UPDATE:
The Kings lost once again to the Portland Trail Blazers, this time in much less dramatic fashion. Portland beat the Kings 98-93, with Deni Avdija (24 points) and Shaedon Sharpe (23 points and an absolutely ridiculous dunk) leading the way.
The Kings were led in scoring by Dennis Schröder’s 21 points off the bench, while rookie Maxime Raynaud had his second straight double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. The Kings got good performances from all their rookies, as Nique Clifford added 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in 29 minutes off the bench and two-way rookie Dylan Cardwell had 4 points, 8 rebounds and 5 blocks in just 20 minutes as the backup center.
With the loss and a Pelicans win, the Kings fell into the lone spot as the worst team in the Western Conference, and tied the Indiana Pacers for the second worst record in the league. This is officially the worst start to a season in Sacramento-era history, with the only other Kings squad that started 6-22 being the 1958-59 Cincinnati Royals. The Kings will have a quick shot of redemption, as they’ll face the Houston Rockets in Sacramento on Sunday night.
***
In a rare NBA scheduling quirk, the Kings will face the Blazers again tonight following their 134-133 OT loss in Portland on Thursday.
Who: Sacramento Kings (6-21) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (11-16)
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
When: 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
I didn’t think Maxime Raynaud would be the most exciting part about the 2025-26 Sacramento Kings season, but here we are. In Domantas Sabonis’ absence, Raynaud is averaging 15.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists on .534 shooting from the field, and .333 shooting from three in his 5 career starts. The best game of his career came against Portland on Thursday where he posted 29 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in 37 minutes while shooting an efficient 50% from the field.
And with the news that Sabonis is expected to miss at least another month while he recovers from a knee injury, Raynaud will continue to get both the minutes and opportunity to show the Kings, the fans, and the league that he’s the real deal.
For as critical as I’ve been about the Kings front office and Scott Perry’s hideous roster, the most important thing Sacramento can do to improve their standing in the league longterm is hit on their draft picks. It’s obviously early, but drafting Raynaud has been the new regimes most promising move to date. By far.
Also of note coming out of the Portland game on Thursday was the mysterious disappearance of Malik Monk. According to local media in attendance, Monk was a healthy scratch behind Nique Clifford, Keon Ellis, and Dennis Schroder as the only guards to play off the bench. Will that trend continue tonight? Who knows, but it’s a new wrinkle to Doug Christie’s rotation, and maybe, just maybe, our first real indication that some of Sacramento’s young players will start taking minutes priority. Stay tuned.
Prediction: Kings 123, Blazers 114.
We’ll complete this home-and-home pair;
The refs kept the tank rolling up there.
Will Scott pull the trigger—
A small trade or bigger?
With Vivek, we’re still going nowhere!
+1 Time for Maxi to drop the beam on the Klingan!
Would also love it if DDR and Westbrook minutes were minimized, not just Monk.
IMO Monk should have played over Westbrook last night. I thought Westbrook didn’t play well and all players shot only 19% at three. Monk IMO is better than Westbrook at shooting the three and also free throws. Westbrook is 36 and Monk needs to play if the Kings are going to trade him.
Westbrook and DDR both hog the ball way too much. Half the shot clock is gone as Westbrook just dribbles it away. No offense. At least Monk doesn’t just sit out front and dribble all night. He either shoots the 3 which right now is what we need or attacks the basket and draws fouls which we need. Go figure. Keegan does not get the ball enough. The shot clock is gone. Go figure. I’m wondering if Doug is a good coach? Just wondering,
It is becoming almost impossible to believe Doug is the best coach for the future . Seems Matina and Vivek have pushed too much for him .
Dear Fanbase,
First off, note that as coach stated; “nothing is permanent.” If you have watched us compete for the last decade, I know you will agree with this. Even when it looked like we would never make the playoffs again, we were able to fight our way into the 3rd seed. Of course, nothing is permanent, so the 3rd seed just would not cut it again. We are shooting for other seedlings now.
Something you won’t understand is how often wins like last game have been stolen from us this season. We are counting this as a notch in the W column even though the league may not. In fact, we should have closer to 9 wins now; if the league did not hate us and block our great trades, we would easily have 3-4 championships.
Make no mistake, this season is not lost. We are just beginning to warm up and understand the players we have. Haters will see: nothing is permanent.
Sinverely,
Management
Look out! As Kayte just explained, teams are having to “game plan” now against Max! Lol.
“Dennis is on some Denzel Washington Training Day energy right now.” -Mark Jones…bahahahaha
Cardwell is so fun to watch!
I’m tankful for tonight’s performance.
Whatever!! This is the first rebuild I’m actually sort of excited about! I’m loving the energy of these rooks and would much rather watch them lose games with that energy than watch droopy-dog Zach Lavine lose games. ????♂️
I would be too if it could be done correctly . The idea of watching a 30 win team 5 seasons from now not appealing but possible with Vivek in charge .
I get that. Also something I’m legit scared of. I really hope he gives scott the autonomy Scott says he has, even when it gets even rougher.
Last place in the West feels like first, glorious!
Lose for Boozer!
Dive for Dybantsa!
Go down to defeat for Peterson!
Roll out the Tangkz!
I guess Monk is the new guy in Doug’s doghouse.
Embarrassing to employ a coaching staff that have worked on implementing an offense for about half a year now, and it doesn’t go further than:
I’m beginning to fall in love with Dylan Cardwell. Not the most technically gifted player, but he’s strong, smart, and seems to have the potential to be an absolute difference maker on defense.
He also had me stitches every time he signalled the crowd to get hyped after a rebound or a block, despite still being down in one of the more depressing games of the year.
Agreed on the coaching staff.
No surprise there, I suppose. I’ve been pretty vocal about DC’s lack of coaching chops from the get-go.
I wouldn’t trust DC to develop a bunch of young prospects, assuming we are really headed into that direction. Seeing it is believing it.
He’s got Kangz DNA though!
ChampionshipWestern Conference finalist pedigree!Was Miami the only win in December so far? Is this really Vivek’s idea of “win now”?
They certainly are failing fast this season.
Monk doesn’t play and Keon a little more. If so they are doing nothing as is . Trade Monk and Ellis to the Nets for Sharpe, Williams and Clowney. Start the rebuild.
Absolute guess here: Perry doesn’t pull off any trade for Ellis and he walks for nothing. It would be just like this franchise to not develop the talent though everyone seems the potential, and let his go for nothing and flourish somewhere like Boston.
This is exactly what I expect. That would be very typical of this team.
It won’t be long before most fans realize that Perry is not an improvement over McNair .
Perry drafted Raynaud and signed Cardwell. Those are his only good moves.
Every other move has been dogshit. I guess drafting Clifford can get a TBD at this time but it’s not looking good for a guy who was 4 months shy of 24 years old on opening night.
His body of work is pretty bad at this point.
Vivek Rocks!
https://bsky.app/profile/basketball-reference.com/post/3maja5dict22y
Damn even the NOP has some chance.
He came in thinking he was a master;
Claimed he knew how to get us there faster.
So long now adrift,
We can all see the grift:
Ranadive has been a disaster!
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