Kings break record for longest playoff drought in NBA history following loss to Warriors
The Kings were eliminated from playoff contention for the 16th consecutive season with a 109-90 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night at Golden 1 Center, breaking the record for the longest playoff drought in NBA history.
Sacramento has not appeared in the playoffs since 2006, their last season under Hall of Fame coach Rick Adelman. The Kings broke the record they shared with the Buffalo Braves/San Diego Clippers/Los Angeles Clippers, who failed to reach the playoffs 15 years in a row from 1977-91.
Andrew Wiggins scored 25 points for the Warriors (50-29), who have won 50 games for the seventh time in nine seasons. Jordan Poole had 22 points. Former Kings forward Nemanja Bjelica posted 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
Harrison Barnes had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Kings (29-50). Damian Jones scored 17 points. Donte DiVincenzo came off the bench to score 14 points while rookie Davion Mitchell finished with nine points and nine assists.
The Kings still had a slim chance of reaching the play-in tournament after going 4-1 on their recent five-game road trip, but their loss to the Warriors coupled with the San Antonio Spurs’ win over the Portland Trail Blazers resulted in elimination for Sacramento.
“I’ve been here the last two years, and I can tell you, in my opinion, things are heading the right way,” interim Kings coach Alvin Gentry said. “You’ve got to be good, but also you’ve got to be lucky from the standpoint of some of the injuries that we’ve had that really affected us.
“I will say we have to be a better home team. That’s one of the things you have to establish first and I’ve said this all along. You have to be a good team at home and establish a homecourt advantage, and then you’ve got to find a way to go on the road and play well, as we did last week. I think everybody here wants that. I think everybody here is on the same program as far as no one wants to miss the playoffs for 16 straight years.”
The Kings had every opportunity to make a run in a watered-down Western Conference with an expanded postseason format featuring a play-in tournament for teams that finish seventh through 10th in each conference.
The Warriors were missing Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Otto Porter Jr. and James Wiseman due to injuries and injury management. The Kings were without De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Richaun Holmes and Alex Len.
Fox has missed the past eight games due to right hand soreness. Sabonis has missed six games with a left knee contusion. Asked if the Kings will shutdown Fox and Sabonis for the rest of the season now that they’ve been eliminated from the playoffs, Gentry said: “I’m sure that’s something we’ll talk about.”
The Kings trailed 28-14 at the end of the first quarter and 62-42 at the half. The Warriors led by as many as 26 points after Poole made back-to-back 3-pointers to start the third quarter. The Kings staged a 15-1 run to cut the deficit to seven on a basket by Jones with 5:41 to play in the fourth, but they couldn’t get any closer.
Barnes talked about continuity and togetherness when he was asked about the playoff drought after the game.
“Yeah, it’s difficult, but, to me, I think about stability,” Barnes said. “Since I got to Sac, I think it’s just me and Fox. Those are the only two people in the entire organization who are still here, and this is my fourth season being here. Obviously, I can’t speak to the years before I got here, but since I’ve been here, it’s been a lot of ups and downs.
“It’s been a lot of tough times. It’s been a lot of changing parts — roster wise, coaching wise, front office wise — so I think moving forward, in order to establish a culture where people do feel equity and do feel the need to want to change that narrative, as opposed to Sacramento simply just being a stop on the way, either to another team or out of the league, we just have to embody that, and those are conversations we’ve had as a group. Like I said, Fox and I are the two who have been here the longest and we’ve seen a little bit more, so more of that responsibility and burden has fallen on our shoulders, so we take responsibility for that, but moving forward, if we want to be better, it starts with those types of frank conversations.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2022 at 10:13 PM.
