly

Officiated game in that way but yeah I was surprised by the by the Kings offense because uh yeah I just kept waiting for them to go on some kind of run and I think I think a lot of it was the transition offense like the Mavs transition defense was there and the

Kings didn’t get any easy baskets where the Mavs were on the other end like you get a little bit of a run starting when like Kyrie beats everybody on the floor Lively beats everybody and Luca hits him with a pass down the floor and you get a

Couple of those easy buckets that way it really started to snowball for him and so coming up let’s talk about the the king side of this let’s talk about I want to know what was the most concerning part of the Kings lost last night looking towards that Friday

Matchup between these two teams talk about all that and more coming up today’s episode of the lockon Kings podcast is brought to you by eBay Motors passion drive and patience what brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything that you need to maintain

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Questions about the Kings and about the king’s side of it what was your most concerning thing after that game uh it’s 132 to 96 loss but what’s the what’s the most concerning thing you look at and go man like this is not who we are or this

Is what I’m most concerned about against this Maps team in a game that’s coming up again well first off bringing up the final score wasn’t necessary and I take that as an offense so we have to talk we don’t have to that’s over the were you

Concerned by the final score a little I mean a wee bit you know biggest game of the year and you almost lost by 40 points no big deal but I mean funny enough Nick like if you had listened to lock on Kings a week and a half ago when

The Kings lost on the road to the Washington Wizards I blew a gasket on that postgame show as you and the Kings have lost to the the Wizards they’ve lost to the um the Rockets three times and the rockets are a pretty decent team now they’re not in the same category as

The wi they’ve lost to the Hornets they’ve lost to some of the worst teams in the NBA one of the few teams in the league that have lost to everybody in the seller except for the San Antonio Spurs at this point so they’ve had some losses that were I think way worse than

Last night’s loss despite the fact that it was only a four or sixo loss versus a 36 point loss right there was a lot about last night’s game that I’m really not majorly concerned about because the Kings have had a pattern consistently I need Mavs fans to understand this this

Is not Cockiness the Kings have gotten blown out multiple times this season and almost every single time except for one that I can remember they’ve responded well so the expectation in Sacramento on Friday is that there is going to be a good response that doesn’t mean that the

Kings are going to win but that means that what the king what what the Mavericks saw from the Kings on Tuesday I don’t think is going to be similar at all to what they see on Friday now if the Mavs beat the Kings down again then

We got some alarm Bells going off right but what I guess what concerned me the most Nick and I talked about this last night too last season the Kings offensively showed that they can outscore anybody and they can go on these Unstoppable stretches and on these Unstoppable runs where even Kevin Durant

Was going on his podcast going like what do we do the offense this season just is not the same now the good news is the defense has gotten better and in the playoffs which is ultimately what this Seasons about in the playoffs the Kings offense wasn’t good against the Warriors

Their defense is what made that a seven a best of seven series so the kings are kind of preparing for that now with the way that they’ve been playing but when the Kings went down 12 then 14 then 16 in the third quarter even though they’re

More than capable of rattling off a 10 run and getting right back into it me being there the energy in the building was God I don’t think the kings are going to be able to string anything together tonight so the biggest concern with me Nick to answer your question is

Offensively it feels like the Kings have lost that Firepower and that that ruthlessness that they had last season that teams feared it also happens to to be a second season to where Now teams aren’t caught by surprise anymore Kings know what or rather teams know what the

Kings are bringing so my concern is is definitely on the offensive end and this this team’s ability to work themselves out of a big hole when they put themselves into one yeah that was the thing I noticed about this I’ve noticed about this Kings team overall is they’re

Three points per 100 possessions worse offensively than they were last season last season kind of unsustainable almost 120 points per possessions season 117 but they went from the but the NBA though has completely caught up offensively correct last year the kings were first this year they dropped three

Points which you’re like okay three points that’s like not a ton 14th they’re like an average offense this season 117 points per under possession which used to be one of the greatest marks in NBA history why what’s been the biggest difference between the Kings offense last year and this year one I

Think again teams are not caught by uh surprise with Sacramento two is I think this Kings team has overestimated themselves as a three-point shooting team on paper this team looks like a team that’s stacked with Shooters but this Kings team lives and dies by the three-point shot and it’s not so much

That they’re chucking from three although they’ve done that from time to time it’s and this is what Mike Brown has pointed out a lot the quality of Threes that they’ve been getting in a lot of games just hasn’t been up to par like last night for example spray threes

Which is paint touches getting into the paint and then kicking it out from three Mike’s goal is for the Kings to generate 20 spray three attempts a game and he can live with the results right in the first half the kings were five of 10 from spray threes 50% on 10 generated

Looks that’s really really good that’s why they were only down six despite Luca donic going MVP mode in the second half they were one for four so three-point shooting is the in so many ways the lifeblood of this king’s offense you’d think it’d be paays and transition and

It still is because their transition usually leads to a lot of spray threes and good looks but if this team is cold from the perimeter they really really struggle to win now what we’ve seen recently is they can survive a little bit better being cold from three-point

Range with this new found offense with which is predicated on physicality and the Kings played physical last night but the Mavericks carved up that physicality in the second half which is why the Kings ended up where they were at the other thing I the stat I’ve been

Monitoring for the Mavs is is points in the paint and the Kings always scored 38 points in the paint which is a really big thing as well I’ll talk we’ll talk about that a little bit later when I talk about one thing the Mavs need to do

Um but I want to talk about the the king’s defense so you you talked about this new new found defense for the for the Kings they’ve had some really good defensive games the last couple of weeks uh when they’re defending well what are they doing right like what are the what

Are the principles or what are the things that this king’s defense does when you’re like oh it’s working like it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing they go back to the basics and and what I mean by that is Mike Brown has talked about this a lot Mike Brown and

The Kings had to spend time in practice this year going over basic Closeouts on defense now that sounds like wow that’s kind of pathetic because that’s something like a high five close out on the perimeter is is what the Kings have had to work on this is basic stuff you

Learn in high school or earlier than that right which is closing out on a shooter not running into them but going past them to the side and trying to essentially high five them at the sh top of their jump shot without making contact right that’s the best way you

Can close out the Kings have done a much better job closing out from the perimeter because the reality is and Mike pointed this out earlier if the kings were average with their perimeter defense we’re talking 15th 16th 17th in the league they’d be a top 10 defense

But because they are one of the worst if not the worst three-point defensive team in the league they’re in the bottom half in the month of March they’ve been doing a significantly better job with Closeouts with defending the perimeter so it all starts there the Dallas Mavericks won that game last night

Because they could not miss from three-point range number one but number two Sacramento was not doing a good enough job trying to run them off the three-point line they naturally had to give Shooters space because when you’re guarding Kyrie and you’re guarding LCA donic it’s help help help help help

Which is usually a an advantage that the Kings have with dearon Fox and Malik Monk on the other end of the floor so I understand that very well there’s only so much you can do you have to help out on those two ball handlers but you have

To do a better job closing out from the perimeter which the Kings did not do that’s been a a really that’s been a major success of this Kings team as of late and it was nowhere to be found last night coming up let’s talk about one

Thing the Mavs need to do one something the Kings need to do to get the win on Friday and then I kind of want to talk about how each team views the playoff picture right now because it is kind of insane where they are right now so let’s

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Usa.com all right Matt let’s talk about the uh let’s talk about one thing each team needs to do to get a win on Friday I think for the Mavericks I mentioned this earlier the points in the paint the Kings this season including last night’s game are 4 and 16 when they score under

45 points in the paint the Mavs held them to 38 last night and so if they can contain the paint they contain sabonis they contain those spray threes in a in a way like all right we’re not allowing you to have this and just all right you

Got to beat us on the three you got to do the same thing the Mavs did to the Kings you have to hit 56% from three or whatever uh I think they need to contain the paint again that I think that’s a real real key for the Mavericks and with

Two centers and Gafford and Lively that thought played pretty well last night U even with the fouls and everything I thought that they did a great job and they got that done last night I think they can do it again on Friday yeah I I

Mean I I 100% agree with you now the Kings have actually weirdly enough this is like the third game in recent memory that the Kings have had less than 40 points in the paint and I mean that’s been kind of a theme of this stretch as

Of late and I think it also goes to the Universal game plan that the Mavericks are privy to and every team was privy to which is swarm the paint muddy up the paint and force sabonis to play as physical as he has to and not let the

Kings get those paint touches and get that success around the rim that they’re used to so it’s a absolute right game plan for Jason kid Force the Kings to beat it and the Kings have not always consistently been able to do so they found cracks before and a lot of it has

To do with the three-point shooting if you can knock down your threes and force the defense to spread out a little bit more get Malik monk going because Malik was not good last night if malink Malik is shooting the way that Malik’s capable of shooting you can’t necessarily play

That defense like the maps played all the time so your your spot on there he had that alleyoop though that was I thought for sure that alop in the third quarter I thought for sure was going to like spark a run where all of a sudden

It kind of did they went on like a 70 run or something at the end of the third but I thought that was about to spark like oh God here here come the Kings they’re coming back that’s what we were all hoping for too and then yeah and

Then that 5 start for the Mavericks of the fourth quarter it was like all right turn out the lights pretty quickly so the Mavs did a fantastic job of stopping things before they could get even close to getting out of hand and I give them

Credit for for me again I’m going to go on the defensive end even though the offense was not good enough at all don’t Let The Supporting Cast beat you if Luca and Kyrie beat you by combining for 90 points okay but you can’t let PJ Washington you can’t let Gafford you

Can’t let Lively Tim Hardway Jr I’m naturally terrified of because he’s that he’s that archetype of player that typically Cooks the Kings are scared of Tim Hardway J too I look I understand that but he’s last two games so don’t let the math Supporting Cast beat you

Again right you can live with Luca and Kyrie and the way it was shaping up I was thinking okay this is going to be a close game Luca’s gonna be going for 50 and it might come down to Luca just hitting a couple big shots down the

Stretch and you’re just like okay tip your cap I’m you can’t live with I don’t expect the maps to go 14 of 22 again but at the same time don’t give them 22 good freaking looks and hope that they’re going to right so for me it’s it’s limit The

Supporting Cast as much as possible if you do that even if the game is close the kings are gonna win by a blowout by any means but if you do that then Sacramento has more than their fair chance of of winning that game yeah the legs for Sacramento too you had played

Five in what seven days or something like that that that affected the defense too and then that affected the snowball of it I think too where maybe the Mavs like if they had been more rested maybe the Mavs win that game by 10 instead of like 36 or what whatever but yeah I

Think that affected that so I don’t think it was as like oh the Mavericks are two heads better than you know better than than the Kings you know yeah I think the Kings also played a little bit last night Nick and now this isn’t acceptable by any means I think the

Kings played last night like they knew they had another crack at it and they only needed one for the tiebreaker like that the Kings kind of played last night like Mike Brown emptied the bench with six minutes left Grant down 40 so whatever but you had tired legs there’s

No reason to keep him out there like the Kings know that Friday is a massive game so I expect Sacramento to look significantly different and more engaged on Friday I also expect the Mavs to expect that so I think Friday is going to be a more accurate look of how close

These two teams are and how major of a battle it is that could also be wishful thinking after a 36o loss but look these two teams are neck and neck for a reason they both are loaded with Talent they both have supporting casts that can be

Rain or shine or are good or bad we just don’t know On Any Given night so there’s a reason why these two teams are where they’re at in the standings right now and I think it it leads to good for all of us as an audience hopefully we get a

More entertaining basketball game well the first half at least I was fully entertained by and and the the rest of it I was too but like as a as a basketball fan the energy like what was the atmosphere like in in the arena did it feel like it was a a playoff esque

Atmosphere yes and no um I mean I I think Kings fans knew knew that that it was a big game and there was decent energy in the first half there was also a lot of I think Luca was just so brilliant in the first half too the

Kings fans were just like wow but the Mavs did a ma well shut up the Mavs did a masterful job you can stop that by the way it’s been enough time the kings are fine Nick it’s been enough time okay shut up didn’t think you heard me no go away uh Hest

The the Mavs did a fantastic job of taking that crowd out of it and limiting the energy that the the the Kings get and feed off from that crowd but oddly enough the Kings have been better on the road the last two seasons at generating their own energy than they’ve been at

Home which is strange so we’ll just have to wait and see how that goes on Friday how do the kings look at the the playoff picture right now because for the Mavs for the Mavs it’s like all right got to get to six because you just don’t want

Any any part of that playin but like if they’re in a playin I don’t know feel like the Mavs could win one of those games now with the way that they play um but yeah it’s kind of like all right we’re looking at got to get to six and

Then like what I guess let’s do it this way is there like a team that the kings are scared of in the playin or the like the lower section of the the west standings right now all of them and I I I say that not wild I say that not to ro

The idea of the play and terrifies me and should terrify the Kings because the kings are more than capable of beating anybody on any given night they’ve also proven they’re more than capable of losing to anybody on any given night I mean that’s just That’s Just Sports in a

Nutshell but the idea of the kings are a significantly better team than the Golden State Warriors the Kings own the Los Angeles Lakers but you invite either of those teams into your building for a one game playoff what’s to stop step from going for 50 what’s to stop free

Throws what’s the yeah what’s to stop LeBron J it’s basically a game seven Anything Can Happen the playin is terrifying to me and we just got an example imagine if it was Kings and and and and Mavericks in the play in last night the Mavs just rolled Sacramento in

A one game meanwhile the kings are up 2-1 on a series if it was Kings Mavs in a best of seven series I like the Kings better in that situation although those two teams are way evenly matched compared to Kings and Lakers or Kings Warriors in my opinion but the play in

In general scares the crap out of me Nick because at that point it comes down to one game anything can it’s like NCAA March Madness and when you have teams in the play in right now that are loaded with talent that might be sunsetting on their careers but is capable of having

That Hall of Fame type performance on any given night and the stage is big I don’t know how Sacramento fares in that versus if the Kings got a shot at the Lakers in a best of seven series I think the Kings would win in five or six

Because they own them in that way so the Kings making the six seed and going into the playoffs outright should be a very major sense of urgency in my opinion I don’t know if the Kings treat it the same way but I’m terrified of the plan

Yeah the playin if the Mavs are in the playin and it’s Mavs Sons Lakers Warriors how insane is that it’s it’s Luca Kyrie Booker Durant LeBron ad and Steph the NBA loves it the NBA is like this is exactly what we wanted man it’s it’s huge those are massive games every

Single night so the Kings want to avoid that please the Mavs are only a game back now from the Pelicans and the Clippers play tonight so we’ll see what happens with that but they’re only a game and a half out of the Clippers too and like the 4 five is not completely

Out of the picture if the Mavs can go four five even if Denver is one if the Mavs go four five and it’s Clippers or Pelicans where Pelicans maybe without Brandon Ingram and Clippers have not looked like a playoff team the last couple of weeks I mean that that’s where

Their their sights are I think right now um so good all right so that do me a favor you pay attention to four or five and don’t worry too much about Friday and then when Friday comes around Sacrament will Sac they gotta keep winning every game

In front of them that’s the thing is you can’t Overlook any team uh King’s schedule down those down the stretch is pretty tough though right yes but at the same time that’s almost more encouraging because the Kings tend to play well just just tell me that they lost the Wizards

The Hornet this is what the Mavericks have done well that the Kings have not in this race which is the Mavs are winning the games that they’re supposed to win two straight games in Utah I know the second one was a little testy at times but they found a way to win both

Those games the Kings had a decent road trip they beat Toronto they beat Orlando but losing to Washington that’s the difference right now in the standings or at least half a game difference right now in the standings so like the Mavs have done a really really good job of

Handling the games that they’re supposed to win and that is something that the Kings have struggled with not just this season Nick they’ve struggled with that for 20 years then again there haven’t been a lot of games that they were supposed to win over the last 20 years I was gonna

Say yeah that’s that’s insane uh is there a key player down the stretch that you’re watching for the Kings like this guy’s got to step it up or this guy’s got to be good rest of the way I mean the kings are so Reliant upon how their

Main three which is fox sabonis and monk do but I think Keegan Murray is a big part of this as well because Keegan has has has developed in into a significantly better Defender than I think we expected at this point that being said the Kings need more out of

Keegan offensively and like my to me my number is average 17 plus points a game for the remainder of this season and going through the playoffs if you get that from Keegan with the four five six rebounds that he’ll probably hopefully give you and then the better defense you

Should be okay so I think just getting a consistent near 20 points per game from Keegan on a nightly basis is going to be a big difference in the Kings offense getting back to what they’re capable of being yeah for the Mavs outside of Luca and Kyrie it’s PJ Washington his defense

Has been transformational for the Mavericks I thought he did a great job last night and then he has not hit Corner threes well at all like he just cannot hit Corner threes and he started the game last night with three threes like off of pick and Pops which I been

Calling for for forever run PJ Washington the pick and roll so you get you know a better like maybe the maybe they double Luca which they did every time and then all of a sudden you get a wide open shot for PJ so if he hits some

Of those shots I’m really watching him down the stretch for the Mavs there you go go listen to Locked on Kings go listen to Locked on Mavs we we’ll both have episodes after the game on Friday as well so win or lose another huge game for both teams and we’ll see what

Happens with them guys thanks much for listening to lock down Mavs lock down Kings screw your raccoon Squad

Matt George from Locked On Kings & Nick Angstadt of Locked On Mavericks come together to discuss the blowout Mavs victory on Tuesday night and what needs to happen for either team to be successful in Friday night’s pivotal rematch.

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Preparing for the Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks Rematch
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