LOS ANGELES – “The first thing is: we have enough.”

That was the message new head coach Doug Christie conveyed to the Kings’ players after he subsequently took the big chair Mike Brown is fired. Christie emphasized it several times Saturday night: “And that’s a message I told them – there’s enough in this locker room.”

Christie brings a new voice to Sacramento, but he’s inheriting the same roster — one short on defensemen.

That was evident from the opening tip of Christie’s debut game as head coach – the Lakers scored 40 points on 73.9% shooting in the first quarter on Saturday night. In the third quarter, when the Lakers leaned into a reverse pick-and-roll, they scored 42 points on 75% shooting.

“I mean, everything felt great except for giving up two 40-point quarters and fouling way too much,” DeMar DeRozan said of the first game under Christie.

“Obviously giving up two 40-point quarters is never going to help you win the game,” De’Aaron Fox added.

As in the last five games Brown coached, the Kings lost Christie’s debut 132-122.

With those six straight losses, the Kings fell to 13-19 this season. Sacramento is ranked 12th in the West and staring at the play-in – and in the deep Western Conference, a team probably has to be over .500 to be in the top 10 and make the play-in.

With the mark already six games below .500, there is no grace period for Christie or this team to hire the new coach.

“I don’t accept a grace period, I expect to win every time we go on the ball floor because there’s enough space in the locker room to make that happen,” Christie said.

Is there?

In terms of offense, the Kings are once again in the top 10 in the league. Fox, DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis form a trio of winners who can score against any team.

However, the team ranks 17th in the league in defense this season – and that ranking is a credit to Brown, a coach who puts defense at the center and prioritizes that end of the court. The Kings were mid-table defensively last season (14th) and finished 24th in the league the season in which they were ranked No. 3 due to their top-ranked offense.

This isn’t a squad with a lot of plus defenders: Keon Ellis off the bench is certainly one, Keegan Murray is good but has to cover the opponent’s best perimeter player every night, and Fox is solid. However, that’s about it, and Sabonis isn’t a strong drop-back rim protector.

“It’s going to start on defense,” Fox said of the turnaround in the Kings’ season (comments that carry weight because the rumors he could get out of Sacramento). “We were top 10 offensively most of the year, so ultimately our problem isn’t that. At some point we have to be able to calm down and make stops when necessary.”

Stops also give this team a chance to run, something Christie has also made a priority. He wants these Kings to play faster again.

Sacramento ranks 25th in the league in percentage of offenses that start in transition and is only average (16th) in pace. Against the Lakers, the Kings played closer to their old self – with an offense that would have been in the top 10 percent coming out of the transition – against a Los Angeles team without LeBron James trying to slow the pace of the game.

Christie hinted at other changes he might like to make, but there’s only so much he can do.

“The thing is, we are in the middle of the season. “There will be no drastic changes,” said Kevin Huerter. “It can’t be that we don’t have enough training time or training camp for this. I think you saw us get back to our pace and something that I think we’ve been trying to play with all season… so that was nice to see.”

Christie’s pregame theme wasn’t about changing lineups or the Xs and Os. Focusing on the stakes, he said: “We compete at an extremely high level – this is one thing we will not compromise on.”

The effort was there in the Kings defense, but the execution still needs work. A lot of work.

Changes have to come quickly. Brown’s midseason firing was a clear sign to the players that the Kings want to turn things around and win this season.

“It was a very clear message yesterday that we don’t see this as a lost season,” said Kevin Huerter. “We have to right the ship, we have to turn things around. We just lost number six on an away pitch so there’s definitely no grace period.”

Christie agrees, saying time and time again, “There’s enough in the locker room to make (victories) possible.”

Is there? Christie will have the opportunity to prove his point and win the Kings head coaching job permanently in the coming months.

However, on the night of his head coaching debut, it looked like the Kings were the same on defense, and that may be a problem no coach can solve.