It’s playoffs or bust for Sacramento Kings. Here’s what you need to know
People talk at All-Star Weekend. Everywhere you went in Salt Lake City, people were talking about the Sacramento Kings.
Players, coaches, journalists and even Uber drivers talked about Sacramento’s resurgence and how often the Kings are lighting their glorious purple victory beam under first-year coach Mike Brown.
One beat writer who covers an NBA team said he and his counterpart from another newspaper were secretly rooting for the Kings when they came to Sacramento on assignment earlier this season.
“We were like, ‘We want to see the beam,’ ” he said.
The Kings (32-25) have already surpassed their win total from each of the past three seasons. They are first in the Pacific Division and third in the Western Conference coming out of the All-Star break.
The Kings just sent two players, De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, to the All-Star Game for the first time since 2004. With Keegan Murray in the Rising Stars tournament, Kevin Huerter in the 3-Point Contest and Neemias Queta in the G League Next Up game, Sacramento had a total of five representatives at All-Star Weekend.
The Kings returned from the break to play the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday at Golden 1 Center. They came back with 25 games remaining and a real opportunity to end the longest playoff drought in NBA history after 16 consecutive losing seasons.
Are the Kings ready for what promises to be a daunting and dramatic conclusion to the regular season?
“I believe we are, but we’ll see,” Brown said. “This will be the first time we go through it, and for me, this stretch run is going to be the most interesting part of my short coaching career so far here with this group to see how we respond together as a unit, because this stretch is going to be a lot harder than what the first two-thirds of the season were.”
Playoff race
Brown knows a thing or two about playoff races after spending the past six seasons as Steve Kerr’s lead assistant with the Golden State Warriors. Brown won one NBA championship as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003 and three more with the Warriors.
“The first thing is, everybody’s going to be scrambling now, so before this you see guys sitting out due to rest, guys probably not playing as hard as they were or they could at certain times,” Brown said. “The desperation is not there as much prior to the break. Now, with us sitting in the third spot and everybody bunched together, people are gunning for us because they want what we have. And so, knowing that, being the hunted, as you would say, is going to be a little bit different now than what it was the first two-thirds because of the intensity of the games and everything else that comes along with it. So, it will be great to see how we respond to these last 25 games.”
The Kings went 0-4 to start the season, but the excitement has been building in Sacramento since the first time they lit the beam with a win over the Miami Heat on Oct. 29.
A seven-game winning streak in November and a six-game winning streak in January have catapulted the Kings to seven games over .500 for the first time since 2004, when Rick Adelman was still roaming the sidelines under the watchful eye of former team president Geoff Petrie.
That’s how long it has been since the Kings have been this good. They were 30-27 after 57 games under former coach Dave Joerger in 2018-19, but that team missed the playoffs by nine games after going 9-16 to end the season.
Strength of schedule
The final stretch will be just as challenging this season. The Kings can earn an automatic playoff berth if they finish among the top six in the West. They can secure a play-in bid if they finish in the top 10. If they are a play-in team, they will have to win one or two games, at home or on the road, all depending on seeding, to reach the playoffs.
Neither will be easily achieved. The Denver Nuggets lead the West with a 41-18 record. The Memphis Grizzlies are five games back in second place. Then there are the Kings, who lead a group of 10 teams that were separated by only 4 ½ games coming out of the break.
“The West is kind of close, all the games, everybody’s close to each other in the standings, so we know it’s really important,” Kings guard Davion Mitchell said. “Each game is going to be like a playoff game.”
According to Tankathon, the Kings have the fourth-toughest remaining strength of schedule (.520) in the NBA and the second-toughest in the Western Conference. They also have more remaining back-to-back sets (6) than any team in the West.
Mitchell was well aware of that when the Kings reconvened for practice Tuesday following the All-Star break.
“Yeah, I seen it, but we’re prepared for it,” Mitchell said. “Throughout the season, we’ve played a couple of those teams. We know what they have. A lot of teams upgraded (at the trade deadline), but we’ll be prepared for it.”
The latest odds from BetOnline have the Kings finishing tied with the Dallas Mavericks for sixth in the Western Conference, with their over/under set at 44½ wins.
Prognosticators at FiveThirtyEight currently give the Kings a 62% chance of reaching the playoffs with a projected record of 43-39. Based on those projections, they would tie the Warriors for sixth in the West, one game ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans, and four games ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Playoffs or bust
Losing has taken a toll on Kings fans, players, coaches and everyone else in the organization since the Kings last made the playoffs. Fox came to Sacramento as the No. 5 pick in the 2017 NBA draft. Third-year general manager Monte McNair has inspired confidence with moves to acquire Brown, Sabonis, Huerter, Murray, Malik Monk and others, but Fox admitted his first five seasons with the Kings started to affect the way he carried himself on and off the court.
“I think it was a lot because you can have a good game, and then you’re going home and you probably lost, so it’s like that game didn’t even matter,” Fox said.
Fox, who named his newborn son Reign, never wavered in his desire to win in Sacramento, saying: “For me, it was always just staying patient, just knowing that at some point it was going to turn around, and I think our front office has done a great job with what they’ve built in this city so far.”
Reaching the play-in tournament won’t end Sacramento’s nightmarish playoff drought. Only a first-round playoff appearance can do that.
What will it take to get there for an exciting team that is No. 1 in the NBA in scoring (119.5 ppg) and No. 2 in offensive rating (117.3), but ranks 22nd in defensive rating (115.2)?
“Win some games,” Monk said. “We just gotta win, and we’ve got to pick it up on the defensive end, though. I know that for sure. That’s one thing we’ve got to lock into if we’re going to stay in this playoff spot, so we’ll do it.”
From relocation to resurgence
So much has happened in Sacramento since the Kings made their last playoff appearance.
Nearly 12 years ago, on April 13, 2011, then-Kings TV broadcasters Grant Napear and Jerry Reynolds signed off from Arco Arena with tears in their eyes after the season ended with an overtime loss to the Lakers. After years of relocation talks, the Maloof family was planning to move the team to Anaheim.
The NBA blocked that move while Sacramento attempted to finance a downtown arena as the relocation saga dragged on for two more years. In 2013, the Maloofs were on the verge of selling the team to a group that intended to move the Kings to Seattle.
Sacramento kept fighting to keep the Kings. Former Mayor Kevin Johnson, local business leaders and the grassroots efforts of a loyal fan base convinced the NBA to force the Maloofs to sell to a group led by Vivek Ranadive, who vowed to keep the Kings in Sacramento.
Ranadive purchased the team on May 28, 2013. The city agreed to partner with the team to build the downtown arena, which opened in September 2016.
Now, after years of trials and tribulations, people scream “light the beam” as the Kings close in on what could be their first playoff appearance since 2006.
“We just want to stay focused and take it one game at a time,” Kings center Richaun Holmes said earlier this season. “We all know what these fans deserve to see. They deserve to see this team in the playoffs.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
