Jimmer Fredette gearing up for his return to Utah

SACRAMENTO — It started great for Jimmer Fredette but the results for the lowly Sacramento Kings remained the same in a 122-93 blowout loss to Denver Wednesday night in Power Balance Pavilion.

In a tune-up for his first professional return to Utah for a date with the Utah Jazz Saturday in Energy Solutions Arena, Fredette started at the point and played 14 minutes straight for the Kings. He ended up finishing as Sacramento's leading scorer with 19, his third-straight double-figure game.

But the Kings, one of the worst, if not the sorriest team in the league, couldn't stop the Nuggets and struggled to score on a ton of empty possesions while yielding to Denver in the paint all night.

"This isn't how you want to play at home, we have to protect our own court," said Fredette.

"We need to work harder, play better defense and become a better team, it doesn't all happen at once."

Fredette got off to a great start, knocking down a fade-away jumper to beat the shot clock on the first Kings' possession of the game. He backed that with a 3-pointer and nailed another a few minutes later and had a steal of an inbounds pass by Andre Miller.

But big plays for Fredette and the Kings were few and far between and Fredette owned part of the Kings' serious issues on transition defense — even though it is tough to stop a 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 when you are the 1.

Fredette did not come out of the game until two minutes into the second quarter. When he returned to the game, Isaiah Thomas took over the point and Fredette slid to the two guard spot.

The two rookies, Thomas and Fredette combined for 35 points on 12 of 23 shooting.

The ugly part was Denver outscoring Sacramento 92-40 in the paint, the worst such beating for the Kings since that stat was created.

When Fredette was on the court, it appeared the Kings had better ball movement and even tried on numerous times to run the pick and roll with mild success. But the Kings are not a polished team and struggles with consistency.

"We are not a team but a collection of players right now," said Kings coach Keith Smart.

When Fredette was in the game, Denver's defense knew where he was, doubling him often, trying to get the ball out of his hands.