Doug Christie Explains How Kings Pulled Off Upset Win Over Clippers

The Sacramento Kings picked up a shocking win over the L.A. Clippers in Intuit Dome on Saturday night, stringing together three wins in their last four games. Heading into Saturday's matchup, the Clippers were on a four-game winning streak and had won seven of their previous eight, so it was a shock to many that the Kings were able to walk out of Los Angeles with a win of their own.

After the game, Kings head coach Doug Christie explained how they were able to pull off the road upset over their division rival.

“That's what I would consider gameplan discipline. And sometimes, we vacillated in that. But tonight, the gameplan discipline was very much on point, searching out when we wanted to search out, taking advantage of that, opportunistically playing fast, trying to make sure that we rebound the basketball, but a really tight shell on the other end of the floor and just making sure that defensively we’re in our gaps and in our spots," Christie said.

Kings stayed disciplined

The Kings pulled out a 118-109 win, in what was arguably their most impressive win of the season, while only having nine players available to play. Everybody seemed to chip in to the winning effort, as DeMar DeRozan, Precious Achiuwa, and Maxime Raynaud each scored 23+ points, while combining to shoot 32-40 (80%) from the field.

On top of that impressive trio, veteran point guard Russell Westbrook notched a triple-double, and two-way forward Daeqwon Plowden poured in 15 points on 6-9 shooting off the bench.

"Credit to them, our guys did a really good job because that is one heck of a basketball team that's going to cause people some real problems, and then they came in tonight and put their head down and focused for 48 minutes and it was good," Christie said.

The Kings have had some serious issues throughout the season, but when they shoot 59% from the field, 44% from three, and collect 48 rebounds, they are not going to lose many games. Of course, this comes at a time when they should be trying to lose games to get a better position in the NBA Draft lottery, but it was still a very impressive win nonetheless.

The veterans stepped up

Christie also made sure to credit his aging veterans, DeRozan and Westbrook, as they did their job to set up others for success.

“Sometimes it's difficult because they are such great players that the guys defer to them sometimes too much," Christie said. "And Russ [Russell Westbrook] was great tonight with making sure that we would get set up with things, looking to see who we wanted to take advantage of. Deebo [Demar DeRozan] just continues his incredible play, he's picking and choosing his spots, but they started double teaming him so he started spraying the basketball, and guys were knocking down shots."

Of course, that was the Kings' vision heading into the season with a team full of veterans, but it obviously did not pan out that way. Still, it is great to see them play at such a high level.

Sure, the Kings' win on Saturday might hurt them in the long run as they fell in the lottery standings, but seeing their players come together to pull off the upset win was certainly a morale booster.