Kings Report

After four weeks of negativity, I finally have something positive to say about the Sacramento Kings. While they did start off the week with a devastating loss to the Washington Wizards, the worst team in the Eastern Conference, a team that I’m pretty sure is actively trying to lose because they have no way of making the playoffs and will get a better draft pick the lower they are in the standings; with the Suns loss to the Warriors on Tuesday night, the Kings have clinched a spot in the NBA Play-in Tournament.

As you may know, the Kings have been fighting their asses off to secure a spot in the Play-in Tournament, a mini-tournament between the 7-10 place teams in each conference used to determine the 7th and 8th playoff seeds. The Kings have managed to hang on to their 10th-place position through all these losses; I guess we can mostly thank the Phoenix Suns for managing to be even worse than the Kings.

The Kings have not had it easy, with three games over the last four nights, they have been playing hard to finish off their last road games of the season. First, the Kings played the second-to-worst team in the Eastern Conference and did what they should have done to the Washington Wizards: they got an easy win, 125-102.

Next, it was on to face the number one team in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that I’m sure everyone in the league thought had a fluke when they lost to the Kings three weeks ago. But no, the Kings embarrassed the Cavaliers yet again, this time on their own court. The game was fairly close in the first half, with the Cavs managing to stay on top until the end of the third quarter when the Kings took the lead. There was a point in the fourth where the Cavs went on a run, and I thought the Kings might lose it, but whatever they talked about in that timeout after the Cavs run worked because the Kings held onto the lead and beat the Cavs, 120-113. It was awesome.

Then, on the second night of a back-to-back, the Kings had another amazing come-from-behind victory against a super-defensive team, the Detroit Pistons. After Malik Monk left the game with an injury six minutes in, the Kings went down 18 points, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine shot for a combined 80 points, and the Kings beat the Pistons 127-117. The beam has been lit for three games in a row and I’m feeling pretty okay about their place in the standings.

The Kings have three games left in the regular season, all at home. They will have played the Denver Nuggets by the time you read this, then they will face the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, April 11th and the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, April 13th. The Nuggets and the Clippers (along with the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers) are two teams that are in danger of falling into the 7th and 8th place Play-in Tournament spots that are currently held by the Memphis Grizzlies and the Minnesota Timberwolves and have been tough opponents for the Kings, so it will be interesting to see how the rankings shake out. Let’s go Kings, and finish this season strong!