Coach Mike Brown didn’t mince words about the Kings’ shaky defensive effort in a 126-113 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.
The NBA season has many ups and downs and the Kings' 126-113 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday at Fiserv Forum certainly was one of those low points.
Sacramento (13-10) came into its game against the Bucks (18-6) winners of three straight games, with impressive wins over the Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls, eliciting early playoff positioning conversations.
However, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday and the rest of the Bucks had other plans.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Once the game started, Milwaukee forced Sacramento into uncomfortable situations on both sides of the ball, which Kings coach Mike Brown noticed.
"What's disappointing for me is this is one of the first times I've felt we played a game and our opponent dictated from the beginning of the game how the night was going to go," Brown told reporters postgame.
While both sides shot similarly from the field and 3-point range, Milwaukee did have three scorers in double figures after one half of basketball: Antetokounmpo (18), Holiday (18) and Brook Lopez (10).
The trio collectively shot 55 percent from the field and were difficult to stop in the first half.
NBA
"I didn't think they felt us at all defensively," Brown continued. "It was almost like our defense was almost like a glorified scrimmage game or pick-up game.
"Milwaukee went where they want to go, they did what they wanted to do."
After being down by as many as 12 points in the third quarter, Sacramento began to push back and find its offensive rhythm.
In the fourth quarter, the Kings were able to trim the deficit to two, 103-101, with 8:29 remaining in the game. However, Brown added that Sacramento "blew" a lot of assignments, which allowed the deficit to balloon to 10 points, 115-105, after three in-game minutes.
"Like I said, this is tough to swallow because they didn't feel us from the start nor throughout the game course of the game and I think we're better than that," Brown said.
Despite the loss, Domantas Sabonis continued his recent stretch of excellent basketball. The 6-foot-11 center had 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds and seven assists.
Routinely matched up against the 7-foot-1 Lopez, Sabonis often took advantage of his superior speed and strength to get to his spots for easy baskets.
Although the Kings had six players score in double figures, Antetokounmpo and Holiday were too much for Sacramento as the former had 35 points -- including 12 points in the fourth quarter alone -- and the latter finished with 31 points.
The Kings now have lost 13 straight games against the Bucks, dating back to Feb. 1, 2016, when Sacramento won 111-104.
RELATED: Monk confidently says Kings 'legit' NBA playoff contenders
With a disappointing loss in the books, the Kings will travel to Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers on Friday at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse at 4:30 p.m. PT.
Having already defeated the Cavaliers at Golden 1 Center on Nov. 9, the Kings hope to bounce back sooner rather than later.