The Sacramento Kings handed the Raptors a critical loss last night, one that will directly impact whether Toronto makes the Play-In or the Playoffs. Sacramento beat the Raptors by out hustling them for rebounds, particularly on offense, a team push that was headed up by Precious Achiuwa.
At this point in the season, no one expects the Kings to be racking up wins. First and foremost, they have generally been terrible throughout 2025-2026, owning the longest losing streak of the season and in franchise history. It's not exactly something to be proud of, but here they are.
The other reason no one expects the Kings to win now is because of the upcoming NBA Draft. Fans generally thinks basement teams will tank like crazy in order to get a top three lottery spot with high odds of securing the number one pick in the draft. That's not what the Kings have been doing.
Instead, they've been prioritizing culture building, picking up eight wins in the last 19 games. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it is for the Kings. It's also enough to move them out of the coveted top three lottery spots, which means they'll likely be drawing their pick from fourth place.
Rebounds were the key to this victory
The Kings' latest win over the Raptors was thanks to superior rebounding. Sacramento out-rebounded Toronto 48 to 32. Even more impressive, the Kings had 19 offensive rebounds while the Raptors only had five. It's hard to win games when you're getting utterly dominated on the glass.
A lot of that success belongs to Precious Achiuwa, who had 19 of those 48 Kings' rebounds. He also collected 11 of their 19 offensive rebounds. It was a huge game for him against his former franchise. At the same time, Achiuwa wasn't the only King cleaning the glass for Sacramento.
Out of the 10 players who hit the court for the Kings last night, only one of them didn't collect at least one rebound. The team was averaging 4.8 rebounds per player, which is solid. Achiuwa was followed by Maxime Raynaud with eight and Dylan Cardwell with six.
Wins like this aren't great for the Kings lottery odds, but they do say something about the culture building work head coach Doug Christie is doing with the team. Seeing this kind of effort from Sacramento gives the fans hope for the future, particularly if they keep rebounding like this.