Kings fall short in loss to Pacers. Mike Brown blames himself; players cite 20 turnovers

In a game filled with subplots, the Kings couldn’t overcome the Indiana Pacers on the road Friday.

They fell 107-104 after turning the ball over seven times in the fourth quarter while missing star point guard De’Aaron Fox, spoiling Domantas Sabonis’ first game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse since being traded to Sacramento. Kings coach Mike Brown admitted he made mistakes down the stretch.

“At the end of the day, I was terrible,” Brown said.

Brown mentioned a sequence in which Trey Lyles grabbed an offensive rebound with 2:36 remaining and was surrounded by three Pacers defenders. He had nowhere to go with the ball and flung the pass out of bounds while falling backwards and hitting his head on the floor.

The Kings were down 107-101 at the time. Brown thought he should have called a timeout to give the offense a chance to reset and save Lyles from the precarious situation.

“I thought that he’d be able to find somebody on the perimeter for a spray 3 because he had three guys around him,” Brown said. “I’m just mad at myself for not taking the timeout to help Trey in that situation.”

The Kings lost despite holding the Pacers scoreless over the last 2:55 and outscoring Indiana 56-47 after halftime. Their bugaboo was their 20 turnovers, leading to 23 points for the Pacers, and not executing late. With Fox away from the team for personal reasons, Sacramento was without its go-to scorer and ballhandler down the stretch.

It led to Malik Monk running a unit that featured Sabonis, Lyles, Harrison Barnes and Kevin Huerter for most of the fourth quarter. That lineup had not played together all season, and was necessary because Davion Mitchell struggled in Fox’s place. The second-year pro missed open shots and finished minus-19 in nearly 22 minutes. He made just one of his five shots and Brown decided it was better to go with no traditional point guard down the stretch instead of playing Mitchell.

Monk, who turns 25 on Saturday, had three turnovers in the fourth quarter as the lead ballhandler. The most impactful came with 58 seconds left and Sacramento down three. Monk was double-teamed in the left corner after Sabonis came to set a screen. Monk tried to feed Sabonis as he rolled toward the low block, but he airmailed the pass.

The plan was for Sabonis to gather the pass and then hit an open shooter to tie the game. Instead, the Pacers took it the other way.

“That one did it, man,” Monk said afterwards. “Because we had a couple wide open guys, I knew Domas was going to find them and I couldn’t deliver the ball to him. So I’m going to do a better job at it.”

The end-of-game sequence didn’t get much better. Former King Buddy Hield — who had 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the first half — grabbed an offensive rebound after missing a floater, allowing Indiana to kill seven seconds off the clock inside the final minute. The Pacers missed another 3-point shot and Sabonis grabbed the rebound with 18.6 seconds left.

Brown decided against calling a timeout, without a point guard on the floor, and the hectic possession ended with a Harrison Barnes desperation 3 with a hand in his face that missed. Aaron Nesmith grabbed the rebound. The Kings didn’t foul over the final six seconds as the clock ran out, dropping them to 2-2 to start their seven-game road trip.

Barnes finished with a team-high 23 points. Sabonis had 15 points, 16 rebounds, six assists and four turnovers in his return to Indianapolis. Barnes was asked about the late-game sequence and what the team could learn from it going forward. His focus was the on the breadth of the game.

“I don’t think it’s accurate to look at the last few minutes of the game,” he said. “I think you got to look at the whole and we were just careless with the ball tonight. Twenty turnovers — it’s hard to play defense against live-ball turnovers. We knew that they were a steals team. We knew that was going to be an up-and-down game and I think that they did a better job of taking care of the ball.”

Namely, the Kings were outscored 32-21 in the second quarter, putting them in a hole they couldn’t dig out of. Hield was plus-18 in 10 minutes in the frame before finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

Both teams had variables working against them. Sacramento was without Fox. The Pacers played the night before against the Los Angeles Lakers, losing 112-111 in former Kings guard Tyrese Haliburton’s return after missing 10 games due to elbow and knee injuries.

Haliburton was named to his first All-Star team on Thursday, but didn’t have a big game statistically against Sacramento. He finished with 10 points and nine assists, but Indiana was plus-18 during his 34 minutes. He had one of the moments of the night when he was isolated on Sabonis, crossed him over and hit a step-back 3 midway through the third quarter. The Kings’ highlights included a pair of hellacious dunks from Barnes and Lyles, who both posterized Pacers defenders.

Sabonis was honored with a tribute video before the game and a standing ovation from the home fans. He said he was lost in the bowels of his former home arena because he was in the visiting locker room, which required following Lyles to get his bearings before the game.

“It’s really cool to be back,” Sabonis said. “Everyone’s super nice and they say, ‘We miss you.’ It’s awesome to see. It’s awesome to feel that love.”

But, Sabonis said: “You want to leave with a win. We definitely weren’t at our best.”