Here’s where Kings’ recent skid ranks among longest losing streaks in franchise history
The Kings have endured longer losing streaks since the franchise was founded nearly a century ago, but those teams in Rochester, Cincinnati and Kansas City didn’t have to hear about it on social media much in 1950s, 60s and 70s.
The Kings ended the nightmare of their nine-game losing streak with a 110-107 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena. They equaled the 10th-longest losing streak in franchise history and the fifth-longest in the Sacramento era, but they stopped their skid long before those losers from Cincinnati, allowing coach Luke Walton and his players to let out a sigh of relief.
“It’s a fresh start,” Kings forward Marvin Bagley III said. “You still can’t forget that we did lose nine straight, but we’ve just got to do what we can to avoid that again. Getting this win is a fresh start. Getting this win, being able to start over and try to turn this thing around, is a good thing for us.”
Walton said something after the game that could have been uttered by almost anyone in the long line of Kings coaches who came before him.
“Winning in this league is tough,” Walton said. “It kind of piles up as you’re losing and you’re stacking losses.”
The Kings had not lost nine in a row since 2009 under coach Kenny Natt. They have not lost 10 or more consecutive games since setting a Sacramento-era record with a 12-game losing streak from March 9-April 3, 1998. Eddie Jordan was coaching the team at the time, but not for long. He was fired when the season ended three weeks later, clearing the way for general manager Geoff Petrie to hire Rick Adelman as head coach.
The Kings had 10-game losing streaks under Jerry Reynolds in 1989-90 and Rex Hughes in 1991-92. Reynolds’ team ended its losing streak when Danny Ainge scored 33 points in a 105-95 victory over Charles Barkley and the Philadelphia 76ers, but Reynolds was dismissed a week later. Hughes’ team, led by Mitch Richmond, Lionel Simmons, Spud Webb and Wayman Tisdale, ended its slide with a 125-96 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Hughes finished the season after taking over for Dick Motta earlier in the year, but he was replaced by Gary St. Jean following the season.
The five longest losing streaks in franchise history all occurred before the team relocated to Sacramento in 1985. The franchise record belongs to the Cincinnati Royals, who lost 14 in a row under Tom Marshall in 1959-60 and again under Bob Cousy in 1971-72.
The Rochester Royals lost 11 in a row under Bobby Wanzer in 1956-57. The Kansas City-Omaha Kings equaled that losing streak in 1973-74, and went through three coaches in the process. Cousy was dismissed four games into the streak. Draff Young coached the next four games before general manager Joe Axelson brought in Phil Johnson as a long-term replacement.
Johnson endured an 11-game losing streak of his own in 1975-76. The Kings ended that streak when Tiny Archibald scored 29 points in a 98-86 victory over a Phoenix Suns team that included the late Paul Westphal and Pat Riley.
