After their second game in row of down-to-the-wire basketball ended in another loss Saturday night to whatever team Isaiah Thomas is on nowadays, the Kings are looking to be on the verge of breaking out into a real moral win streak. Monday night the mettle of their tank will be tested as the Kings square off against a retooling Timberwolves squad still reeling from the non-contact meniscus tear Jimmy Butler suffered on Friday night in Houston. The Kings are just over carrying the weight of losing their two way superstar for an extended period of time with De’Aaron Fox missing a whole game with pink eye and as he continues to try to find his way back to full basketball activities, its my hope that Wolves fans see his recovery as a beacon for what medical science can do for injured players. Here’s to a quick recovery to Jimmy Buckets, a great leader, player and aquarium owner. Just don’t look at those standings Canus Hoops, and it’ll all be fine.

Let’s talk Kings basketball!

When: Monday, February 26th; 7:00 pm PST

Where: Golden 1 Center; Sacramento, CA

Television: NBCSCA

Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM

For Your Consideration

Free for All: Each passing game draws our brothers in futility, the Wolves, closer to ending their 12 year streak of missing the playoffs, and while there’s no good time for a injury, this time might be the worst. With nineteen games to go for the Wolves, they sit tied for the third best record in the West. That’s a fairly comfy position most seasons, but, this ain’t most seasons. This season the gap between the third seed and the ninth seed is three and a half games. The sands of the season are quickly piling up at the bottom of the hour glass, and Jimmy Butler’s meniscus just scooped up a big handful and threw it in the eyes of their playoff aspirations. After the Kings on Monday night, the Wolves go on to face off against Trailblazers, Jazz, Celtics and the Golden State Warriors, then as a dessert course they’ll have to go up against the Wizards, Spurs, Rockets and the Clippers. By that March 20th game against the Clips, this Wolves team that is currently TIED WITH THE SPURS FOR THE THIRD BEST RECORD IN THE WEST could be sitting on the outside of the playoffs fighting to get back in.

This is a very distinct possibility for a Wolves fanbase that has gone longer than we Kings fans have without sniffing the playoffs, and I can’t feel worse about it. After the David Kahn years of drafting Summer League MVP Johnny Flynn’s over NBA MVP Steph Curry’s and the Rick Adelman / Kevin Love knuckle pushups / playoff tease years and the Flip Saunders rebuild and his untimely death: to be this damn close to having their moment in the sun once again only to have your all around nice guy MVP candidate go down would be enough to drive any fan insane. So, with that being said, I say the Kings and Wolves formally take this opportunity to reach across the locker rooms, shake hands and agree that the Kings forfeit the game. We get a game closer to drafting a bust, they get closer to a first round upset against a healthy upstart team and we all get to go home happy tonight not knowing what terrible future is in store for us all. Yay Sports!

Prediction: They do as I say. The Kings draft a bust. The Wolves fall to the ninth seed regardless. The world turns, and Kings and Timberwolves fans hold hands as they freefall together into the the abyss of forever.

Kings: ∞, Timberwolves: ∞