The Kings took care of business with an emphatic win over the Hornets. Zach LaVine led the way with 42. Full recap to follow, but for now let’s see those gifs!
Postgame Thread: Kings 130, Hornets 88
Light the Beam!
By Greg Wissinger | 25 Comments | Feb 24, 2025
Feb 24, 2025; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine (8) takes a jump shot during the second quarter against the Charlotte Hornets at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images
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Light LaBeam!
So glad to see him play his game.
They won! They built a lead big enough to go deep into the bench!
This is for all practical purposes a more balanced roster. The opportunity to have some bigs come in and get some rebounds to make life hard for the other team is a positive change. This was not ever a playoff team this season. This is not a playoff team now. This is at least a basketball team with some position players in places they belong.
Tonight was a positive occasion and a step in the right direction.
Did what we were supposed to. Third Q was bad. TOs were bad. But at least we hit our open shots. Small step in right direction.
Hope Keon is okay.
Yeah, if Keon is out for a significant amount of time this win was also a loss.
Took care of business, so time to dance!
&ct=g
Classic Oprah Bees (which are like hornets, amirite?) Dance! Kings Win!
That was a good win. We need that kind of effort against higher quality opponents, now. And wow, is Charlotte terrible. I was about to ask how that level of a train weck of a team happens but then I remembered I’m a Kings fan. Still, it was a good reminder that things can always get worse…
Yes, took care of business, no complaints, but I think the fan base is going to be waiting for us to come out and have a statement win like this (even if by a smaller margin) against a good team.
Just did the quick math and since the trade we are 4-4 and the collective records of team in our:
Wins: 73-155, 32% winning percentage
Losses: 98-133, 42% winning percentage
Now the Warriors we lost to maybe better than their record, but the Dallas team we beat might be worse.
Overall, this is fine. Wish our record was better, but it can take time to integrate new players. However, we have definitely been playing basketball on “easy mode.”
This team really needs to show they can beat some quality opponents. Feels like until then we will be sitting on pins and needles.
The soft schedule will hopefully allow the team to get a better rhythm and start playing better. They did well in stretches last night when the ball was moving and the defensive pressure forced turnovers. But those lulls in play, against better teams, could have been really bad for the Kings.
100%. That’s the hope and what they need. But obviously much easier to get those looks and those shots versus such a bad team.
We are amazing again!
hashtag team meetings work
Good win against a horrible team. Garbage time was enjoyed. Gotta take care of the Jazz next. Lakers vs Mavs today may be interesting. Perhaps Charlotte is fed up and beats Golden State today. Every game counts now.
Just an observation, don’t get mad… I find it curious and I’m a bit interested in the psychology of our community of Kings fans here. At least in regard to the big voices in the room and heavy commenters on a regular basis. Really though it applies to all of us. I came here as I usually do to see if we won and get some insightful commentary on gut reactions to the win. The engagement after a win by more than 40 points there’s 11 total comments. 11. Yes, 11. In a loss to the warriors two days earlier there were over 150 comments in a much shorter amount of time post game.
is this a commentary on our contemporary culture in general dictated and sculpted by social media and hot takes or is this more specific to the trauma of Kings fans? Engagement after a horrible loss is through the roof. Engagement after a MASSIVE win/ass kicking of an opponent and it’s basically crickets.
is everybody ok? Should we all make appointment intents with our therapists and talk this out a bit?
much love to all. We just kicked but and I’m looking forward to watching the game now hours after the win. Also, Levine is the worst defender in the NBA, DeRozan never stops pounding the ball into the floor, Domas needs look for his shot more, Keegan is a bust, Monk can’t be a lead guard and Keon should be getting more minutes. Also Doug Christie is underwhelming and Vivek is the key to all our problems.
I have seen the same thing. What I gather is that there are a lot of commenters are frustrated because they don’t agree with the direction that the team is going. Many wanted a full tank job or better return from the Fox trade, and simply think the organization is going to be stuck in purgatory (which is understandable).
I accepted the fact that the team picked a direction, and no matter what I say or think, it is what we have. I just watch the games to see how things look and focus on certain aspects of players and play style. Praise them when they do well, criticize them when they play like crap.
The comments section tends to have a similar feel each article, making the same points about the players, FO, owner, etc. We all fan how we want, which is fine. I just skip past the long posts and replies that I don’t care to engage with.
Yeah, what Hobby said. I’ll add that those folks that are frustrated with the direction chosen might not want to poop all over a win thread.
And really nothing here to be excited about. CHA is bad. We let them back in the game in the 3rd which was bad.
Let’s string together some decent wins and knock off a couple unexpected wins and we’ll see excitement again.
No need to get mad at all. I think the issue is this.
The overall direction of the team is lacking. And a win against a bottom feeder team doesn’t really move the needle or change anyone’s POV. There’s not a lot of new insights gained from this.
I don’t think anyone doubts that this older, more expensive team can beat a 14-41 (now 14-42) Hornets team. Everyone knows that when LaVine catches fire he can put up some points and help win some games…. but even then he still had 2 assists versus 3 TOs, 3 rebounds, and 3 FT attempts.
People don’t want to be a Debbie Downer and show up after a win and hate on the team or LaVine. He scored amazingly and it’s great…. but this also doesn’t change anyone’s perceptions of him. He didn’t show any growth or new skills. He’s the same ball dominant scorer who is capable of putting up 40 points, but doesn’t do much else.
I think if this team can put up a couple of big wins in March against quality opponents, you will see a bit more optimism and comments after a win, but posted in another comment that as of now the collective records of our opponents are:
Wins: 73-155, 32% winning percentage
Losses: 98-133, 42% winning percentage
There’s not a lot to say yet. We are currently one of the older, more expensive teams in the league who is playing .500 ball against teams with a collective record of 171-288 or a 37% winning percentage.
What exactly is there to say.
I think it has everything to do with who they beat and the general direction of the franchise. Beating the Hornets is pretty irrelevant in the long run. They lost by 53 points to the Blazers a couple days ago. They’re in full tank mode and have quit on the season. If they had beat any playoff team by 40 then there would probably be more discourse about the game.
I want to see this team make moves to try and compete for a title. They probably weren’t doing that with Fox but they absolutely aren’t doing with the current collection of players. The ceiling of this team is getting killed in the first round of the playoffs. That’s not very interesting to me. As has been the case for almost 20 years now, I just want a coherent strategy. A clear direction be that all in to compete or tank and rebuild. Right now, we have neither. I think until that changes, many people are just going to check out on the wins because they don’t really mean anything has changed or they’ve solved any problems.
I’ll answer this as it pertains to only me.
I think if this win comes against GS, the reaction is much different. Had the Kings looked like this coming out of the all star break, at home, against a playoff / play-in opponent, the conversation would have been substantial. But as it pertains to last night, it’s one game, a home game against a bottom three NBA team. It’s empty calories, much like this team is empty calories.
With that said, I’m not going to come into a post-game win thread and shit all over it. But since you asked, I’m answering.
I enjoyed the game. LaVine in the 1st and 4th was especially enjoyable. But I’m not taking much from it. If this team can go on the type of heater that LaVine was on last night, my outlook changes. But for me, this is another case of the organization being the problem, not the fans.
Not a fan of social media (which is not this site) and social media has nothing to do with people’s reactions. Expectations do.
I suppose if you view every game in isolation, with no larger goal, team expectations or attention to the opponent, then sure, it makes sense to celebrate this kind of win.
Everybody fans differently. My read on the fans who post here are that expectations for the Kings have changed. It’s not enough that the Kings didn’t have winning teams for however long. They want to see the team win, grow and improve and at 29-28, that’s not happening. Other fans just want to see a win. That’s fine. People should do what makes them happy.
So sure, if you ignore that the Hornets have won 25% of their games, that the Kings sat on their hands for a year and a half, that they got league wide public condemnation for firing their coach, that they let their best (second best?) player take the heat for firing the coach, then traded him for a player who is probably worse on a worse contract, that they’re worse this year than last year and worse last year than the year before, that they’ve rebuilt the 2022 Bulls, etc…
…just throw all that context out and the Kings looked like the best team in the NBA last night and we should all be ecstatic.
If folks can compartmentalize all that and enjoy the win, no sarcasm, good for them. I’m wired to consider the larger context, in life and in my sports fandom. While I can certainly enjoy seeing a guy hit everything in the first half of a game, for me the larger context still applies.
I commented on the win post!
For me it’s a combination of things:
All good points, although a bit hyperbolic.
There is this thing called “negative cognitive bias“. We are more likely to pay attention to the car accident then to the thousands of cars that go through the intersection without hitting each other. negative cognitive bias serves a purpose in adaptation in that when we’re scanning the Savanah, we look out for the carnivores who are going to eat us where as if we just look at how pretty the Savanah is, we might not notice the carnivores that are going to eat us. I appreciate the comments about how a big win against the Hornets carries less impact than a big win against a better team in our division or conference. I only comment occasionally, but I obsessively read every comment section in every article. Much love and appreciation.
1st half was good, mostly. Defensive intensity was there, and the guys looked liked they were determined to be better on that end. I turned the game off in the 3rd quarter because the basketball was bad (and I was tired).
Badge Legend