Heading into Sacramento’s latest three-game road stint, the team was hoping to build off of two strong showings at home - wins over the Oklahoma City Thunder and Philadelphia 76ers.
However, after dropping all three away from home by a wide margin, the purple and black were reflective before they boarded their flight from Atlanta to Sacramento on Wednesday night.
“Losing is one thing, but we’ve got to do a better job of competing,” Coach Joerger told James Ham of NBC Sports California following last night’s game in Atlanta. “I’m looking for guys who jump up and say, ‘You know what, I play so hard you should be playing me. I’m playing so well, you should be playing me.’ And we’re not getting that collectively right now.”
Kings veteran George Hill echoed Coach Joerger’s sentiments and discussed how the squad should be looking inwards to improve.
“You can’t back down from it, we got our butt kicked and we have to take it on the chin ourselves,” Hill said. “Coach can only coach. We’re out there on the court. As players, we have to take full responsibility of ourselves.”
“We owe Sacramento, our fans, better than what we’re showing them, like tonight,” concluded Hill.
Sacramento is back home and has a chance to rebound from the string of tough losses with a matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night.