Update: 10:15 pm
The tank picked up a nice loss Thursday night as the New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Sacramento Kings 133-123.
Precious Achiuwa continues to prove the Miami Heat made a mistake waiving him in October. He finished with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists. Russell Westbrook had 19 points and 10 assists.
The game was somewhat within striking distance for the Kings until they once again forgot how to defend the three.
Both of these bad teams were effective in the paint against each other, with the Pelicans scoring 68 points there and the Kings scoring 72. The Kings shot 65% from the free throw line and 26% from three.
Sacramento is now 14-50 and on a three-game losing streak.
From Earlier Preview:
The bottom of the standings are starting to get a bit uncomfortable for this Kings observer. Five games separate the Kings, currently the worst team in the league, and the Pelicans, currently the 6th-worst team in the league. But this isn’t about the Pelicans, who don’t even own their first round pick this year (Atlanta must be thrilled). My concern lies with the Pacers, Nets, Wizards, and Jazz – the bad teams currently sandwiched between the Kings and Pelicans – who are all riding lengthy losing streaks.
The tank must proceed without resistance, and the Pelicans are bad enough to lose tonight.
Who: Sacramento Kings (14-49) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (19-44)
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
When: 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
The Pelicans, as we established earlier, have no reason to tank. In some ways, that makes their 19-44 record terrifying. This is a bad, albeit significantly more talented, basketball team. The Kings are at home, a potentially dangerous equalizer between two cellar dwellers. But if there is one thing I believe in, it is this organizations’ ability to lose games. You got this, boys.
Prediction: Kings 118, Pelicans 106.
Don’t know yet if Zion is playing;
If he does I’m sure he’ll be preying.
As the Pels take flight,
Our future’s not bright.
Things won’t change while Vivek is staying!
+1 This could be another cakewalk for the Pels!
Light the Beak?
How has Christie not gotten fired this season?
I mean it can’t be that Vivek is that worried about paying whatever is left on Christie’s contract when he’s going to be ponying up $49M next season for the remnants of Zach Lavine.
Would Bobby Jackson or Mike Woodson as interim coach (at least we’d be able keep former beloved players as coaches!) really have been able to coax so many more wins out of this assemblage of talent that we’d have legitimately risked plummeting in the lottery odds?
Perry could have started laying the ground work for a legit coaching search to start as soon as the season was over and actually have qualified prospects to make offers to.
I suppose it’s all moot at this point and we’ll ride DC into the ground as far as he can dig.
And perhaps nothing matters as long as Vivek owns the team. NBA fandom as existentialism.
Because he is still paying Mike Brown?
I don’t think he is though, I think once the Knicks hired him, they picked up the bill. I read that somewhere….
Yeah, I read that too, but I think it was a partial bill, not the full thing. I think it is something like Brown is making more per year, but the Kings are picking up part of the tab. Basically, the Kings don’t have to eat all that was owed, and the Knicks get a pro-rated Mike Brown.
Ha! Nothing boring and standard like this will happen under Vivek. We must break the mold, shift the paradigm and do all things a new way.
Wasn’t there a rather lengthy search when they hired Mike Brown?
that’s the one year vivek conceded control to monte, then we had success and vivek couldn’t stand that so he poked his head back in the following year and forced demar on Monte…great stuff
Because you don’t fire the Tank commander until you are done tanking. Based on public statements that isn’t until the end of next year. Then we see what type of coach this GM really wants.
And shortly after that we’ll see how the next GM relates with the coach that this GM put in place!
Doug Christie ain’t going nowhere anytime soon. (bad problems need bad English).
Matina won’t allow it.
For reference; How awful was it until they had GM Vlade Divac step aside (he was not fired or relieved from his position)?
Doug Christie will be the Kings head coach next season, most likely.
35 shots for Westbrook, Precious, and DeMar! Building for the future here folks!
Nique 21 min
Raynaud 26 min
Achiuwa 40 min
Westbrook 33 min
Monk 30 min
Carter – DNP-CD
There is no plan, no explanation.
This team makes no sense at all.
Minutes distribution say to me that Doug was trying hard to win this game and still couldn’t. Not a tank-approved strategy, and yet still tank-acceptable result.
First off, this helped the tank roll on so I’m ok with it. Do it again Tuesday against the Pacers if it will result in an L.
That being said, I like Doug but he’s a terrible coach. Unless this was on purpose to lose, which I doubt, he’s done a terrible job as coach this season.
Between the terrible roster construction, injuries and head coach, this team has been a recipe of epic disaster all season.
I’m not sure the all-vet closing lineup was the best use of this game.
First to 50!
Kings got 50 loses before any team got 50 wins.
I didn’t catch the game. How’d Lavine do?
Didn’t miss a shot and didn’t get blown by on defense.
Great Success!
We need an article on Russ absolutely crucifying Matt George after the game during the press conference. Lmao
Yeah, I need some help on this one. I don’t listen to any of these talking heads, so I’m not sure what Matt George said.
The Kings have the dumbest front office in sports, the team is awful, the coach isn’t getting much out of anyone, they’re still playing the wrong players too many minutes, and there is little NBA talent to be had at all that will be around in two years. I don’t think any of that is even arguable.
If Matt George said any of that, I don’t see the issue, outside of pointing out stuff Russ just doesn’t want to hear. Did he say that Russ should be bought out but that no one wants him? That’s probably true too, but I could see that being the issue.
Edit – It sounds like (?) George is saying Russ is going after personal goals at the expense of the development of younger players whose minutes he’s taking. That tracks. At best, both things are true. Russ is setting whatever records he’s setting (I don’t care, but good for him) and theoretically helping younger players.
I don’t see any reason Russ should either be on the Kings or playing heavy minutes. They’re losing either way, so why is Devin Carter rotting on the bench in favor of Russ? The answer is probably that Vivek desperately wants to bask in the fading glow of Westbrook’s NBA celebrity. The organizational mouthpiece answer for all this is “leadership,” and “playing the right way.”
All good points. I just heard rumors Russ wants to move to the Kings FO at some point.
I don’t get what he is mad about, the local media might be the softest found any where in the country, then the listen to 1140 and 1320 give cover for the players and the team its just embarrasing.
I get the team is bad and its tough getting your teeth kicked in But good lord this fan base has put up with a lot for a long time and having watched ownership and the front office get a pass is getting really old. If anyone has right to be mad its the fans
I get the Russell plays really hard and going all out is the only way he knows, that he is a competitor, but this is also on the front office and the coaching staff as well.
What was that all about? I saw the post game presser today and have no idea what Russ was upset about.
Don’t know, but I think Russ should be so angry that he doesn’t re-sign with the team for next season! Stand up for yourself Russ!
I’m not sure but it was hilarious.
LOL.
my only takeaway from the presser was…
Championship… CHAMPIONSHIP!!!???
Who said anything about a championship?…
We can assure you Russ; nobody was expecting a championship out of y’all this season. Put that worry to rest.
We weren’t even expecting 8th seed.
Play-in? You kidding me? Play-in?
We talkin about play-in?!
Oh, I can think of one person who probably got in Russ’ ear about delusions of a championship once he got here. You know who I mean. Shorter than many others… Tends to dismiss people…
Two clowns, one player who still thinks he’s The Man, one sports “media” person who likes to double down.
OT: Surprised Tatum is coming back. Thought he would miss the entire season.
https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3mgfxglprze2o
Boston is going to be a problem this post-season.
You have to admire what they’ve done this season. Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Peyton Pritchard and …. and… Joe Mazulla with a cast of characters and are 2nd in the East on the way to a 50+ win season.
JB Bickerstaff deserves CoY, but you have to marvel at Mazulla and Jordan Ott among others of the upper half of the League.
And as mentioned above: the Kings have Doug Christie. Nice guy. Nice arena.
Hi
After a thorough and comprehensive five second review of the remaining NBA schedule, I can determine with 538 accuracy the final win totals for the four worst teams in the league:
Washington – 20 wins
Brooklyn – 19 wins
Sacramento – 19 wins
Indiana – 18 wins
Please note that there is a 0-100% margin for error.
Can someone explain why Indy is so bad. Does losing Hali and Myles Turner take you from game 7 in the Finals to dead last in the league? They won 50 games last year and now look to be a lock for less than 20 wins. Are those two worth a 30 game swing? The last time I can recall that kind of swing is when LeBron left Cleveland for Miami. They went from 61 wins to 19 the following season.
In 24-25, Hali / Siakam / Turner played 7,173 minutes for the Pacers. This year, they have played 1,783 minutes, and the 24-25 minutes have basically been covered by Siakam / Nembhard / Walker / Huff / Sheppard.
For “grins”, the 23-24 Kings got 8,175 minutes from Fox / Domas / Murray. This year’s Kings have gotten 7,705 minutes from DeRozan / Westbrook / Raynaud / Clifford / Achiuwa.
Blink of an eye.
It reminds me a bit of the 96-97 Spurs. They won 121 games over the prior two seasons, then The Admiral and Sean Elliott went down with injuries. 20 wins later, they draft Tim Duncan. The rest is history.
Our draft pick in ’97? Tariq Abdul-Wahad. But honestly, given the track record of this organization, even if we’d had the first pick that year we would’ve somehow managed to fuck up drafting Duncan.
Let the chips fall where they may.
Tie Breaker wise: Sacramento plays Jordi and the Nyets on March 22 at G1C and March 29 in Barclays.
Rick Carlisle comes to town this Tuesday (I have tickets, sigh). Kings worsened the Pacers (as opposed to Pacers bested the Kings) on December 8th, 2025
Why is Indy so bad after being so good? Because Rick Carlisle is a smart enough Head Coach to make them that way
I was under the impression that the tiebreakers for playoffs are also assigned to draft position, but the more I think about it, I am more convinced it doesn’t work that way. If there is a three or four way tie with Washington/Brooklyn/Indiana/Sacramento than maybe head to head is applied in reverse (If Sac loses to Indiana on March 10th, then are 0-2 and should get the lower seed) but I strongly doubt it. I am recalling coin flips in the past for two way draft position ties and I don’t know how the League will handle 3 way (Rock/Paper/Scissors?) or 4 way (Cage match? Duplicate Bridge?) ties.
Sacramento has these 3 games remaining against the Top Tower of Tank – the Foilbed Four are WAS/BRK/IND/SAC – as mentioned above. They also face Chicago and Utah (and Memphis is another team on the tank).
Today, the Squad of Stank hold these stats:
Washington (16-46) 7 game losing streak
Brooklyn (15-47) 10 game losing streak
Indiana 7 (15-47)game losing streak
Sacramento (14-50) 3 game losing streak (and even after a 16 game losing streak are only 2 games behind Indiana and Brooklyn). This IS a problem as each of these teams tries to out lose the other. How many in a row? Will Sac need to break their newly formed Franchise record?
I think the tie-break process is that they do simple coin flips to determine pre-ping pong ball positioning, and then the ping pong balls take it from there.
^This^
And they want the #1 draft picks.
An agent who cares about his client will warn him not to sign with the Kings.
I expect the Kings will get calls from agents not to draft their client.
So now, Peterson is saying he “might run it back one more year.”
Hahaha…top draft picks trying very hard to avoid getting drafted by the Kangz. All this tanking by the Kangz will end up on their faces like dog poop.
Badge Legend