From day one, 2025 has not been a great year for the Sacramento Kings. Last night's loss to the LA Clippers was the perfect period on that sentence, as it was a complete blowout. It was a failure across the board for a franchise praying this rebuild starts soon and happens fast.
Any Kings' fan who headed down to Los Angeles to watch the game live or tuned in on TV had to know a win here was a long shot at best. The Clippers have been surging since sending Chris Paul home, and are looking like a team that's playing to win this season.
LA is currently 13th in the Western Conference with a record of 11 wins and 21 losses. They have a long way to go to dig themselves out of that deep hole the first 20+ games of the season put them in. They're still down in the basement, just barely ahead of Sacramento.
Absolutely crushing the Kings definitely helped that. The final score was 131 to 90, but the Clippers' lead was already more than 30 points by halftime. The Kings put up a little fight in the third quarter, but the rest of the game was all Clippers, all the time.
Los Angeles utterly dominated the Kings
Last night's loss represented a virtually complete failure by Sacramento in all possible ways. While there were specific individual performances that stood out, there was nothing close to a cohesive offensive or defensive presence from the Kings, even in the third quarter.
The worst part about it is that no one was shocked in the least. Systemic failures like this have become a trademark of the Kings' game, long before the current roster, coaches, and front office came into reality. The hard part is that change is slow and hard to see happening.
On the upside, it is happening. In some of their December games, the Kings started showing signs of having a defensive identity. It's important to remember that identity is in its infancy, and there's a long way to go before it becomes strong enough to handle surging teams like the Clippers.
Look, it's a small comfort after a 40+ point blowout to close 2025, but there have been small amounts of progress this season. It's a sign that the Kings can get better, and hopefully will as this rebuild continues. Hopefully, going into the new year with such a beating weighing on them will be motivation.