Fans of the Sacramento Kings are used to watching them eke out a narrow victory, lose winnable games, or get completely blown out. But last night against the Miami Heat, the Kings stepped up and got their biggest win of the season. It showed this roster has the potential to play great ball.
A few days ago, the Kings received a royal butt kicking from the Houston Rockets, with a final score of 121 to 95. While there were some bright spots in the game for individual players, Sacramento utterly failed as a team. It wasn't an easy game to watch. For Kings' fans, at least. Rockets fans were happy.
Last night against Miami, the Kings completely flipped the script. They came back from that loss like a team on a mission and beat the Heat by a score of 127 to 111. It was not just dominant in the score but also in how the team performed. Zach LaVine in particular came up big, dropping a 42-piece.
LaVine wasn't the only one on a tear. Rookies Maxime Raynaud and Nique Clifford both had career-best games. It was particularly big for Raynaud because he went in as the starting center. All five starters were in double digits, as was Clifford. It was a full team effort to get that win.
The Kings' needed this W badly
After an eight-game slide that dominated the season, Sacramento finally broke it with back-to-back wins. They followed that with a shorter four-game slide that came to an end with this win over the Heat. It's important for team and fan morale that they stopped the losing streak before it got worse.
Frankly, there's still work to do as the game almost took a bad turn in favor of the Heat. The Kings won the first three quarters, putting them in a strong position. In the fourth quarter, Sacramento let Miami back in as the Heat outscored them significantly down the stretch.
In the end, the Kings managed to hold the surging Heat off and win the game. But they need to stay dominant for a full 48 if they want to keep winning. And it would be nice to see them string a few victories together. They've only won two in a row once this season.
It's tempting to say that the Kings have turned a corner with this win, but Sactown fans have been there before. From here, the sensible option is to move forward with cautious optimism. That being said, it would be great to see Sacramento have at least a reasonable season in 2025-2026.