Update: 9:30 p.m.
The Kings had a second half comeback that fell short in the fourth quarter as Sacramento fell to the Indiana Pacers 116-105. The loss ensures the Kings and Pacers both have 6 losses on the season, which is a good loss for the tank. The Kings are now tied with the Pacers, Nets and Clippers with 6 losses. The Wizards and Pelicans both have 3 losses.
The Kings were down 66-51 at half. They pulled it to within 88-92 by the end of the third quarter, and actually took a two-point lead with 6:41 left in the fourth quarter. With 3:11 left, the Pacers were back up by 7 and it was over from there.
Russell Westbrook finished with a triple double (24 points, 14 assists and 12 rebounds), DeMar DeRozan finished with 20 points and Zach LaVine had 16 points. All three of them played at least 36 minutes. Maxime Raynaud finished with 13 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in 23 minutes. Nique Clifford scored 7 points in 14 minutes. Keegan Murray has 8 points and 11 rebounds in 37 minutes.
From Earlier Preview:
The Kings and Pacers, together again. This time, instead of swapping franchise altering players, they are engaged in a fierce tank off while said players recover from injury, although I’m not sure both organizations realize it yet. Sacramento is still desperately trying to win games with veteran players while the Pacers have largely accepted their fate. Indiana only has one starter over 30 – Pascal Siakam.
Who: Sacramento Kings (6-17) vs. Indiana Pacers (5-18)
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
When: 5:00 PM PT / 7:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
The Kings will enter tonight with the easiest remaining schedule in the NBA, according to our friends at Tankathon. The brutal opening stretch has finally come to a close, and you’ll start to notice a healthy dose of ‘easier’ games like this one in Indiana. Don’t get me wrong, the Kings are capable of losing to anyone, but this is where the accidental tank gets a little trickier. Wins are coming, if they choose to accept them.
Sacramento will be missing a few key players, so despite how little Indiana wants this game, it could be competitive. Domantas Sabonis is out. Dennis Schroder is questionable. Keegan Murray is questionable.
The Pacers are without Tyrese Haliburton, obviously, and joining him on the report are Quenton Jackson, Kam Jones, Aaron Nesmith, Ben Sheppard, and Obi Toppin. They are all out.
Who will tank better? Stay tuned.
Prediction: Kings 117, Pacers 101
In the playoffs Pacers’ fortunes sank;
Without Hali, they rolled out the tank.
Lots of losses to start
By playing it smart.
For our roster, there’s Vivek to thank!
+1 While waiting for trades to happen, we’re all pacers!
You pace your way, I’ll pace mine.
Obligatory –
harken back to a yesterday intermingled with today:
Ty Haliburton helping Coach Doug Christie by explaining how Slamson can skate in circles… but you have to show and tell him what you want him to do. A curious Buddy Hield looks on…
Dear Fanbase,
Most of our management team will be unable to attend this update. Mark Jones will be dutifully filling in for this easy victory over the other team that lost the trade with us. We have nothing to hide! We are ascending! Look at MadMax Renaud ready to dominate NBA play. This season is becoming hotter than fish grease, and we have the division in our bag. Haters be warned; LaVine is coming for you with to put you in the blender. Straight butter!
We’re giving all-out effort because everything you desire in life is on the other side of hard. Catch you next time.
Sincerely,
ManagementJ.Summer Prediction,
Kings trade Sabonis and LaVine for Nikola Jokic.
Trade DeMar to Pels for Derik Queen.
and Trade Monk to Utah for Bailey and a first.
Also, Keegan and two fists to LA for LeBron.
Finally, draft Jack Clark from VCU.
Your 2026 KINGS starting lineup:
Ace
The King
Joker
Queen
Jack
We are now royally flushed.
Nice!
Play by Play by Deuce (Mason)
Need some Quincy with your Mason and we can play Acey Deucey!
LaVine going from 40 to 16 in 3 … 2 … 1 …
16 pts tonight for Zach. Congratulations!
Hammer, meet nailhead…
Observe the genius of the Pacers, their franchise player goes down so instead of foolishly trying to scrape together as many wins as possible and be mediocre they tank the season and set up for a huge bounce back next year with Haliburton and a shiny new toy of a top 5 pick as well.
Same thing the Dubs did when Curry went down for pretty much the whole year, they saw the writing on the wall and played their cards as wisely as possible. They did waste the #2 pick that year on Wiseman but the strategy was sound. The Kings on the other hand will shoot for the 10th seed, land somewhere near it, and continue mired in eternal mediocrity.
Recall Spurs doing the same when Robinson went down and drafted Tim Duncan #1. Kinda worked out for them
Amazing how bad the Pacers seem to be when compared to how good Boston is playing. Both teams with similar player losses from last season.
LOL, Kayte just talked right through Maxi’s dunk without absolute zero reaction. Was she even watching?
Her view was blocked. She’ll have to check the replay
Obviously Zach needs more shots. He could easily drop 42 points if they just gave him the damn ball more!!!
“6 AM in the morning.”
Seamless.
Knew I have been doing something wrong for all these years. I was getting up at 6am in the evening. Silly me.
Zach “I can do that any night if they give me the damn ball enough” LaVine. If he could have only shot the ball 25 more times we wouldn’t be in this mess.
LOL. So according to Jones, the Kings have still even up to this point, played the hardest schedule in the league….I thought the hardest stretch was over a few weeks ago.
I’m getting tired of hearing about it. I get that the Kings played against a bunch of teams that have some of the best records in the league, but what it doesn’t address is that many of those teams didn’t have their best players. They’ve been absolutely destroyed by teams at full strength.
What’s more telling is that they’ve lost to the Pacers, Grizz, Jazz, Bulls and Suns (twice). Those were supposed to be the winnable games over the first half of this season…and they lost those.
When you are one of the worst teams in the league and cannot play against yourself, you are bound to have one of the hardest schedules.
Right? My thinking exactly!
Only on Kings broadcast can you get in depth discussion of each players summer workouts while game live action is occurring . Also, constantly reminded that only Kings 82game schedule has tough stretches .
Was Monk traded at some point during this game and we haven’t heard about it?
Can they unofficially approve trades before the 15th?
Im guessing its Doug just Douging it out with no rhyme or reason.
I guess they could come to gentleman’s agreement with another team and just not announce it until some players are trade eligible on the 15th, but I imagine that would leak to the media.
There are only 2 more games before trade season unofficially begins, so who knows?
Carter was assigned to the G-League this weekend. Timing is weird. He hasn’t played in like the last 9 games or something. Why didn’t they assign him earlier in the year when they knew he wasn’t in the rotation?
Is there a PG/SG trade incoming, so they need Carter to get his conditioning ready for some court time with Sac?
I think trades can happen before the 15th so long as they don’t involve players who were signed over the summer or more recently. Not that the Pacers would do it, but Monk could be traded for Nembhard, straight up right now, for example, since neither player was a recent signing.
If he was, I hope to God, it wasn’t for Kuminga.
The kings are so stupid. Do not trade for Kuminga. He is nothing more than a seventh man. Can’t shoot, doesn’t play well with others. Useless.
It’s just so stupid that their dogged pursuits are after shitty players that nobody wants. Why can’t they go for some actual good players? Fuck you Vivek.
Kuminga can’t be traded until January 15th, so you have an additional month to worry about that one.
It’s hard to imagine Keegan developing into much more than he is right now. Maybe getting back to being efficient from 3? That would be nice.
But he’s a forward with so-so ballhandling skills, who just gets his points in thhe flow of the game, sparingly creates for himself and others and rarely gets to the line.
He’s not a franchise cornerstone. He’s a unobtrusive stone somewhere in the middle, of which you sometimes say, “that’s a nice, sturdy stone”.
Great analogy. He’s the stone you keep because they might come in handy later on (you will not be ending up using this stone and it’ll take up space for years)
Does that make him a Sly Stone?
Or is he Stone Cold Keegan Murray?
He’s no Rock Richmond
Definitely too inconsistent and undeveloped for the contract he got. Kings rushed and overpaid as usual. On another team he may have developed into an All-Star already but he’s going to have to show consistent improvement on the points you mentioned to live up to his contract extension, which he may do. Loving his defense though so the contract isn’t too bad.
The worst thing the Kings have done to Keegan is put him on the floor with DDR, LaVine and Monk. He was on the right path with sharing the floor with low usage role players like Barnes and Huerter.
I keep thinking he’s currently in that category of Cam Johnson and Michael Porter Jr, only with better defense. They are solid role players on good teams, but when they are given the keys to a shitty team (Nets) they put up gaudy numbers,.
Keegan is never going to be a Batman but he could be a good Robin or Alfred.
He’s Shane Battier level. A great piece for a good team, lost on a bad team.
This. Not quite the defender Battier was, but a better offensive player.
Yo Indy, tanks a lot!
Glad to see them lose in the end – with a win, Vivek could’ve said they beat a Finals team.
Truly some of the poorest defense and poorest offense I’ve ever seen. Go tank!
You means “wins” not “losses”. Kings & Pacers have 6 wins; Pelicans & Wizards 3 have wins on the season so far. Unless a “win” is a “loss” for the tank, then I understand.
Exactly I’m flipping that record around in my mind, .750 winning percentage looking amazing right now
With the old farts out there most of the time defense is a wasted name. They are terrible at what most coaches call defense. Nembhard destroyed them attaching the rim and shooting within the paint. So did others. I really like the guy for a long time. With Hali coming back he will be moved back to backup status. Would it be possible we could trade for him? He would be our long term point guard.
We need to schedule teams that will play down to their competition.
Almost turned the game on when it was within one point in the 4th. Glad I didn’t.
Nique assigned to Stockton Kings.
G-League Champs – Back to Back? Is that the goal here?
Somehow Keon will end up getting fewer minutes.
Why? It seemed he was playing OK-Good (for a rookie) with the senior team …can (should) this be traced back to Zach telling Doug to yank Nique a few hgames back?
Stockton has games on the 9th and 10th. SacKings don’t play again until the 11th. I expect him to be called right back up for that game.
I think you meant 6 wins…but like this season, it doesn’t really matter.
If you’re tanking for the draft wins are losses and losses are wins.
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