If there was any hope that the Sacramento Kings would make a late push for a play-in spot, it died with their 117-113 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday.

To be clear, that hope should have been gone long ago. Even before Sunday night’s loss, the Kings were five games back of the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference, but if they were going to make up ground in the standings, they were going to have to beat one of the teams competing for a play-in spot and that includes the Warriors.

If you ignore those lofty expectations, the Kings actually didn’t play that poorly — in fact, the few players that did have it going really had it going. All three of the Kings that scored at least 20 points — Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Harrison Barnes — shot above 50% from the field.

But, as has been the case all season, the Kings couldn’t take care of the ball or their responsibilities on the defensive end. Until they can do those things on a consistent basis, they’re going to continue to lose close games. It also didn’t help that Steph Curry was on the other team.

The Kings will return to action with a game against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday.