Sacramento Kings: Turnovers spoil opening night in ugly loss to the Suns

The Sacramento Kings suffered a second-half meltdown as the team fell to the Phoenix Suns by a final score of 124-95 in their first game of the season.

The Sacramento Kings will be wondering if they could rewind and start the second half of Wednesday night’s game over after falling apart in their 124-95 loss to the Phoenix Suns.

While fans were excited to get a glimpse of this new-look offense that would somehow be even quicker-paced than last season, the Kings managed to spoil the night while still meeting expectations.

The offense was, indeed, incredibly fast-paced. The Kings’ players were flying up and down the court with few possessions lasting more than 10-15 seconds. Unfortunately, there was a reason for that.

27 turnovers.

The first half was bad, but the second half was downright unwatchable. Sacramento finished the first quarter with only two turnovers and after a slow start unsurprisingly led 29-25. And even after finishing the second quarter with six more turnovers they still led by five going into the half.

What would come next would be a complete unraveling unrivaled by any team so far in this young season.

The Kings would turn the ball over a whopping 10 times in the third quarter and follow that up with nine more in the fourth quarter as they watched the game quickly slip away from them. When all was set and done, the Kings committed a turnover on a whopping 24.1% of their possessions.

You’re not going to win games — or even remain competitive — when playing like that.

Must Read. Sacramento Kings: Bogdan Bogdanovic’s extension could become a problem. light

The Suns took advantage too as those 27 turnovers turned into 35 Phoenix points. For context, the final score differential was 29. Meanwhile, Phoenix still finished with 14 team turnovers but those amounted to a whopping six Sacramento points.

Likely a direct result of the Kings’ many, many turnovers.

The Kings were sloppy, erratic, and wholly unwatchable at points. And while many were concerned with the team defense, it’s not as if the Suns’ 124 points came as a direct result of poor defense.

More from Golden Gate Sports

Sure some of it must fall on the defense, but given the sheer quantity of possessions the Suns had, it’s certainly understandable.

So where does the team go from here? It was easy to shake off the lackluster games in India because they were exhibition games being played 12 hours away from home. But now the regular season has begun and it looks as though the Kings never left Mumbai.

From an optimistic standpoint, perhaps much of this was simply new faces getting familiar with each other. Perhaps it was shaking off the rust after a long offseason. Or perhaps it had to do with trying to force the up-tempo offense more than necessary.

All could be true. But that doesn’t mean that things don’t need to change in a hurry.

Sacramento Kings: Turnovers spoil opening night in ugly loss to Phoenix Suns

By Justin Fried | Oct 24, 2019

The Sacramento Kings suffered a second-half meltdown as the team fell to the Phoenix Suns by a final score of 124-95 in their first game of the season.

More from Golden Gate Sports