The Kings made a valiant effort in the third quarter but were still handed a blowout loss by the Thunder. React away. Full recap to follow.
Postgame Thread: Thunder 121, Kings 105
The Kings lose their 4th straight.
By Greg Wissinger | 60 Comments | Mar 25, 2025
NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder at Sacramento Kings
Mar 25, 2025; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis (11) is fouled by Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren (7) in the second quarter at the Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
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Yeah!
Stealth tank rolls on
No!
Yeah! <excuse the schizophrenia>
I wonder if Kings front office / ownership realize that 90% of the teams tied with them or worse are actively trying to get a lottery pick?
Vivek is an ego moron. So, no… he thinks he’s kicking ass I’m sure
Thunderstruck!
&ct=g
I feel like a defeated soul rooting for this team to lose but any wins at this point are empty calories and negatively impacts the future so, yeah, let’s keep the losses coming.
I look at rooting for loses as the only hope. I root for it to all blow up and maybe, maybe force Vivek to back off.
Most other teams/fan bases/owners see where the Kings are (neither lottery bad nor playoff capable) as the worst place to be. Because it is.
I don’t have the time or energy right now to look it up, but can anyone do a comparison split between a Monk, LaVine, DDR based lineup vs. a Keon, LaRavia, Keegan based lineup? I’d be interested to see those numbers.
IMO you don’t have to look it up. I personally agree with Matt George we should, in these last 10 games play your young guys like Keegan, Ellis, LaRavis, Carter and Issaic Jones More. Even a little more of Fultz. These IMO are next years, not necessarily all starters. You probably have to keep Lavine because of his contract. Sabonis would be hard to trade but he would bring in young players that would have value for this team. Monk also would have good trade value. Derosan would be hard to trade but this can happen with the right additions. Valancuinas to me is on the fence. This would be a rebuild not a complete trash.
Front office needs to go. Wes is already gone and Monte next. That kind of leaves Doug up in the air. A new front office has the right to pick their own head coach.
Last and probably the most important is Vivek needs to stay completely out of the picture and let the FO do their thing. He doesn’t need to screw things up.
I am a Kings fan and always will be. GO KINGS!
Looked at the Top 20 lineups on basketball reference…. and the fundamental issue is the numbers are so small that it’s hard to glean a lot of insights.
No Ellis-LaRavia-Keegan lineup is in the top 20 and by #20 they have only played about 24 minutes together.
Most interesting quick observation to me is that our best lineups with any scale to the number of minutes played are balanced lineups.
DDR + Ellis + LaVine + Keegan + Val = +14.7 per 100 possessions (92 minutes total)
DDR + Ellis + Monk + Keegan + Sabonis = +16.0 per 100 possessions (189 minutes total)
Now, will always warn with these, there is some level of endogeneity and sample bias involved. Especially as minutes get lower they can be influenced by a lot of minutes in a specific game or the coach wisely leaning into a lineup more in a few good matchups where the lineup has a real advantage and is playing well, doesn’t mean that the matchup works more broadly.
Starting lineup will go against every team and every matchup and is normally going to be at a bit of a disadvantage versus more specific combos that play when the matchup is good.
Kind of like saying, you were at your happiest the 5 days last year you wore a swim suit instead of jeans because you wear jeans all over including work and the swim suit at vacation on the beach. Doesn’t mean that if you start wearing a swim suit to work every day you are suddenly going to be happier.
Good stuff. Thanks.
The conundrum. No way to unload Lavine now. A high scoring low iq baller. Will now handcuff the Kings into really improving for the next 2 years. 27-28 at least he will be gone.
He’ll be easily tradable next year when he’s an expiring contract. The new CBA gives big expiring contracts a lot of value.
let me enlighten you.
He is NOT tradeable next year. Because A. No team will be that stupid to take on the deal plus his player option the year after. Meaning… Lavine also has a player option the following season. Please do your homework before making a statement .
Let me help you out with the link.
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/player/_/id/15365/zach-lavine
I meant to write he’ll have value AFTER next season. Because he will. He’ll pick up the option and then he’ll be a giant expiring contract.
You telling anyone to do any research is pretty funny because most of your comments contain a multitude of incorrect statements.
Do better.
Let’s keep it simple. Lavine will be here the next 2 years. So be it. He still has value as a player. One player isn’t going to make you a loser.
Yeah, LaVine still has value. He’s a lights out shooter, but just needs to be used accordingly. Just give him a catch and shoot Klay Thompson type role.
I agree. Also if we can trade Derozan it might free up Lavine somewhat. Looking back at the Bulls seasons they did nothing with the 2 together so why would that change?
Agreed. Lavine can hoop…in the right system. When the ball stops moving, so does Lavine. Swing the ball and find the shooter. The guy is lights out when he doesn’t have to take awkward shoots because someone dibbled the ball in one spot for 15 secs. By someone I mean DDR.
The team doesn’t have to try. Barring other teams sitting all their key players down the stretch. This team won’t win more than 3-4 of the last 10. If they make the play in . Ok. Dallas? Not sure what the plan is. Ad Sat against the Knicks. Suns have brutal schedule. But they are currently winning.
Keegan is the perfect example of how this owner/team fucked it all up.
Keegs was (still can be) a great shooter/efficient scorer. But he needs an O run. He should be getting the top 2 most shots on this team. Last 2 years
Would you make Chris Middleton or Rip play iso free flow? Get yours if you can?
Same with Sabonis. One of the two best passing big man in the game. And you don’t run O through him?
They tamp down the talents they have rather than set them up for success….because why? Because the owner is a fuck wit.
This.
Sabonis’ shot is broken. Keegan had a great night. OKC was too much. But that 3rd quarter was a lot of fun.
You could have said that Keegan’s shot was broken for much of the season. Better recently.
My bigger fear with Sabonis is not his shot, it’s his spirit.
I think he’s gone.
I hope Domas asks out after this season. That may push the front office to actually rebuild. Deebo has to go to, then you’re stuck with Lavine….
IMO I would add Monk to the list. He isn’t a true PG and would’nt want to go to the bench so get some value in the rebuild.
Monk has been a bit of a sour puss since BFF was traded. I don’t blame him, but it likely means he wants out as well.
Blow it all up, like I was saying since early in the season.
They could have made a decent start of a proper rebuild with the Fox trade and an aggressive tank job, but that is troubled water under the bridge now.
Yeah adding DeRozan has ruined Domas. Watching DDR bring the ball downcourt for 6 seconds, dribble above the 3 for 10 seconds, work it down and fadeaway long-2 while everybody else watches is ridiculous.
Offense was much better and aesthetically pleasing when it ran through Domas.
Yeah, forget the results, the style of play is ugly.
That’s the kicker. It would be fine if this was a young team going through growing pains and gaining experience, much like PDX, but this is an old team that just doesn’t play fun basketball.
We’ve gone from Super and Young to Old and Numb.
From Tyreke’s 1-4 Flat to DeRozan’s 1-4 Flat.
Keegan has actually shot 45% from the field and 38% from deep in 2025. He definitely had a slow start to the season, but has been quite good since we flipped the calendar.
As to Sabonis, yeah, I’m bummed for him. He looks unhappy. What a clusterfuck by the Kangz.
Win or lose, whatever. I choose to focus on the small things that I like watching.
Keegan actually being involved in the offense. What a revelation! His defense was good, again. Probably need to feature him more.
Keon is active defensively, and will hit his 3s. Another player to feature more.
LaRavia was a bit wild, but I like it. He hustles his ass off every game. Fun guy to root for.
The offense seemed to run through Domas a bit more. He had a bad shooting night. My guess is that ankle is not healed and he told the team he was playing anyways.
These 3 I would definitely keep and a couple of others if we rebuild which IMO is the best way to go.
What kind of bums me out is that Keon will not quality for end of the year awards. I think he has the chops to make an all-defensive team, but he needs 65 games where he played at least 20 minutes. He currently sits at 48 with ten games to go.
Great job Kangz.
Yeah, what a disservice to the guy. Keon and Keegan could have both been on all-defensive teams, or at least in consideration. Just awful.
Keegan might make one, but mainly because so many other dudes don’t qualify due to the 65 game requirement.
I don’t think they would get much consideration leaguewide, the way the team has been playing, especially defensively.
And I think that we overrate them a bit as defenders, especially Keegan. He’s not a player who comes to mind by most casual NBA fans when discussing good defenders. He also exudes a very low intimidation factor.
Compare him to a player like Camara of the Blazers, and he comes up short. And the Blazers are something like 3rd in defensive rating in the second half of the season, which helps his case.
Well…… as the kings turn is so back!!!
It’s been a while since I have done this. I can’t remember how to post a gif reminding everyone that they’re shitty.
Thanks, but I don’t need a gif to be reminded that I’m shitty.
It is incredibly annoying that they managed to trade Fox and not get any taller. Lavine can light it up when he is on, which is fun and stuff, but they would have been better off trading Fox for a couple lesser talented, taller, role players. Oh well. at least we get to watch them not be able to re-sign Jake Laravia.
Keep on Streaking!
Difficult to watch this team on both ends of the floor. Offense is stagnant. Lavine does not go shoulder to shoulder off screens and defenders easily get over the top to defend drives. Last night 3s started to fall but takented opponents had way more easy 3s and drives to the rim.
The Lavine trade looks bad in hindsight. The other trades look excellent. And I like Coach Christie but he needs to change something, soon.
To be fair, it looked bad in the moment as well 🙂
Saddest part of this thread was ‘I think he’s gone’ by Smits, referring to Sabonis. It’s so true. It’s so obvious even on TV. And so is the Beam Team. They might as well trash that purple spotlight. Two Bulls, two shots to the heart of the Beam Team’s sense of fun and teamwork. Now Barnes is getting his 10 a game and doing his elder statesman thing; Huerter is rehabbing his game; and Fox will be back next year pick and rolling with the future GOAT. And what did the Kangz get? If they got literally anybody but Da Bullz for those guys they would be better off or at least more watchable.
Badge Legend