Kings Report

The Kings are moving on up! As of this writing, the Kings are back in 10th place in the Western Conference. The Kings have clawed their way out of the hole they dug themselves with that horrendous five-game losing streak at home, which led to the firing of Mike Brown. The Kings won two out of three of their road trip this week, and their seven-game winning streak came to an end. Maybe it’s okay that the last game of the week against the Milwaukee Bucks brought us back down to earth a little bit because we were certainly riding high. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are a physical team, and the Kings have always had a hard time beating them; in fact, they’ve only beaten them one time since 2016. The Bucks pretty much had their way with the Kings; the Kings gave up a whopping 47 points in the first quarter, and while they certainly gave it their all, they were not able to recover that deficit and lost to the Bucks 115-130. I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

But you can win against the defending champs, the Boston Celtics! The Kings came into Friday’s game against the Celtics 11.5 point underdogs, and after a very back-and-forth game, which led to a tie coming into the fourth quarter, the Kings took the lead to start the quarter and never looked back. Our rookie, Devin Carter, who has now played in six games this season after being out with an injury, was the one who started the fourth quarter off with a three-pointer, and Coach Christie let him play for almost eight minutes in that final quarter. Can’t forget to mention Domantas Sabonis and his career-high 28 rebounds; wow! It’s no wonder he leads the league in double-doubles. I thought he was the league rebound leader, and he is if you look at average rebounds per game with 14.1, but Karl Anthony Towns is the only one who has more total rebounds than Sabonis, with 530 to Sabonis’ 522. The Kings also beat the Chicago Bulls this week, 124-119.

Well, the Kings have made it back to a 50% win percentage, and they’ve got a real test coming up this week: three games at home. The last time we were at 50%, it was also the start of a five-game home stand, and we all know what happened there. The Kings must at least win two out of three of these games, if not all of them. The Kings play the 2nd place in the Western Conference Houston Rockets on Thursday, January 16th, the Washington Wizards on Sunday, January 19th, and the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, January 22nd. Let’s continue this upward trajectory and light that beam!