Let’s make this snappy. The Kings are coming off of a really ugly loss at the hands of a Houston squad that is ramping up for the playoffs, and as reward for taking it in stride the schedule has rewarded them with a short-handed and win allergic team in Cleveland! No LeBron, no Kevin Love…. no….Ty Lue? Jeez… The King really did drag those teams to Finals. Good news for the Kings: This team is bad. Good News for the Cavs: the Kings love to play down to bad teams. Don’t call it a trap game, they’ve been doing it for years, y’all!

Let’s talk Kings basketball!

When: Thusday, April 4th; 7 pm PST

Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA

TV: NBCSCA

Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM

For Your Consideration

As the season inches ever close to the end, I want to take a season and think about a few things out loud here. Cleveland has gone from title contender to also-ran on the decision of a single one of their players. Sure, that guy might be the greatest basketball player in a generation, but one dude swayed the fortunes of that franchise. This season, the Kings were expected by all to give up a very valuable lottery pick while also giving back some talent-filled but very, very bad basketball. It didn’t happen. Credit is due and deserved all over the place, but something that seems to permeate out of every story and behind the scenes look is the work of De’Aaron Fox and the work that he has put into both himself on and off the court. Fox’s growth as a leader is a big part of why this franchise turned of a dime and headed away from the usually outcropping of icebergs. But, just so we’re certain: nothing in this league is a given. Injuries happen. Players leave. Fate changes her finicky mind and decides she liked the Kings better back when they were the Kangz. Cleveland has felt that something fierce this year, and the whiplash of basketball decisions have left them back at the bottom of the league and with everyone in that organization having already sold their souls for those #1 overall picks (Kyrie, Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins), they might be just beginning their extended stay in the cellar.

I don’t want to preach at you. We’ve all enjoyed this season and we’ve finally been able to argue together as a fandom about things that will improve the Kings instead of things that fracture us further in factions of haters. We’re not talking about if trading DMC was the right decision or whether the haul was enough. Marvin Bagley vs. Luka Doncic will always be a sensitive spot because both sides are right, but even that has died down because winning changes the perspective and desperation attributed to such arguments. We can spend our time doing the important things like call out beat writers who misattributed quotes for a sensationalized story, and mock those that ever dare call this blog “gushing”. But none of the fun we’ve had this season, not one single iota of this success on the court guarantees future success, future fun. Again, we all know this. It probably doesn’t need to be said. But, Cleveland won a ‘ship for their troubles and so, yeah this season might suck, but also they’ll always have that hardware. The Kings have won the ninth seed and I’m ready for a banner in rafters and a jersey retirement for every place that the Kings have tossed out there this season. Yes, even you Caleb Swannigan, the man who knee’d Austin Rivers so hard he spent ten minutes on the ground looking like Corpus Christi Streams.

The Kings are close to something good, maybe even great. But even if they’re bad tonight, celebrate it, even just a little, because they’re finally just the Kings again and that’s a win all in itself.

Prediction

Kings: De’Aaron Fox, Cavs: Colin Sexton