Doug Christie Calls Out Kings' Defense After Blowout Loss to Hornets

The Sacramento Kings have been surprisingly successful recently, winning five of their last nine games. However, their average margin of defeat in those four losses has been 25 points. On Tuesday night, the Kings got blown out by the Charlotte Hornets, 134-90, for their largest defeat of the season.

Nothing went right for the Kings in Charlotte, as the Hornets shot 51% from the field, while knocking down 26 of their 55 three-point attempts (47%) and out-rebounding the Kings by 22. After the game, Kings head coach Doug Christie called out his team's defensive effort.

"You've got to take one thing away from them. You can't give both of them to them. And we gave both of them to them. In the first half, they were shooting threes, and they got points in the paint. In the second half, we took away some of the points in the paint; they come out and hit nine three-pointers in the third. ... You have to have some resistance against them, and tonight it wasn't there," Christie said.

Kings crumble against the hot Hornets

Of course, losing to the Hornets is not a deflating outcome, especially when Charlotte has proven to be one of the hottest teams in the East recently, but getting blown out by 44 points is far from ideal. The Hornets lead the NBA in three-pointers this season, and knowing that, the Kings still allowed them to dominate from beyond the arc.

"We've got to get them off the three-point line, run them inside the three-point line, and the shell defense has to be strong enough to help slow them down," Christie continued. "... We have to have game plan discipline when it comes to playing. We've got to make sure that the little tiny things we know, got to be physical, got to have hands on and control them in the screens."

Christie undoubtedly knows what his defense needed to do to slow down the scorching Hornets, but obviously, they did not execute. The Hornets had 113 points through three quarters of action, and were on pace to drop 150 on Sacramento's embarrassing defense if they did not slow down with their starters resting in the fourth.

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Fortunately, the Kings have just nine games left in the season, as everyone in the franchise is likely ready for the summer to be here. A 44-point loss to the Hornets is certainly the hammer in the coffin for this disastrous 2025-26 campaign, but props to Christie for still addressing what the team needs to improve and trying to make those improvements.

The Kings will continue their five-game Eastern Conference road trip with a matchup against the Orlando Magic on Thursday, and any outcome other than a 44-point blowout loss would be seen as a win after their deflating performance on Tuesday.