The Kings have no time to celebrate clawing back to beat the worst team in the Western Conference Saturday night, because it’s Sunday, which means they play… hmm… my notes just say ‘Lost 10 of 11’ with the name Mike Muscala underlined 23 times. Gotta be the Lakers! Yes, the Kings have started their final road trip of the season and their first stop is against the Lonzo Ball Josh Hart Brandon Ingram oh right, Lebron James led Lakers squad who activated that very famous ‘Playoff Mode’ and won a total of three games since the All-Star break. That is assuming Lebron plays, of course. His team has already been eliminated from playoff contention and principal photography for Space Jam 2 has got to be coming up quick. You can tell that because the remaining healthy Lakers are already auditioning for roles of players who had their talent stolen during Lakers games!

Let’s talk Kings basketball.

When: Sunday, March 24th; 6:30 pm PST

Where: Staples Center; Los Angeles, CA

TV: NBCSCA

Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM

For Your Consideration

The 17th Championship, Bro: A couple of years ago, I found myself in a wierd spot. The Lakers had bottomed out and were bringing in young, mostly likeable guys who worked hard for their teammates and were young-and-bad, but not like bad-and-bad. I was blessed to attend Las Vegas Summer League during those years and the Lakers were a tangible part of why they were fun. I found myself almost rooting for them at times. Luckily for me there was always D’Angelo Russell pointing at his icy elbow bend or Lonzo Ball being a try-hard in the hopes of taking some of the spotlight from Kyle Kuzma but there was a good portion of time where eh, the Los Angeles Lakers weren’t that bad. This was all to preface: I have absolutely loved seeing the quagmire of absolute swamp feces that L.A. has been dragged through this year. The sheer audacity of management and fans alike to assume that Lebron, some injury prone youngins and a pile of broken office equipment were going to somehow survive the grind of the Western Conference, the assumption of success in the trade talks between the Pelicans and the Lakers at the deadline, the predictable piling on of blame for Luke Walton, who had only a year ago been a darling coach amongst NBA fans in Los Angeles; it was all so very Lakers of them, and thankfully, it got the entire world back where it belongs, hating the Cheesecake Factory of the NBA.

If there is an NBA Deep State that is plotting against the Lakers to keep them down, to keep their aspirations of another ‘ship to bellow about when other fans are having meaningful, in-depth discussions about the NBA; I need an address to the secret lair where I can send endless pizza and love letters. Lebron James has kicked himself into autopilot until retirement. Sure he’s going to continue to dominate; the man is possibly the greatest basketball player of all time. But that fire the world saw in 2016 where he dragged the bodies of his teammates to a championship against the greatest assembly of talent since (Insert whatever team will piss off the Lakers fan standing at water cooler on Monday here), that Lebron is never coming back. That man’s talent is driving himself and the only time his heart will get back in the driver’s seat is if they find a way to convince him the MVP award comes with a $250 million check.

I look forward to the Lakers making the playoffs in the coming years. They’re too talented and the pockets are too deep not to. But they squandered their first real rebuild ever and for a megastar on the downside of his career, known to need his guy as the coach and a GM that’s willing to fulfill his ideas for the team. The stripping down for scrap of their once promising core of young guys hasn’t just started, it’s near completion. They’ve lost the Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell types that would have been great compliments to a Lebron-led team. They ditched the young, cheap talent of Zubac-types a couple of times already. They’ll sell out the Kuzma and Ball talent next for a shot at a star, all the while further alienating their players and a fanbase who was finally learning what it was like to see a team being built from the ground up instead of the usual, “lets throw money at the problems till they go away”.

I’m good with it.

Prediction

Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka don’t make it another 2 years.

Fox scores 30. Marvin dunks all over a fool.

Kings 115, Lakers 102