The Kings have just three games remaining on the season. After Tuesday’s brutal road loss in Oklahoma City featuring yet another blown 20 point lead, the Kings have zero margin of error. The 6th spot and a guaranteed playoff spot isn’t quite out of the picture, but the Kings would likely need to win out. It helps that two of their final three games are against other teams fighting for that spot, starting tonight against a New Orleans Pelicans squad that has already beaten them four times this season.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Thursday, April 11th, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140
Last Time
The Pelicans have had the Kings number this season, winning all four games and none in more dominating fashion than their last matchup in the first round of the in-season tournament knockout stage; The Pelicans came to Sacramento and absolutely wiped the floor with the Kings, winning 133 – 100 in a game that Zion Williamson didn’t even play in. CJ McCollum led the way for the Pelicans with 30 points and six other Pelicans players finished in double digits. No Kings players finished with more than 17 points and De’Aaron Fox had one of the worst games of his entire career, scoring just 3 points on 1-10 shooting.
Three in the Key
A Play-In for the Play-In
These final three games might as well feature as a mini Play-In tournament themselves. The Kings face the Pelicans tonight and the Suns tomorrow, the teams directly ahead of them in the standings. A loss against either of those teams guarantees the 6th spot is completely out of the picture while a win against both at least gives the Kings a chance. The Pelicans would guarantee at least the 7th spot with even a single win since they own the season tiebreaker with the Kings. Their final schedule also features games against the Warriors and Lakers after this. Those two teams are hot on Sacramento’s heels as well and the Kings need to avoid slipping into those 9th and 10th seeds where one game would mean elimination. These final games should have a bit of a playoff feel to them as they’re vastly important to both teams. The Kings have the homecourt advantage though, and they need to take care of business.
Get De’Aaron Fox going
A few years ago it seemed as though De’Aaron Fox enjoyed playing no team more than the New Orleans Pelicans, scoring 43 points twice in the same season against them. This season has been wildly different however as the Pelicans have used their superior length and physicality to give Fox a ton of trouble. Against the Pelicans this season, Fox has averaged just 18.3 points on 35.7% from the field and 20% from three. Herb Jones, Dyson Daniels and Jose Alvarado have done as good a job defending him as any players ever have. The Kings can’t win this game with Fox playing sub-optimally, especially without Malik Monk to alleviate the pressure. Sacramento needs to do whatever they can to free Fox up and get him going.
Who else is going to step up?
Since Malik Monk has gone down with injury, the Kings have struggled to find someone to score consistently aside from De’Aaron Fox. Domantas Sabonis doesn’t particularly look for his own shot and does most of his damage around the rim. Keegan Murray and Harrison Barnes have both been inconsistent and Keon Ellis is mostly defensive minded. Sacramento’s bench has been missing a spark without Malik although Davion Mitchell and Trey Lyles have been performing admirably of late. The Kings need someone to step up these last few games and shoulder some more of that scoring responsibility.
Prediction
It’s a grueling knockdown affair but in the end the Kings finally overcome their Ornithophobia and beat the Pelicans.
Kings 107, Pelicans 103
Standings Watch
Aside from the Kings own game against New Orleans, there’s only one other game tonight that could affect Sacramento’s standings:
The #10 Golden State Warriors take on the Portland Trail Blazers. On paper this should be an easy win for the Warriors. If the Kings lose tonight and the Warriors win, the Warriors will move up to a tie with Sacramento and put the Kings in real danger of falling to 9th or even 10th in the Play-In race.
Fan Predictions
Link to Leaderboard (Updated 2/21/24)
The Kings being favored in this game is HILARIOUS. Can the Kings do the impossible and go 0-5 against the Pelicans this year? Feels like yes but hope springs eternal I suppose.
Yeah, I’m surprised they’re favored tonight.
must win games amd yet, somehow the Kings have developed an almost always loose offensive style of play and coaching.
It’s really a bummer to see them go backwards this year-which is what they’ve done. To not have fixed the issues or roster from last year.
I guess my hope is the 7-8 so at least they get 2 games. More experience the better. Maybe.
and coach gonna just randomly not play Vez more? Or someone else. His rotations/usage/lack of adjustments=meh
How have they gone backwards? They won 48 games last year, they have 47 wins and 3 to play. The west has gotten a lot better and the Kings haven’t had as great of luck with injuries this year, yet they maintained the same number of wins. I would argue that the Kings are better this year, it’s just the west has gotten better-er. Warriors are scraping to get into the playoffs. Minny and OKC have made huge strides.
If you want to be pessimistic, it would be that OKC is stacked for the foreseeable future. And Houston and San Antonio are about to make a leap. The Kings position looks like they are a perennial 7 seed with no real opportunity to infuse the talent needed to compete unless one of the young guys makes a HUGE leap. But I don’t see how they have gone backwards. It’s just our expectations have increased.
If you want to be a glass is half full type, the Kings have fared well against the top of the conference. They seem to play up or down to their competition which may say that they have the talent to compete, they just need the discipline to do it on a nightly basis.
I see the Kings have 45 wins…oh well.
Pessimism and doom aside, the Kings are 1.5-point favorites, and the majority of bets are on the Kings.
That sounds about right.
This year we have not yet beat them;
The Pels don’t want us to defeat them.
They’re still without Brandon.
So to improve our standin’,
Do whatever it takes to unseat them.
+1 Brandon remains dark for the Pelicans!
Hopefully the Kings can make their time with the Pelican Brief
and charming!
Let’s go Brandon!
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to hear that the Kings win, but at the same time the very thought is laughable. Call me conflicted.
As a Kings fan, there is no question that despite my pleasure that the Kings are a winning team with a decent record this tightly contested season, I have little confidence that this team can put together a win on any particular night, and even less so, when they “need to”.
How can the players and the coaches have confidence? Puffing out your chest and saying you are confident is a nice act – but knowing that you can put it together as a group and best your opponent with the chips on the table seeing what we’ve seen?
Again, I am a happy fan and delighted that the drought is history, that there is .500 level or better basketball, and that we fans have a group of players that I am happy to root for. Class acts – up and down the roster. Same goes for the coaching staff – I am applauding them every chance I get.
But…
consistent inconsistency is the hallmark of this team. Showing up Big for the biggest match ups has been more down than up, particularly in the post ASG regular season.
I can remind myself that Miami was a 9th seed last season and the Lakers a 7th seed, just so many times.
In the same vein – the team could enter the post season and burn opponents. But that would be a serious surprise. More likely they melt than catch fire.
Tonight is the biggest game of the season for the Kings – then the next game will be the biggest game. Will they gel or are they jello?
I somehow think that they play cramped or sometimes too overconfident (even in the same game) when viewed as a contender or favorite and the more they are the underdog, the looser they get.
That could also explain the underwhelming home record to an extent.
The irony here is that if the Kings can somehow pull out a win at home over a Pels team that’s missing Ingram, there would then be a very real chance that they play them in the 7/8 game at N.O. Keep in mind this is a team that has absolutely destroyed the Kings 4 times already this season.
In order for the Kings to win they will have to do a 180 from what they have done all year, I would like to see them do that but if they haven’t done what they have done all year then why would that change. I hope it does. GO KINGS!
The Kings, at full strength, have not even been competitive against the Pelicans. Now they’re playing mediocre ball and missing their two shooting guards. Nightmare.
The Kings just don’t have the length to go up against the Pels. It’s going to be total cringe when Brown defaults to his 3 guard lineup of Fox, Ellis, and Davion.
Cringe will be to see how many times Alvarado swipes Fox before he crosses the half court line. My guess is at least 2 times.
See the Kings need to do the 180. Fox has at least 2 steals on Alvarado before he crosses the half court line. We’ll see.
I won’t hold my breath.
He’ll get Sabonis after a rebound 3 times.
Every starter plus at least 2 backups have to play their best games in order to win. We’ll see.
The Pelicans are just a terrible matchup for the Kings. Long athletic guys to throw at Fox, Valanciunas is huge and gives Sabonis problems and the Kings have nobody to throw at Zion. When you add that McCollum tends to kill us, it’s just a recipe for disaster. The only saving grace tonight is that Ingram is out and he also always murders us. They are going to need an insane shooting night tonight if they want to win.
That’s why they need to do a 180. We’ll see.
Really enjoy rooting for this team . Truly class young men and very selfless but sadly feel without Monk just not enough firepower to do anything in a playin .
To be honest, I’m just dealing with sports grief when it comes to the Kings. Games that I thought the team had a good chance to win, the second Dallas game, the Boston game, the Thunder game, all 3 got away from them. Too many blown leads this season, too many losses against bad teams, and then Monk got hurt, revealing the team’s hubris.
For all the criticism of Brown’s coaching, I think that his mishandling of Mitchell and Ellis has been the worst. Both should have been playing more minutes earlier in the season. Huerter was allowed to play through his slump (and never got out of it), while Mitchell went to the bench. I guess I should look at the bright side, both have shown themselves to be important pieces for the future, assuming McNair and Brown don’t force Huerter on us again.
I actually think the Kings will win tonight, which probably means the team will carry a lead into the final minutes and cough it up again. Can’t see the team performing well in the play-in, but maybe, applying stock sentiment principles (they often do the opposite of investor sentiment), they will pleasantly surprise me. Wouldn’t be shocked if Ellis and Murray stepped up big in the play-in, that’s where I think the surprise would come.
Quite unlikely Dream Scenario: Kings win out, Pelicans lose out, and Kings sneak into the 6th seed at 48-24. This quite possibly also leads to a four-way tie for the 7-10 seeds among Pels, Suns, Dubs, and Fakers — so added benefit of seeding chaos.
Likely scenario – Kings lose to Pels tonight, then Kings fans do an about-face on the Pels, desperately hoping they win their last two both so we don’t have to play them in a potential play-in game, and also to pin more losses on Dubs and Fakers so hopefully we can at least avoid dropping to the 9-10 spots.
Nightmare scenario: After losing to Pels, Kings go on to lose to Suns who then beat Wolves, and Pels drop their last two the Dubs/Fakers. Suns sneak up to 6th. Kings end up in 10th and have to win on the road against two of Dubs/Fakers/Pels to even make the playoffs.
And of course, there’s also a scenario where both the Warriors and Lakers win out, the Kings beat the Pelicans and Trail Blazers but lose to the Suns, and the Suns lose to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday. If that were to happen, it would be a five-way tie at 47-35 and the seeding would go like this:
6) Phoenix
7) Warriors
8) Kings
9) Pelicans
10) LAL
Over/under 45 3’s attempted tonight
time for Keegan to show us more. don’t keep us waiting. let’s see something.
Badge Legend