SACRAMENTO -- No words needed to be said to get a sense of the vibe in the Kings' locker room after their mortifying loss to Golden State on Friday night at their home Golden 1 Center arena that had been taken over by Warriors fans.
The game pretty much was decided by the end of the third quarter, but it officially concluded around 9:20 p.m. Media members rushed downstairs to the press conference room awaiting what typically is the head coach and two players at the podium.
More than 30 minutes passed before anyone came out to speak. It was new starting point guard Malik Monk who had to face the media first after the ugly 132-108 loss. He spoke for two minutes. He was as candid and straightforward as usual but with low energy -- not usual.
And more than anything, he was honest and accountable as he tried to find the right words to a question that's become a bigger concern looming over Sacramento as of late.
"I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out, too," Monk said in response to how the Kings can fix their turnover issues. The Kings turned the ball over a season-high 24 times, which resulted in 38 points for the Warriors.
"You probably not going to win a game when you have 24 turnovers with the team getting 38 points off those. We got to look ourselves in the mirror and take care of the ball."
Monk was then asked what Kings interim coach Doug Christie told the team after the game. There was a slight pause, he scoffed, then responded. He shared that Christie expressed they couldn't get "embarrassed like that" at home and that was "basically it."
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You can tell he thought about maybe disclosing more details about that chat, but he refrained.
After speaking to the media, Monk left the press conference room. He was the only player to talk at the podium postgame. Another 28 minutes passed before the next -- and final -- person came out. It was Christie. By that time, it had been roughly one hour since the game had ended.
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Christie was asked to share some more insight about his postgame conversation with the team that Monk was hesitant to. While he understandably wouldn't divulge his exact wording, Christie's demeanor, verbiage and emotion made the messaging crystal clear.
"The message is not probably something that I could say right here," Christie said, "but totally unacceptable. I said this: I get down in a certain way and I expect you guys to represent that. I know what these fans appreciate and what they want, and what our organization wants, and that ain't it. That ain't never going to be it. And the one thing that you do is you play so hard that you raise your hand to come out. That's what's expected.
"Yeah, unacceptable was really everything."
As a former player, Christie has an obvious passion for the game, the team, the city and the fans. He took over for dismissed coach Mike Brown on Dec. 28, and has posted a 15-10 record since.
Through the highs and the lows, Christie's been adamant about sticking by his guys and uplifting them when needed. But more than anything -- he'll always keep it real.
"That's always going to be between me and then," Christie said of his lengthy talk with the players. "But what you'll always find is I'm not going around from it. I'm going to stand there and I'm going to say it, and I'm going to say it in front of everybody. And I want everybody to be on the same page because that's just who I am. But I love every one of those guys. I truly, truly do. I have a relationship with every single one of them. And they'll be mad at me because that's part of what this job entails.
"Everybody ain't going to be happy, but who needs to be happy is the fans. Who needs to be happy is them as a team -- a team -- not an individual [but] as a team. So you can not be happy as an individual, but still be happy for your brothers. And bottom line is we have to come out and play with a sense of urgency, aggressiveness and physicality. We have to want to win more than we want to breathe. And that [loss] ain't it."
The next morning, senior NBA insider Chris Haynes reported that Christie called for a meeting with his starting unit after Friday's loss, addressing Monk, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis.
"In that meeting, I was told that Christie reiterated how he's in the fight with them," Haynes reported early Saturday. "But there were some issues he wanted to address, such as making sure everyone understood the gravity of the situation right now. He addressed ball security, he talked about how they've been compromising on defense, he wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page. He spoke on learning how to communicate with each other. And he challenged his players to challenge each other in a positive way to yield some positive results.
"He obviously felt it was a dire time and an important time for him to address his starting unit in hopes that the message will be delivered and in return, they will deliver the message to the rest of the team."
Sources: After Kings suffered 24-point loss at home to Warriors last night, interim head coach Doug Christie called for a meeting with his starters. I take you inside that meeting. #haynesbriefs
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 22, 2025
Brought to you by @MoveInsoles pic.twitter.com/T8UQvhx4x4
Of course, words are just words and it's actions that prove otherwise. But sometimes, a passionate, intimate and emotional conversation with the team's leaders is exactly what a group needs to turn things around. On the flip side, things could get ugly -- quickly -- if the message doesn't hit the way Christie intended.
Only time will tell for the Kings, who fell to 28-28 on the season and the Western Conference's No. 10 playoff seed with 26 games remaining to prove it.
