A Royal Pain
Fansided

The Sacramento Kings are in Washington Tonight for Their Road Trip Finale

By Tony Xypteras

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I spent most of yesterday’s game day blog poking fun at the Philadelphia 76ers, so I should have seen last nights 114 – 107 embarrassment coming. Every time the Sacramento Kings take one step forward, it feels like they take three steps back.

Losing to the 76ers is certainly a step back.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – The Kings offense since George Karl took over has been pretty good. I have very few complaints there, but any concept of team defense has been nonexistent since Michael Malone was fired. I thought some of the teams defensive pride would kick back in once their new coach was hired, but that hasn’t worked out the way I had hoped.

The Kings need to target defenders in free agency. I wish I had more faith in this front office to do that, but it hasn’t been their modus operandi thus far. It’s been two seasons of tinkering with the offense for Pete D’Alessandro. It’s time to pay some attention to the other side of the ball.

This whole season is a shame. The Kings have essentially wasted a monster season from DeMarcus Cousins. He carved up the 76ers to the tune of 39 points and 24 rebounds. Cousins is probably (rightfully) pissed with how this season has developed. If the Kings don’t drastically improve next season, this could get real bad real fast.

You can find highlights from last nights loss below, along with our full recap here.

The Kings are in Washington tonight to face the Wizards, a team that is finally starting to get back on track after a rough month of February.

I wouldn’t put the Wizards on the list of teams with a huge talent advantage over the Kings. These teams are closer than their records indicate.

Marcin Gortat vs. DeMarcus Cousins is always fun. I wouldn’t say Gortat defends Cousins particularly well, but he does get under his skin, and sometimes that’s just enough to keep him from taking over.

Bradley Beal is a player I’d like Ben McLemore to mold his game after. I’m looking forward to watching these two guard each other.

I also feel as though I should warn everyone about something. It would be the most Sacramento King thing ever if Ramon Sessions lights the Kings up tonight. I just wanted to get that out there so we can all start digesting that possibility now. It always happens to this team. Thankfully, Sessions has been nearly as bad in Washington as he was in Sacramento, but don’t let his play this season fool you. He could drop 50 tonight and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

This game marks the end of this disastrous eight-game road trip we’ve been talking about for the past two weeks. It’d be nice to close it out with a win, but predicting that after losing to Philadelphia would be foolish.

Sacramento Kings at Philadelphia 76ers

Where: Verizon Center – Washington, DC

When: 4:00 PM Pacific, 7:00 PM Eastern

Broadcast: Comcast Sportsnet California

Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM

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