Kings held players-only meeting before OT win vs. Timberwolves

Kings held players-only meeting before OT win vs. Timberwolves originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

A frustrated Kings locker room took matters into its own hands after Wednesday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets, another lopsided affair that didn’t sit well with anyone, despite it coming at the hands of the defending NBA champions.

That’s how high the standard is in Sacramento.

Those frustrations led to a 35-minute players-only meeting on Thursday before the Kings boarded a plane to Minnesota, The Sacramento Bee’s Chris Biderman reported.

The players-only meeting was the first since Mike Brown took over as Kings coach last season.

“We had a team meeting to talk about (how) we have to take this s— seriously because we got 23 games left now,” Kings guard Malik Monk told The Sacramento Bee on Friday. “The coaches are going to say what they’re going to say, but we’re out they’re playing.

“We knew we had to come together and outwork somebody.”

The self-imposed wake-up call preceded a huge 124-120 overtime win over the top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday at Target Center, and Brown appreciated his team’s call to action.

“I freaking love it,” Brown shared with The Sacramento Bee. “This is me, I’ve been talking internally to our front office, to our coaches, and even to our team, (saying) ‘We won’t reach the heights we can reach until you guys take ownership.’ As a head coach, you can push and carry the group only so far. There’s gotta be a point in time to where it comes from within.

“And they talked to one another, and they held each other accountable, and they take ownership in whatever the heck was going on in front of them. And so, for them to have that for the first time, man, I actually went out and had a drink last night.”

The Kings have been an anomaly this season. Sacramento has suffered a handful of blowout losses and has a head-scratching habit of playing down to its opponents, while still rising to the occasion and going toe-to-toe with the league’s elite teams.

Thursday’s players-only meeting allowed a hungry Kings team to refocus their energy on battling to the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kings-held-players-only-meeting-183123585.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-03-02 18:31:23

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