Kings Lose on Record-Breaking Night
By: Morgan Ragan
The Kings fell to 2-6 record after losing to the Pistons 97-90 Friday night.
"Its deceiving. 97 points, 44 percent from the field. I thought their numbers were a lot higher," Michael Malone said post game.
Sacramento came into this game averaging the fewest turnovers per game in the NBA, but committed 17 against the Pistons including a season-high seven turnovers in the first quarter.
Grevis Vasquez had 13 points for the Kings and Isaiah Thomas put up 18 but neither point guard took care of the ball committing a combined 12 turnovers.
"You can't win games if you constantly beat yourself and tonight was one of the few games we turned the ball over at a high rate," Malone said.
DeMarcus Cousins scored 26 and grabbed 13 boards for the Kings while rookie Ben McLemore started for the Kings and went 1-4 behind the arc scoring seven points in 32 minutes.
"He's going to be fine, he played better tonight than he played against Brooklyn," Malone said about McLemore's performance. "He is kind of finding himself out there. Once he settles down he is going to have a great rookie season."
Pistons forward Josh Smith—who was benched during Tuesday's loss to the Warriors—filled up the stat sheet with 21 points, eight boards, seven assists, five steals and four blocks.
Malone said Smith had a big night but that second-year big man Andre Drummond was more of a problem for Sacramento."[He had] seven made field goals and they were all dunks. I think Andre Drummond totally dominated us tonight."
Drummond grabbed 18 rebounds including eight offensive boards and finished with 15 points.
On a positive note:
This was the Kings only scheduled nationally televised game, which included a sellout crowd of 17,317 Kings fans "roaring" at the top of their lungs.
Sleep Train Arena set the Guinness World Record for "Loudest Crowd Roar at an Indoor Sports Stadium." The fans broke the record three times and the record stands officially at 126 decibels.
You can hear Morgan with Deuce & J-Ross from 12-3 p.m. on KHTK. Follow her on Twitter: @momoragan
