Doug Christie Reveals One Big Reason Why Kings Lost to Heat

Things were looking up for the Sacramento Kings when they strung together a four-game winning streak, but they have dropped two games since to fall to 12-32 on the season. Even with consecutive losses, the Kings look better than they did a few weeks ago, but they certainly would have liked to turn the 130-117 loss to the Miami Heat on Tuesday night into a win.

The Kings had chances to go on a run and overtake the Heat at multiple points in Tuesday's game, especially with how they were playing on offense, but the defense was a huge weakness. After the game, Kings head coach Doug Christie blamed the loss on their total lack of defense and energy.

"We want to be physical and make sure that we're being handsy, keeping people in front of us. That's the most important aspect of it. Tonight, they got away. Obviously, they knocked down a lot of threes tonight. 50% from the three-point line, most nights in our league, you're gonna win a game," Christie said.

Kings collapse on defense

Part of why the Kings were able to go on a four-game winning streak was because of their improved defense, allowing an average of just 106.5 points over those four wins, compared to their 120.7 points allowed per game on the season.

In Tuesday's loss, the Kings allowed 130 points, marking their 12th time this season that they have given up 130 or more points. Of course, the Heat could not miss, shooting 21-42 (50%) from three-point range, but that is largely because they had far too many open looks.

"It looked like the inability to keep people in front, caused help, kicked out. Some of the pindowns, even the inability to work over or quickly under, meet them on the other side... Guys were breaking us down on the dribble, getting inside. We lost sight sometimes, you got some backdoors. That freezes you, now they kick it out, and they're knocking down threes," Christie said.

Christie went on to give the Heat their credit for knocking down shots at a high rate, but admits the Kings have to do better at contesting and exceeding their physicality level.

Christie is committed to making sure his team is competing at the highest possible level, as he has not been shy to bench his stars if he feels like other guys will have better effort. Star guard Zach LaVine started the game hot, dropping 18 points and five assists on 7-10 shooting in 22 minutes, but logged just six minutes in the second half, including two in garbage time.

Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine have each played just 5 minutes so far in the second half...
— Frankie Cartoscelli (@FCartoscelli3) January 21, 2026

Christie explained this decision to keep LaVine on the bench for the majority of the second half, and it stems from their defensive concerns.

"He was 7-10, so obviously shot the ball well, but we're trying to find rhythm and find a group that is stopping people at the same time," Christie said. "Zach will come tomorrow and probably have 40, that's part of the business. Some nights you'll have it offensively, but we didn't have a great problem scoring tonight, we had 117 points. But guess what, they had 130, so we need to stop somebody."

The Kings will have a chance to improve defensively and pick up a bounce-back win against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, with both teams heading into the second night of a back-to-back.

Kings collapse on defense

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