Pacers vs. Kings: Why Win over Indiana Should Give Sacramento Fans Hope

The Sacramento Kings are a team with a ton of faults—a young squad with a lot of growing up to do and a ton of questions that need answers. So how should Kings fans feel after last night's 92-88 victory over the Indiana Pacers?

Pretty dang happy.

Let's get the negatives out of the way—the Kings shot 30.1 percent from the floor, hit only 68 percent of their free throws and were outscored by the Pacers for three quarters. But the Kings came into the fourth quarter and showed signs of life, outscored Indiana 26-8 in the final 12 minutes and held on for a win over one of the better teams in the East.

But what should please the Kings fans most is how the team showed immediate improvement in what had been some of their weakest areas. What are the biggest reasons for optimism after last night's victory? Let's take a look.

The Passing Game

The ball, which had once seemed glued to the players' hands, moved freely amongst the Sacramento teammates. The team kept control of the ball for the most part and finished with 17 assists and 11 turnovers—and could have had double that number of assists, if they'd just gotten some of their easy shots to go down.

Yes, the improved ball movement didn't immediately fix Sacramento's scoring woes. The team is still 25th in the league in points per game, and shoot a league-worst 39 percent from the field. But any fan who watched last night's performance has to feel far more positive about the team's offensive future.

The spacing was far improved, the movement no longer seemed forced and the players (with the exception of Jimmer Fredette) didn't seem so lost.

It didn't translate into the box score, but the scoring issues were no longer in the fundamentals of the offense, but rather in the missed shots that we know the Kings can make. Tyreke Evans and Marcus Thornton are not going to shoot 8-of-31 forever—both players are far too talented offensively to stay at those poor shooting numbers.

Eventually the shots will start falling, and as long as the Kings keep up the ball movement, they shouldn't be at the bottom of the league's scoring stats for long.

Defensive Intensity

The Pacers scored 80 points in the first three quarters, which was a fairly respectable job by the Kings. But Indiana scored just eight points in the final 12 minutes, and Sacramento utterly shut them down defensively.

The Kings switched from man-to-man to a zone defense, which completely threw the Pacers for a loop. And while the Kings won't be able to shut down every team in the league with the technique, credit the coaching staff for making the switch and credit the players for executing it to perfection. The defensive tenacity in the final quarter, especially as the game wound down, was as good as the Kings have been all season.

While fans were quick to point to the team's lack of cohesiveness on offense during their recent struggles, the problems were just as bad on the defensive end, where a lack of movement created tons of space for their opponents. That wasn't the case on Wednesday night, where the Kings stuck with the Pacers in crunch time.

According to head coach Keith Smart, the Kings had a season-high 34 deflections in the win. They'll need to keep up that energy every night.

Bench Energy

While John Salmons and Jimmer Fredette (both figured to be serious contributors for the team) have been horrendously disappointing so far, the Kings found energy elsewhere—Francisco Garcia and Isaiah Thomas.

Garcia had 16 points, five rebounds and some excellent late-game defense, and while Thomas had just eight points, he immensely impacted the game. Thomas finished with a plus/minus rating of plus-17, and Garcia finished with a rating of plus-19. While the plus/minus rating is often the most misleading, Garcia and Thomas earned their high marks last night.

Meanwhile, Jason Thompson finally started in place of the inconsistent JJ Hickson, and he finished with nine points and 10 rebounds.

Garcia and Thomas should be flying up the depth chart, which is excellent to see considering the serious struggles that Salmons and Fredette have been facing.

Team Chemistry

Tuesday's practice was just the second time that Coach Smart had actually been able to put together a full-day practice since becoming the Kings' head man. With the schedule as packed as it is, it's been hard for Smart to work in his offensive game plan and stress ball movement when the Kings were playing games nearly every night.

But you could see the team really working in his demands for ball movement, for continued spacing and for a faster-paced offense. The players haven't managed to win consistently since Smart took over—the team is 3-5 since Paul Westphal was let go—but they look like a completely different ballclub from the effortless, uncaring team that played just a few weeks ago.

And even when the team was down by 16 in the third quarter, the players on the bench were up and cheering for their teammates. All throughout the fourth, when the Kings cut the deficit and secured the win, the bench was up on their feet.

While the Kings won't suddenly become a playoff team, and could quite easy splinter apart and undo the excellent steps they showed last night, the win over Indiana showed the Kings are buying into Smart's playbooks.