The LA Clippers walked into Golden 1 Center last night and utterly dominated the Sacramento Kings 138 to 109. Despite the brutal loss, Sacramento's rookies and sophomores still played solid games. It's a continuing glimpse into the future of the franchise over the course of the rebuild.
Everyone in the Kings' home stadium knew their team was walking into a tough fight. The Clippers might have had a terrible start to the season, but they've picked up the pace dramatically. With a healthy Kawhi Leonard at the helm, the team has secured a Play-In spot for the postseason.
As is often the case, Leonard led the charge with John Collins and Darius Garland hot on his heels. The Clips aren't exactly a favorite to win the Championship this year, and have a tough fight ahead of them to even make it out of the Play-In. Still, a lot of people are sleeping on their potential.
For the Kings, they'll be done at the end of the regular season. While they have long been eliminated from the postseason, last night's loss proved Sacramento is nowhere near ready to compete at the top levels of the league. It also showed that they have the potential on the roster to be that team.
The kids on the Kings are alright
For the last couple of games, Sacramento has been running a line consisting of Maxime Raynaud, Nique Clifford, Dylan Cardwell, Daeqwon Plowden, and Devin Carter. It's an interesting group of rookies and sophomores that demonstrates the youth-oriented future of the Kings.
When this group is together on the court, there is a noticeable change in the game. The pace picks up, the offense becomes more aggressive, ball movement increases, and there is an actual defensive presence to speak of. To put it succinctly, they have a rhythm together.
That doesn't mean everything is perfect. This group still has a lot of growth and development to do, but it's still impressive how far they've all come in a relatively short period of time. That's why the future for the Kings looks good, assuming the front office keeps this group together.
With the offseason only three games away, the Kings will have to make several big decisions, some of which will impact this specific line. For the first time in a long time, the Kings have a front office that actually seems to want to make the smart moves, so there's hope they won't drop the ball.