Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown has been fined $35,000 by the NBA for aggressively pursuing an official during live play of Sunday’s 108-103 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, it was announced Tuesday by Joe Dumars, Executive Vice President, Head of Basketball Operations.
Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown erupted after a no-call on Colby Jones’ drive to the basket
With the Kings trailing by 19 points midway through the second quarter, Brown exploded after a no-call on Colby Jones’ drive to the basket. A frustrated Brown then charged the referees, demanding a review, and he was assessed a technical foul. To add insult to injury, Brooklyn’s Noah Clowney drilled a 3-pointer during Brown’s outburst.
Brown said before the game that while his team is resilient, he would like them to build on early leads by “hitting a single” rather than going for the “home run 3-pointer.” Brown said the same thing happened in Friday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
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“Two games in a row, we haven’t executed it right,” Brown said.
However, Sacramento struggled the most defensively, letting the Nets make almost half their shots from downtown. Brooklyn made a season-high 13 3-pointers in the first half and were 19-of-39 (48.7%) overall.
“These guys hit shot after shot after shot from the 3-point line in the first half,” Brown added. “You’ve got to give them credit for knocking it down. There were three 3s that they hit that their hot players hit. … We didn’t do our job or do what we’re supposed to do against [hot shooters].”
Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez obtained his first win against his mentor in Sacramento
At Golden 1 Center, De’Aaron Fox led the Kings with 31 points in the loss, and Keegan Murray added 21 points. For Brooklyn, Cam Thomas scored a game-high 34 points on 11-of-22 (50%) shooting from the field and four 3-pointers in Nets coach Jordi Fernandez’s return to Sacramento.
Fernandez served as Sacramento’s associate coach the last two seasons under Brown, his mentor. Fernandez met Brown in 2009, when Fernandez was an intern at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas.
At the time, Brown was also head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. His middle school son, Elijah, worked out under Fernandez during Summer League.
Early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss, Sacramento allowed the Nets to go on a 15-4 run. Johnson and Jalen Wilson hit 3s on consecutive possessions to give Brooklyn a 105-98 lead with four minutes left.
With the Nets up 107-102, neither team made a field goal in the last two minutes, with the Kings missing their last five attempts. Brooklyn’s bench outscored Sacramento’s bench 44-9.
The Kings are now sitting in 12th place in the Western Conference through 17 games, and they have the hardest remaining strength of schedule in the NBA.
Sacramento has multiple games left against the Cleveland Cavaliers (17-1), Golden State Warriors (12-5), Boston Celtics (15-3), and Oklahoma City Thunder (13-4).
