NBA basketball is back! After watching the New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA championship on Sunday, I’m totally hyped up for the start of the Sacramento Kings season. The Liberty’s super team was thiiis close to losing to the Lynx in Game 5, but two made free throws by former MVP, Breanna Stewart, sent the game to overtime, where the Liberty pretty much dominated the remainder of the game. The foul that was called in the last five seconds of the game was certainly questionable, but that is a topic for another column.
Let’s talk about the Sacramento Kings. When we left off last season, the Kings, who had spent all season working on their defense only to have their offense fail them in the play-in tournament, had fallen just short of making the playoffs. It was a disappointing end to the season, but let’s not dwell on the past, let’s talk about what we can look forward to this year. We had some exciting roster news this offseason; first, the re-signing of our sixth man, Malik Monk. Even though Monk comes off the bench, he plays starter minutes and is a core piece of this Kings team. There were several games last season that were won for the Kings by Monk, and he’s a fan favorite who Sacramento is stoked to have return. Second was the signing of six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan from the Chicago Bulls. We had to trade away Harrison Barnes, and we’ll all be sad to see Barnes go, but the acquisition of DeRozan is the most exciting thing to happen to the Kings since the signing of Domantas Sabonis in 2022. DeRozan, like our team leader, DeAaron Fox, is known for being good in clutch situations.
Now, I don’t normally watch the preseason; I’m busy watching the WNBA and the NFL, and I know when the regular season starts, it’s going to take a lot of my time, but I feel like I at least need to mention that the Kings lost every preseason game. Oof, it looks like they won’t be starting the season with any momentum, but it’s preseason, and it doesn’t matter. Our first regular season game is this Thursday, October 24th, against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who just lost their first game to the Los Angeles Lakers and the LeBron James show, 103-110, on opening night. Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves are going to be trying really hard to not start their season 0-2, and the Kings are going to have their work cut out for them.
After the Timberwolves, the Kings will travel to Los Angeles to take on the aforementioned Lakers on Saturday, October 26th, will be back at home on Monday, October 28th to take on the Portland Trailblazers, and then will travel to Utah to play the Jazz on Tuesday, October 29th. I couldn’t be more excited for the start of the season. Can the Kings pull out 50 wins this year? Who’s ready to light the beam?!