The Golden State Warriors were on the second night of a back to back, traveling into Sacramento from Salt Lake City, and yet the Warriors were the team that came out with energy and tempo and execution, defeating the Kings 109-90.
The Kings didn’t fall apart in this game, they never even gave themselves a chance. The Kings were lethargic and the Warriors ran them out of the building despite missing Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Otto Porter Jr. The Kings made a small run in the fourth quarter but it was too little, too late.
Harrison Barnes gave a strong effort against his former team, finishing with 18 points. Davion Mitchell finished with just 9 points. Damian Jones had 17, and Donte DiVincenzo finished with 14.
Barnes also played 35 minutes despite the Kings trailing by 20 points for most of the night. I’m not sure what Alvin Gentry is trying to accomplish, but his vet-heavy rotation defies the reality of where the Kings season is at.
The Warriors were led by strong performances from Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, who finished with 25 and 22 points respectively. Nemanja Bjelica added 19 off the bench against his former team.
The Kings next play on Tuesday as they host the New Orleans Pelicans. Just three games remain in this season.
Operation M.C.N.A.I.R.
Tonight’s charity is the Cure Sanfillipo Foundation.
Sanfilippo Syndrome is a rare, terminal, neurodegenerative disease that causes children lose all the skills they’ve gained, suffer seizures and movement disorders, experience pain and suffering, and then die. All before their parents eyes.
Cure Sanfilippo Foundation architects and funds cutting-edge research to accelerate discovery of a treatment or cure for Sanfilippo Syndrome so parents can dream of their children’s futures again.
You can read more about it here.
Officially 16 straight seasons without making the playoffs, an NBA record.
A baby was born the last time we made the playoffs and that baby is now on the cusp of graduating high school and going off to college.
Glad I stopped watching the games last season. Hope many of you will do the same as the playoffs are not happening anytime soon. I’ll take the over on 20 seasons without making the playoffs.
While this has been accurate each season until now, I do feel like he’s at least trying something new. IF he really has given complete control to his GM (seemingly he has with the Halliburton for Sabonis trade).
He is seemingly going to let his fairly legitimate (still needs to prove it) GM hire a new head coach. We’ll se how that goes.
Will our seemingly legitimate GM be able to pull off some trades and or free agency magic and bring in another REAL and PROVEN talent that actually makes this team 15 wins better?
Vivek alone, is now at 9 straight years with no playoffs. That puts him in a tie for 4th place overall for all NBA owners…ever. FWIW, Donald Sterling holds the record at 15 years.
Next up, number 20 That is the number of seasons and current record the Hornets have gone without winning a playoff series. Will the Kings catch them too? To be fair, the steak is really 18, because the Hornets didn’t exist for 2 years in that stretch. The Hornets haven’t won a playoff series since 2002.
The Kings last playoff series win was in 2004 against the Dallas Mavericks.
No he doesn’t even hold that. He bought the Clippers in 1982, their first playoff run happened in 1992 with Larry Brown as the HC (who was hired in season). It’s a true story!
I stand corrected. For some reason I had Sterling as the owner in my brain of the Clippers since they began in the 70’s
Oh that story is an all timer. The reason the Clippers ended up moving from Buffalo to San Diego was Irv Levin, arguably the worst owner ever, and he agreed to switch ownership from the Celtics to the Braves so he could own a NBA team in San Diego.
Now, it’s also true that the Braves would have moved anyway. Jack Ramsey resigned in 1976 due to the lack of funds available for the franchise. He then got hired by Portland and coached that Bill Walton, Mo Lucas and others to a title in 1977.
Good times.
I dont much care Greg but the game against the Jazz Saturday night was in San Francisco.
I’ve said it a few times here already, but why aren’t the Kings signing anybody to 10 day contracts?
I guess this is why:
But why not sign a guy with 20 days left in the season to a deal?
And1: Why isn’t Queta playing at all?
I just realized that Nemanja is better than Lyles or Metu .. Hope, what hope .
I think we all had the feeling that this was gonna be a lost season but at least we won’t need to hear about any “play-in” nonsense for the rest of the season.
Cheers to holding the nba record for consecutive years without a playoff berth! 😵💫🙃
If we’d just had been better fans, this wouldn’t have happened!
Why can’t the fans just understand already???
What the fans don’t understand is…
…that the fans don’t understand.
Next season will be different. Really!
Hey, it’s the best odds of being different over the last 16 years. So… there’s that?
Don’t worry. Neither does he.
Sure he does. It gets deposited into his checking account every 2 weeks.
Can you imagine stellar our record would be if we could play just the tanking teams like Houston and Indy all the time instead of legit good teams?
A new coach is coming. This is so incredibly important. I’m wondering if Monte already knows who he wants. I’m guessing he does. Will he do a “search” and conduct “interviews”?
at worst one would think (maybe I am being too optimistic because who am I kidding, this is the Kings) that there is a very short list he and his staff has established, and interest from certain candidates has already been assessed.
I can’t emphasize enough how incredibly important this is. The kings need a REALLY REAL COACH. Really bad. That’s the next step and it’s a gigantic one that can’t miss. It could end up being an unproven guy like Doug which would signal alarms and a ton of backlash. That unproven guy like Doug could work out to be an amazing coach. The truth is though, this team at this moment with what is on the line… They need a coach that radiates legitimacy and confidence.
Who our next coach comes to be is massively, enormously, hugely, gigantic.
the new coach will fix the lack of talent for sure.
And why haven’t the previous 10 fixed the lack of talent. I got it number 11 will be the answer.
A new head coach is the first step. Of course you need more talent.
A new head coach without elite talent is not a step, it’s treading water.
I’m going to completely like go ahead and disagree with you there. You have a problem with your TPS reports, Marty. 🙂
Let me put it another way Marty: I don’t think you get the upgrade in talent on the court with an upgrade on the sideline. Particularly since it’s imperative that you have the HC & GM on the same page.
Today I learned Brett Brown may have been more important than drafting Joel Embiid.
Nope. Not what I said.
But you help yourself by getting that right head coach. It helps you sell yourself to a player that you trade for. For one example.
You need to realize it’s a players league. A new coach is about 15 on the priority list. All the players on who will be on the roster are a higher priority. We’ve tried 10 different coaches with no impact. Successful coaches like George Karl have come to Sac and failed and coaches who have failed in Sac like Malone have gone on to have success elsewhere. If you’re counting on a coach to make a huge, massive, gigantic, enormous impact, I think you’re going to be very disappointed. The number one priority is that we must nail this upcoming draft getting one impact player and getting another serviceable player that could be an impact player some day. I’d move Barnes and Holmes to position ourselves better although Holmes might be under water now. As I’ve said Murray, Koloko, Timme perhaps Bouyea would be a nice haul. The later two as UFA’s.
I do realize. Never said that wasn’t the case. Didn’t say a good coach fixes everything. A good coach, more importantly the right caliber of coach is a HUGE DEAL!!! There needs to be a shift in this team not just on the court but the legitimacy of the man leading the team. One who comes with respect and a winning history would be ideal. A coach players want to play for. Like Malone. Sure as shit not like George Karl who had no business even applying for the job if you want to call going against every code of conduct in the fraternity of nba coaches as applying for the job.
a good nba coach is HUGE. It’s not more huge than an upgrade in talent.
Having impactful stars is more important than a good coach, but the players who are at the end of the rotation or not in the rotation aren’t as important as a good coach.
we agree in principle but not in specifics.
I do think Holmes is almost un tradable.
Barnes may yield something.
Murray is fine. Koloko is fine for second round. Timme- NO and Bouyea- no.
I would be very happy with Murray + Koloko but I think we end up with one of Sharpe, Griffin (hope not), Davis, or Mathurin. Hope to heck we do not get passed and end up with another Nik or B-Mac.
I would disagree based on this one point and that alone: No criminal charge has been filed. Until then, what’s really going on is a bitter custody dispute.
NBA teams may not be interested, as a result, but I’d wager Holmes’ basketball history impacts his trade value more than whatever is going on atm.
No coach can win without talent . Remember when Kerr won 15 games, Riley won 16 and Popovich won 21 ? They had rosters without stars available . Kings need at least one player better than Fox and Sabonis . Winning will not happen until more talent arrives .
Finally someone who gets it. Great post.
I think Doug will be a good coach- someday but not now.
I saw the duds bench last night and there were a few coaches over there worth poaching.
but a coach is a coach- cannot make up for player deficit.
This blowout against the Warriors bench should really give some pause to people who think Metu, Jones, and Lyles can get heavy minutes on a competitive team, or that Davion is capable of replacing Fox in the starting lineup. I like all these guys and think they can be a part of the rotation next season, but after weeks of beating up on the Rockets, OKC, and Pacers, this was a much needed reality check.
Have the Spurs already lapped the Kings with their rebuild? They have a legit two-way player and all-star in Murray, nice young pieces in Poeltl, Johnson, Vassell, and Walker IV. Their oldest player is Doug McDermott at 30. They have a super clean cap sheet with around $40M in space and Murray as their highest paid player making $16M next year. They also have 3 first round draft picks this year.
I don’t know if they have lapped us yet but they certainly have a substantial lead for the reasons you laid out very well.
Murray is better than Fox at half the cost . Major signing mistake by McNair . Losing Bogi for nothing was his first mistake . Excellent asset lost and had more long term value than Barnes . Not certain Monte is the answer any more than a different coach .
Yeah I’ve started to sour a bit on McNair. Let’s see how he handles this off-season. If the team doesn’t show significant improvement next year getting close to 40 wins, it’s probably time for a change. I just don’t see the plan. He’s in a win now mode without the chips to make it happen. He should have been dumping players like Barnes and Holmes at the trade deadline for draft capital and cap space. Why is Barnes playing and Queta sitting right now. Why wasn’t Mitchell getting more minutes prior to Fox going out. Those themselves are not monumental issues but it’s an indication of a management team lost in space.
I still question his moves. As much as I like Sabonis, I think trading Hali for Sabonis was a mistake considering all of the bigs at the top of the draft lottery… I agree he deserves another offseason.
We can argue until the cows come home if that was a good trade and time will tell. I think it’s fair to say after all of the mid season moves they made, they didn’t get the results they were hoping to get for the preponderance of the season. Early returns show mid season moves not positively impactful.
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