The Sacramento Kings wrapped up the preseason by taking on the Spurs. For the first time, the Kings sent out what is likely their full starting lineup. Unfortunately, so did San Antonio. Sacramento lost by almost 30 points, but there were still several positive signs in the Kings' performance.
Look, you know that Sactown fans went into this matchup with realistic expectations. They were walking onto the court to take on last season's Western Conference Champions and one of the top three contenders for the NBA championship this season. It was never going to end well.
The Kings did play what will likely be their starting five for the regular season in Darius Acuff Jr., Keegan Murray, Ben Simmons, Zach LaVine, and Domantas Sabonis. They had been rumored to be making Simmons a permanent starter over being Acuff's backup, and that appears to be the plan.
Beyond that, the Kings went into this game with Maxime Raynaud, Dylan Cardwell, and Malik Monk all out with injuries. This was definitely an issue, as there's no way that Sabonis was going to handle Victor Wembanyama without support from Raynaud and Cardwell. The Alien tore Domas apart.
The positive takeaways for the Kings
No one is happy about Sacramento getting punked out by San Antonio, even if it was expected. Still, there are some positives that fans can take away. The big one has to be that the starting five honestly played reasonably well together. They got off to a slow start, but they eventually found a rhythm.
Sabonis pulled down one more double-double. LaVine shot quite well. Acuff had a solid game, though he really needs to pass the ball more. The big story has to be Simmons, who finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and one steal. Plus, he played nearly 26 minutes and didn't get injured.
It's also worth noting how well Precious Achiuwa did off the bench. He collected 13 points on six of seven shooting from the field. That was on top of his four assists, two rebounds, and one steal. The only glaring issue was Murray, who turned in the weakest performance of all the starters by far.
This isn't a suggestion that this iteration of the Kings is going to perform significantly better than last season. If they can't even be competitive with the best, it's going to be hard to get anywhere. Regardless, the moments the starters played like a real team were actually refreshing to see.
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