Kevin O’Connor, a senior basketball advisor for the Utah Jazz and the former general manager of the franchise, has openly blasted the Sacramento Kings for their lackluster performance against the Boston Celtics in their ongoing clash in Sacramento on Wednesday.
Kings failed to take advantage of an impaired Celtics lineup
The Kings, who are currently placed 4th in the Western Conference, secured three consecutive wins against the Thunder, Jazz, and Wizards in the wake of their defeat to the Clippers at the Crypto.com Arena in LA on December 13th.
Now, hosting the Celtics, who are on the road for the second consecutive night after losing to Golden State Warriors yesterday, and starting without Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis, they might have appeared to be at a disadvantage. Nonetheless, Joe Mazzulla’s company went shoulder-to-shoulder against the Kings right from the get go at the Golden 1 Center.
All that being said, while the first half of the game appeared to be a more even contest, with both sides trying to leave the other behind, the scores were eventually in the favour of the Celtics, who were 70-66 at halftime.
However, the second half of the game saw the visitors remain on the advantage right from the start, as the Celtics continued to dominate and increase the gap with the Kings, and eventually finished with a 144-119 win to seal a win in their second back-to-back road outing.
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Jazz’s Kevin O’Connor rips the Kings on social media
During the final quarter of the game, Kevin O’Connor took to X.com to share his views on Kings’ performance, stating that the team, despite performing well during the regular season, is coming short against Finals contenders such as the Celtics, while also indicating how the winners started without Tatum and Porzingis.
“The Celtics have broken the Kings, who are once again proving to be far too small. Not enough size, particularly with help defense. And not enough rebounding,” Wrote O’Connor. “Bad sign to lose like this against Boston on the second night of a road back-to-back without two of its best players.”
Talking about the match stats, the Celtics had a 55.4% field goal percentage, compared to the Kings’ 47.3%. The visitors also led the rebound with 50, compared to 37 of the hosts. [source: NBA.com]
“It should be obvious at this point the Kings are a great regular season team but not equipped to win against NBA Finals contenders, which Sacramento won’t be without making a big move,” added O’Connor.
The Celtics have broken the Kings, who are once again proving to be far too small. Not enough size, particularly with help defense. And not enough rebounding.
Bad sign to lose like this against Boston on the second night of a road back-to-back without two of its best players.… pic.twitter.com/lDX39BkWIe
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) December 21, 2023
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