A Royal Pain
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Opinion: The next four games are crucial for the Sacramento Kings

By Jonathan Roberts

SACRAMENTO, CA - JANUARY 12: Buddy Hield #24 and De'Aaron Fox #5 of the Sacramento Kings talk during the game against the Charlotte Hornets on January 12, 2019 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
SACRAMENTO, CA - JANUARY 12: Buddy Hield #24 and De'Aaron Fox #5 of the Sacramento Kings talk during the game against the Charlotte Hornets on January 12, 2019 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Sitting just one game back of the playoffs, the Sacramento Kings have a brutal stretch to end the month a February—these next four are crucial.

As the prospect of a Sacramento Kings playoff game taking place inside of Golden 1 Center has gotten closer to reality, so too has the realization that Sacramento isn’t in an enviable position to chase a playoff berth from.

The Sacramento Kings will close out the season with 14 of their last 25 games on the road and with 13 of those coming against teams currently in the playoffs. That brutal closing stretch starts in earnest this week, as the Sacramento Kings will travel face the Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves before closing the month at home—against the East-leading Milwaukee Bucks, no rest for the wicked, huh?

Needless to say, this is a stretch that can make or break a team and the Kings are going to need to find a way to sneak at least one win in there—with the Timberwolves in Minnesota being the most obvious opportunity. Still, the Kings have beaten the Thunder twice and have just narrowly lost to the Warriors in all of their meetings thus far. Fortunately for Sacramento, the teams they’re fighting for playoff positioning with don’t have cakewalk schedules either, although there are no gimme’s in the NBA.

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Starting with the Los Angeles Clippers, the team currently in eight in the West, their next four are against the Memphis Grizzlies (A), Denver Nuggets (A), Dallas Mavericks (H) and Utah Jazz (A). At worst they likely drop two of the four, at best they somehow go 1-3. The seventh place San Antonio Spurs are set to play the Toronto Raptors (A), New York Knicks (A), Brooklyn Nets (A) and Detroit Pistons (H)— a stretch that will likely see them get at least two wins and potentially a third against the Nets. The sixth place Jazz, meanwhile, are also looking at a tough stretch of games, having to play the Thunder and Nuggets on the road and Clippers and Mavericks at home.

There’s a realistic chance the Sacramento Kings concede no more than one game or less to the teams ahead of them—granted they can avoid an 0-4 stretch. That’s the nature of this upcoming February slate, sink or swim. The Kings need not do more than just tread water till the end of the month, as their March schedule, while still tough, will lighten up a bit with games against the Knicks, Washington Wizards, Mavericks (twice), Phoenix Suns, New Orleans Pelicans and Chicago Bulls all on the docket. They’ve also got potentially their most important game of the season, maybe of the decade, on March 1–a home date with the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Kings, as you may be well aware, aren’t sitting very pretty in the tie-breaker department, owning just the one over the Spurs—having already lost the tie-breaker with the Clippers and are losing to the Los Angeles Lakers and Jazz. Why is this game so important if the Kings already lost the tie-breaker with LAC? Because it gives them one of the few opportunities they have left to play a team directly ahead of them in the standings. In fact, it’s one of only three games where the Kings will play a team within two games of them with games against the Jazz (two games ahead) on April 5 and Lakers ( two games behind) on March 24 being the other two.

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This next four-game stretch is brutal—the rest of the season is brutal, but you don’t make the playoffs without facing a little adversity, especially in the Western Conference (doesn’t apply to the Warriors). This four-game stretch won’t clinch them a playoff berth or eliminate them, but it could make or break their season depending on what kind of bounce the ball takes.

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