Kings riding 7-game winning streak. How long has it been since Sacramento won 8 in a row?
The Kings are riding their longest winning streak of the season as they prepare to conclude a three-game road trip against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday at Fiserv Forum. One more win would match their longest winning streak in 21 years.
Sacramento has won seven in a row under interim coach Doug Christie, who took the helm when Mike Brown was fired Dec. 27. The Kings (20-19) have vaulted from 12th to ninth in the Western Conference playoff race, 1 ½ games behind the Los Angeles Clippers for the No. 6 seed.
The Kings opened their current road trip with a 114-97 win over the Boston Celtics on Friday and a 124-119 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. They can pull off an improbable sweep with a win over the Bucks on Tuesday.
The Kings haven’t had a seven-game winning streak since November 2022 – Brown’s first season as head coach – when they won 48 games to secure the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, making the playoffs for the first time since 2006. Sacramento hasn’t won eight in a row since Nov. 14-Dec. 5, 2003, way back when Rick Adelman was still roaming the sidelines at Arco Arena.
The 2003-04 team won 55 games to finish fourth in the West. Christie was part of that team along with Mike Bibby, Bobby Jackson, Peja Stojakovic, Chris Webber, Vlade Divac and Brad Miller.
The Kings defeated the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the first round of the playoffs that season before falling in a seven-game series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference semifinals.
The Kings won 11 in a row and 12 in a row during the 2001-02 season, the year they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. The longest winning streak in franchise history is 15 games, set by the Rochester Royals from Feb. 17-March 19, 1950.
This story was originally published January 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
