Doug Christie explains Zach LaVine’s limited minutes against the Heat
The Sacramento Kings I can say that they have played better basketball in the last few games, but they may have gone back to their old ways in the loss to the Miami Heat. After a difficult first half, the head coach Doug Christie made some changes in the second half, as he was more focused on defense than attack.
This meant that some of his key players would have their playing time reduced, and Zach LaVine was affected by that move. Lavin played only close to seven minutes in the second half, and Christy after the game shared his thoughts about making that decision.
“We’re trying to find a rhythm and find a group that stops people at the same time … we didn’t have a problem scoring tonight … we’ve got to stop somebody,” Christie said via Brenden Nunes Sactown1140.
Christie did mention that LaVine shot the ball well, but at the end of the day, the Kings had to show up on defense if they wanted to win that game and if they wanted to win any of the remaining games.
This isn’t the first time this season that LaVine has been called out on defense, and it hasn’t come from anyone on the team. Earlier in the year, he and a fan went back and forth during a timeout after taunting him about his lack of defense. after the game Lavine looked completely out of it, but he talked about the moment with the fan.
“You can say all you want about effort. We’re playing as hard as we can. We’re exhausted here, so I don’t know,” LaVine said.
It seems like Christie isn’t afraid to pull his players if they don’t play defense, no matter how well they perform offensively. Hopefully those decisions will lead to more wins for them.
2026-01-21 16:26:00
