Kings Report

The NBA regular season is over! With two losses and one win this week, the Sacramento Kings finish with a losing record of 40-42. The two losses came against the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers, which doesn’t bode well for the Kings’ chances if they do end up making the playoffs. But thanks again to the Phoenix Suns, who were without any of their three all-star players, for being terrible and giving the Kings a win for their last game of the season. Hopefully, this win will give them the momentum they need to achieve success in the Play-in Tournament this week, the participants of which came down to the very last day of play.

The Kings almost gave up their 9th-place position in the tournament, but their win against the Suns solidified it. There is an important distinction between 9th and 10th; for the first round of the tournament, the 9th-place team gets home-court advantage. Unfortunately, the first play-in game will have already taken place by the time you read this. Fingers crossed that the Kings have pulled out a win against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday; the oddsmakers have given the Kings the edge, with a spread of 4.5 points.

The Mavericks franchise has been in turmoil since trading away Luka Dončić for injury-prone Anthony Davis in February. And Davis ended up injured (shocker) in his first game with the Mavs and their fans are pissed. But Anthony Davis is back and the Mavs are 5-2 when he’s on the floor; it’s not going to be an easy win for the Kings by any means. I’m hoping to see Zach LaVine, who has been having the most efficient season of his career, go off against the Mavs and experience the energy at Golden 1 Center, which is going to be insane.

If the Kings win, they will face Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies in Memphis this Friday, April 18th at 6:30. The Grizzlies, who fired their head coach only three weeks ago, still looked pretty good in their game against the Golden State Warriors, who secured the 7th seed in the playoffs with their win, which was a little too close for comfort for the Warriors fans at the end.

If things go well, this time next week, we’ll be talking about a Sacramento Kings and Oklahoma City Thunder playoff series. Go Kings!