The Sacramento Kings are inexplicable. Two games after losing to the lowly Washington Wizards, the Kings put forth an incredible performance to defeat the 62-win Cleveland Cavaliers 120-113. What’s more, this was Sacramento’s second win over the Cavs this year, completing a season sweep against the best team in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs better pray they don’t face the Kings in the NBA Finals!
A few thoughts and observations from this one.
Frustratingly Inconsistent
The hardest part of following this Kings team is their lack of consistency. If the Kings could show up with this level of effort and execution every game this would have been a very different season. The Kings played a really good game. The Kings were without Keegan Murray, who sat out with a sore back, but the Kings showed up ready to play. Zach LaVine led the Kings with 37 points, and was 7-for-11 from three. Aggressive Zach is really good! It’s frustrating he doesn’t play with that same aggression every game! DeMar DeRozan added 28 points and 7 rebounds. Domantas Sabonis, one of the few Kings who has remained consistent, finished with 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists. Keon Ellis, who continues to start over Malik Monk, finished with 11 points, 4 steals, 3 assists, and 3 rebounds. It was good to see him bounce back to form.
The Kings were ultimately lucky to get such big performances from LaVine, DeRozan, and Sabonis, as the rest of the team was pretty quiet. Monk struggled with his shot, and finished with 8 points on 8 shots. Trey Lyles, who started in Keegan’s place, struggled to score and finished with 7 points on 6 shots, but he did add 8 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 assist. I didn’t think Lyles was terrible, but he needed to do more in 40 minutes of game time.
Refs…helped?…the Kings?
Late in the game the refs missed a 24 second violation where LaVine didn’t get his shot off in time, and his basket was counted. I feel no guilt about this error in Sacramento’s favor, but I do think it had an impact in the closing minutes of the game as Cleveland was fighting to cover a 5 point gap instead of a 3 point gap. The Cavs definitely rushed some shots late, including one possession where the Cavs missed 4 shots in 10 seconds. The final miss was whistled a foul against Keon Ellis, which would have sent Donovan Mitchell to the line for 3 free throws, but the refs reviewed the play and determined that Mitchell had stepped out of bounds.
Play-In Implications
This win move the Kings into the 9th seed in the West. The Kings are a half game up on the Mavericks, and 3 games up on the Suns. With 4 games remaining for Sacramento, including a final game against the Suns, the final standings are still uncertain, but this win definitely improved Sacramento chances of clinging to the Play-In.
Up Next
The Kings are on a back to back, facing the Detroit Pistons today.
Thanks for writing this. I have read it!
Then it was all worth it!
That OB call on Mitchell definitely gave me hope in the Basketball gods again.
Greg, you are doing the Lord’s work man. It has to be absolutely brutal writing about this team that is actively doing things to its own detriment all the time. I hate that there’s zero joy in this team winning because it actively hurts the team’s future.
It’s sad that my jaded mindset has me thinking that the only reason the refs “helped” the Kings was to ensure that they didn’t get the first round pick. They successfully thwarted their season efforts on so many occasions and now get to look like the good guys when, in fact, they are fulfilling their greater nefarious plan. Perhaps I need to lay off the conspiracy cola.
I don’t know. I think it left LaVine’s hand with 0.001 seconds left.
Would love to see Lavine be this aggressive the rest of the season and onto the Play-In. When he plays this way he is truly an elite scorer and facilitator.
Badge Legend