The Kings are moving up in the world! This week again saw only one loss, but of course, it had to be the game I attended against the Knicks last Saturday, March 16th. While the end score looks pretty disappointing, 91-98, it doesn’t show what an exciting and close game this was, up until the last two minutes at least. I’m absolutely loving seeing what a sports fan my son, Rudy, is becoming; he was yelling and pointing and telling me the refs didn’t know what they were talking about. We saw a couple of absolutely amazing dunks by Malik Monk that made us jump up out of our seats, and the woman next to me informed me that Monk was her favorite. After I said, “Mine too!” the man behind us chimed in that Monk was also his favorite player. It sounds like the consensus is that we all love Monk and hope the Kings are able to bring him back next season.

Well, Rudy informed me, “We were done” when the Kings were down seven with 4:30 left on the clock. I tried to tell him we had plenty of time to catch up, but unfortunately, Rudy was right. While we weren’t exactly “done” at that point, the Kings did seem to fall apart in the last few minutes. And then we had to listen to the Knicks fans yell “MVP” while their man, Jalen Brunson, shot free throws in the last seconds of the game. We get it! Jalen Brunson is amazing; he absolutely killed the Kings with 42 points and four steals. Even though we didn’t win, Rudy and I had an amazing time, and we can’t wait until our next trip down to Sactown.

While, of course, De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis are running the show, the other bright spot of the last few weeks has been second-year player Keon Ellis. Ellis has subbed in for an injured Kevin Huerter, and the Kings are 6-0 when Ellis starts. Coach Mike Brown has made it very clear that, despite his streakiness, the starting spot belongs to Huerter if he is healthy, but Huerter is out again for at least one game this coming week, and while no one wants to see Huerter injured, I think we’re all excited to see what Ellis can do. Ellis has been giving the Kings the defensive boost they’ve been looking for. In fact, he was the first Kings guard in the Sacramento era to block five shots in a single game on Monday against the Grizzlies. He was a big part of helping the Kings beat the Grizzlies in overtime on Monday, allowing the Kings to move into that sixth playoff spot.

You heard that right: the Kings are in sixth place! And that means they are currently in the playoffs and out of the play-in tournament. It’s going to take a lot of hard work to hold on to that spot, however; it is essentially a three-way tie for sixth between the Kings, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Phoenix Suns. This is especially intriguing because the Kings play the Mavericks twice next week.

The next week is totally packed; the Kings will have played in Toronto against the Raptors on Wednesday, March 20th, then they play the second night in a row in Washington against the Wizards on Thursday, March 21st, then they go down to Orlando to face the Magic on Saturday, March 23rd, before heading home to play a second set of back to back games against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday, March 25th and the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, March 26th. Dang, that’s a busy week. Let’s get it done, Kings! Light the beam!