Three Takeaways From Kings' Blowout Loss to Trail Blazers

The Sacramento Kings remain winless in the preseason, dropping to 0-4 as they fall 110-98 to the Portland Trail Blazers. While the wins and losses of the preseason may not matter, how the team looks certainly does, and the Kings had a rough night in their fourth preseason contest.

In a game that looked like a Summer League squad versus an NBA team, the Kings were incredibly short-handed, while the Blazers played everyone, even into the second half. It's a strategy that makes sense, with the regular season right around the corner, but the Kings are certainly taking a slow approach compared to other NBA teams so far.

Preseason will always have its ups and downs for every team and player in terms of minutes and amount of action, but it's been a very slow postseason for the Kings' stars and veterans. But as always, there are takeaways from any game the Kings play, and here are the top three.

Slow Start For Keegan

Keegan Murray's quiet debut on Saturday wasn't talked about much, as Ben Simmons' debut and Darius Acuff Jr's big game stole the headlines. In that game, Murray had a quiet five points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field. And that was it. No assists, rebounds, or anything else to add. To be fair, it was in just under eight minutes of action, and with Simmons on the court for the first time, he ran the offense for much of those minutes.

But tonight, it was pretty much Keegan and the bench. And by bench, that's the end of the bench and players outside of the rotation once the regular season gets going. The hope was that it would be a good chance to see Murray take on a lead role, and he had some moments like the one below, but it didn't come close to feeling like a takeover game from the fifth-year wing.

Murray finished with 10 points and 3 rebounds on 4-of-11 (36.4%) from the field and 1-of-4 (25%) from three. He's still working his way back from injury, but we're approaching the time when we have to talk about Keegan's role with this team, and tonight may have been a step in the wrong direction. Let's hope that it's just him getting back into game shape and finding his rhythm.

A Group Of Role Players

Watching the Kings tonight felt like watching a pickup team that was playing together for the first time. At times, no one knew where to go. There were a lot of shots late in the shot clock. And players were taking heavily contested shots due to the stagnant or ineffective offense. It's part of what makes Murray's quiet game hurt even more.

It was just so clear that the Kings didn't have a 'star' of any kind on the court tonight. Instead, it was a group full of role players. When you mix those players in with Acuff, Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, and even Ben Simmons at first glance, you get a good mix of scorers and hustle players.

But when you play all your hustle players together, especially against the likes of Damian Lillard, Ja Morant, and Deni Avdija, that's how you get a blowout loss that's over before tipoff. The young guys did make it closer in the end to add a little excitement, at least.

What Are the Kings Doing?

Normally, I do three takeaways from the game itself, but tonight...there isn't much else to take away, unfortunately. The Kings have so many questions heading into the season, and it feels like we're getting absolutely no answers this preseason.

At least we've seen enough from Acuff to know he has legit star potential, but other than that, there haven't been many more answers with how few minutes the main rotational players have played.

The Kings don't have the feel of a team doing everything they can to get ready for the regular season. They feel like a team biding their time and trying to just get through the preseason. And for a team that's working so hard to build a culture, that's a tough way to head into the regular season. The Kings will have one final preseason game to prep before the games count against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday.

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