Where Sacramento Kings’ six-game wining streak ranks among longest in franchise history
The Kings have had longer winning streaks over the course of the franchise’s history, but not many since moving to Sacramento in 1985.
The Kings had won six in a row for the first time since 2004-05 as they prepared to open a three-game road trip against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday at FedExForum. The Kings will then visit the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday before concluding the trip against the Boston Celtics on Friday.
Sacramento rolled off a series of wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Brooklyn Nets, San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons. The Kings’ current winning streak is tied for the 22nd-longest in franchise history and the seventh-longest in the Sacramento era.
The franchise record belongs to the 1949-50 Rochester Royals, who won 15 in a row before going on to finish 51-17 with Bob Davies, Bobby Wanzer and Arnie Risen. That winning streak broke the franchise record of 13, which was set a year earlier by the 1948-49 Royals.
In more modern times, the 2001-02 Kings won 12 in a row, matching the 1963-64 Cincinnati Royals for the third-longest winning streak in team history, and later added an 11-game winning streak. Led that season by Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, Peja Stojakovic, Chris Webber and Vlade Divac, the Kings won a franchise-record 61 games before advancing to the Western Conference finals, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in an infamous seven-game series.
The 1948-49 Royals won 10 in a row before they put together the aforementioned 13-game winning streak. The 1949-50 Royals had a nine-game winning streak prior to their 15-game streak.
The franchise has also enjoyed five eight-game winning streaks, most recently in 2003-04, and nine seven-game winning streaks, with the most recent coming in 2004-05. One of the teams that won seven in a row was the 1950-51 Royals, who went on to win the franchise’s only NBA championship.
The Kings have a chance to extend their current winning streak to seven games when they visit the Grizzlies on Tuesday. The team has won at least seven consecutive games 21 times in franchise history. Only two of those teams failed to make the playoffs, the 1976-77 and 1977-78 Kansas City Kings.
