We have no ear for music at all in Sacramento

Avant match against the WarriorsDoug Christie wanted to be optimistic. Despite his team’s repeated setbacks, the Sacramento coach turned to a musical metaphor to describe basketball and the way the team should play.

“If basketball is jazz, you have to listen” he explained. “There’s composition, but there’s also a lot of freestyle. It’s an ensemble that has to be organic. If one of your partners goes solo, you have to step back and let them enjoy their moment. You have to follow them and know when the ensemble needs to play in harmony again.”

Last night, unfortunately, there was no harmony. The Kings left with -34 in their toolbox. It was their seventh straight loss, 30th in 38 games…

If Golden State’s unselfish play can sometimes sound like a symphony, Sacramento’s play is often synonymous with cacophony. Their group consists of many soloists who have no desire to play, literally or figuratively, together.

After the game, the dressing room was already almost empty when we could enter. DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook were dressed and headed out. Dennis Schroeder followed suit, leaving Zach Lavin and the team’s young players for the media’s “hard work.”

The former Bulls guard tried as hard as he could to pull back. As he put on his Louis Vuitton sneakers, he tried in vain to send the few journalists present to Maxime Raynaud. “Go ask the cannon some questions!” he said. “He must gain experience with the media.”

No one followed his advice. When he learned of his coach’s metaphor, Zach LaVine didn’t hesitate to voice his musical opinion on the Kings’ situation.

“You’ve seen or heard like me, it’s not good at all. It’s not fair, it sounds bad,” he said dryly. “You can have the most talented musicians in the world, but if the guitarist, violinist, conductor and saxophonist don’t play in unison, it won’t sound like music. It will sound like a collection of instruments playing by themselves… Does that sound like a metaphor?”

You don’t have to have a musical ear to hear the deafening frustration pouring out of the Sacramento…

Comments collected in San Francisco.