Sabonis’ strong opener marred by a late error in the Kings’ loss to the Wolves originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – The lasting image most people will have of Domantas Sabonis in the Kings117-115 season opener loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves are the two critical fouls that he collected in the final minute of the game.
Up until that point, though, Sabonis had put together the type of game Kings fans have come to expect from the veteran center — 24 points, eight rebounds, two steals and one suffocating defense against Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert in a battle of. big men in Golden 1 Center on Thursday.
Gobert, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Yearisn’t among the Wolves’ top three scoring threats, but at 7-foot-1 he can be a very effective scorer when given the opportunity.
Sabonis didn’t give him much of a chance.
Gobert scored just three points, the fewest in a regular season game since April 9, 2023, and took just two shots. To put that into perspective, Gobert didn’t attempt less than three shots in any of the games he played last season.
It was basically a case of Sabonis giving Gobert — a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year — a little taste of his own medicine.
“Overall, Domas played a really, really good game,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “We had him in a lot of different coverages and he did a great job in the pick-and-roll coverage. He also did a good job of trying to rebound and box guys out.”
On a night when Sacramento celebrated the arrival of DeMar DeRozan and welcomed back some key players who missed most of the preseason (Kevin Huerter, Trey Lyles), Sabonis clearly stood out, mostly for his defense against Gobert.
At various times throughout the evening Sabonis would linger around the free throw line, pulling Gobert out and freeing up the baseline for the Kings other players to attack down low.
Sabonis was good when going straight into Minnesota’s towering center.
At one point early in the third quarter, Sabonis drove into Gobert — who was standing in the key — then did a 360-degree spin and scored.
All of that was erased, however, when Sabonis fouled Gobert and Anthony Edwards in the final 40 seconds of the fourth quarter. Gobert made one of two free throws, then Edwards sank both with two seconds left.
Brown said a breakdown in Sabonis’ defensive technique was to blame.
“On the bad stuff he got with Rudy, he led with his hands,” Brown said. “And a guy like Rudy, we’ll just mumble. There’s no reason to lead with your hands, especially with Rudy off balance. Then I thought Domas did a great job vertically and Ant should have taken a hard shot but (Sabonis) met his body.
“We keep talking to our guys about, ‘lead with your chest.’ If they take the shot we just live with it. He will get better.”
Sabonis shouldered responsibility for the fouls but liked the overall picture he saw of the Kings.
“We did a lot of good things for the first time playing together,” Sabonis said. “It sucks. We were up by 11 … and now it’s back to square one.”
