For reasons I can’t quite explain, I had a good feeling going into Sunday night’s game against the Detroit Pistons. The Kings players have been very critical of themselves in postgame interviews, and I just thought that maybe the team had already hit rock bottom and was ready to start digging themselves out. I was wrong.
Sir Charles In Charge
The Pistons crushed the Kings. It was bad. At times, it was embarrassing. The Kings would have very small stretches of inspired play, but for the most part, the energy was just not there. You could make the excuse that they were tired (it was the final game of a four game road trip), but I won’t make that excuse for them.
For more on Sunday’s loss to the Pistons, you can find our postgame coverage here and here.
I went back and studied the Kings schedule, and the last good win (by my subjective standards) came on November 25th against the New Orleans Pelicans. Since that win, the Kings have played exactly 20 games and have gone 5-15. What were the five wins? Pacers (in OT), Jazz, Lakers, Knicks (in OT), and Timberwolves. That’s three regulation wins in the last 20 games against the Jazz, Lakers, and Timberwolves.
I’ve been trying to avoid this generalization because its so depressing, but the Kings are just bad, and they might be for the rest of the season.
The Kings have had a couple of days off since the Pistons game, and tonight they’ll face the Oklahoma City Thunder, which is game one of a long six game home stand. I’ll spare you the hard-hitting analysis for the moment; this could get ugly.
The Thunder are good right now, and as Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant continue to find their rhythm (they’ve both missed significant time with injuries this season), they are only going to get better.
OKC is coming into Sacramento on the heels of a 117-91 blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors. If nothing else, they’ll be motivated to get themselves back on track tonight. Remember when I mentioned that this could get ugly?
Oklahoma City was also part of a fairly significant trade that took place Monday night that landed them former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dion Waiters. I would expect him to play tonight, so that’s something to keep an eye on.
Tyrone Corbin (now 2-7 as head coach of the Kings) has been doing a lot of lineup shuffling over the past week, most notably the revolving door that is the Kings starting power forward spot. They’ve gone from Jason Thompson to Ryan Hollins to Derrick Williams and back to Jason Thompson within the past four games. This feels like a Jason Thompson game to me with Serge Ibaka being the matchup, but we’ll have to wait and see.
I am anticipating chaos tonight, and generally speaking; I’ve always viewed myself as an optimist. Anything less than a double-digit loss would legitimately surprise me, and considering how disinterested this team has looked lately, I’m bracing myself for what will be said postgame if this is another blowout. Things are already bad. They could be a lot worse in a few hours.
As always, check back in to A Royal Pain after tonight’s game for our postgame coverage.
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