Kings fans will buy more Doug Christie stock after eye-opening claim on resurgence
Yesterday at 09:29 AM
It hasn’t even been a month since the Sacramento Kings fired former head coach Mike Brown, and already, it looks like a completely different team is taking the floor each night. In a situation like this one, there’s often a number of factors that go into a team turning things around in the aftermath of firing their head coach, but in Sacramento’s case, it’s easy to understand why interim head coach Doug Christie is getting the lion’s share of the credit.
Christie was bound to get the benefit of the doubt from Kings fans, if only because he spent four and a half seasons with the team as a player, starting at shooting guard during the most successful stretch in franchise history. Sacramento went 230-98 in Christie’s four full seasons with the team, making it to the 2nd Round of the Playoffs three times and once pushing the Los Angeles Lakers to the brink of elimination in the Western Conference Finals.
But the good vibes in Sactown have nothing to do with what happened twenty years ago. It’s all about what Doug Christie and the Kings have been doing over the course of the last twenty or so days. The Kings are 10-2 since Christie replaced Brown, and that stretch includes wins over Dallas, Memphis, Miami, Boston, Houston and a pair of victories over Golden State, one of which came on Wednesday night, when a 17-point halftime deficit turned into a 123-117 win over the struggling Warriors.
Amazingly, this was Sacramento’s third comeback win after trailing by 15 or more points since Doug Christie took over on December 27th. According to OptaSTATS, Christie is the first coach in league history to have three 15+ point comebacks in his first dozen games as an NBA head coach. But don’t tell Christie that he’s the catalyst of this turnaround. He won’t hear any of it.
“This is all about them, it’s not about me,” Christie said bluntly after Wednesday night’s comeback victory, per ESPN’s James Ham.
Even if Christie’s presence in the big seat is what unlocked this surge of success, it has been an effort from Sacramento’s Big Four that has facilitated this turnaround. Since December 28th, when Christie made his head coaching debut, De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk are all averaging at least 20 points per game. It’s safe to say that there is no other team in the league which can boast scoring balance like this. But maybe that’s to be expected when the vibes change overnight.
"I think everybody's in good spirits," Fox said late last week after a Kings practice, per Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports. "Obviously, whenever you're winning, those things raise a bit. But Doug's that type of guy. He lights up a room.”
Domantas Sabonis shared a similar sentiment about Sacramento’s interim head coach.
"He has a huge heart. He loves Sacramento deeply and will give everything for the Kings. You can see it daily in practices, film sessions, and games. The players feel that and want to fight for him,” Sabonis said recently, per Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. He also noted that Christie has changed up the Kings defense and allowed for Sabonis, Fox, DeRozan and Monk to have “more freedom” offensively.
The post Kings fans will buy more Doug Christie stock after eye-opening claim on resurgence appeared first on ClutchPoints.
