"After watching the Denver Nuggets do more work in the paint than Monet on Wednesday night, Kings guard Tyreke Evans said he went home and watched the game before returning to the team's practice facility Thursday morning.

He was not pleased with what he saw.

"The guy that was (guarding) the ball was just letting the guy go," Evans said Thursday, a day after the Nuggets scored 92 points in the paint in a 122-93 win at Power Balance Pavilion. "It was just terrible defense.

"I understand we should help (on defense), but how can you help when it's that easy? You put the guy that's helping in a bad position. … It was just bad."

Defending the middle has been a problem through the first quarter of the season for the Kings, who have the league's highest average of points allowed in the paint per game.

After the loss to the Nuggets, head coach Keith Smart said the Kings need to adopt a "We're going to live with the jump shot" mindset on defense."