In the 11 games after the end of the 16-game losing streak, the Sacramento Kings had an actual winning record. This made no sense to a lot of people as the team should be tanking for a prime lottery pick. Well, they got back to losing last night, showing the entire league how to tank like a King.
Seeing Sacramento win six out of 11 games after their historic losing streak was a bit of a shocker for fans. The Kings have been a sub .500 team all season, so even being above that watermark for a couple of weeks is confusing. 2025-2026 has not been a good season in Sactown.
While fans should be happy to see the Kings winning, many were worried about them winning too much. This would cause them to have worse odds of getting a top pick in the draft lottery. To be fair, Sacramento did briefly slip out of the worst three teams in the league, all of which have 14% chance.
Then, the Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs showed up in Sactown and utterly obliterated the Kings by nearly 30 points. Sacramento didn't lead even once in the game. Losing to San Antonio isn't a shock, but how intentionally they tanked the game was absolutely incredible.
The Kings have turned losing into an art form
In truth, it's hard to imagine a scenario where the current iteration of Sacramento stands a chance against the Spurs. At this point, San Antonio has lost the same number of games the Kings have won. In case you're wondering, that magic number is 18. This time, the loss was more about the how.
DeMar DeRozan has been on his game lately, getting big minutes and putting up big numbers. He's been a major reason why the Kings have been winning. Last night, he got just under 17 minutes, took four shots, and collected a total of two points. That was some fine tanking.
Against all odds, Doug McDermott got almost 25 minutes, went four for eight from the arc, and finished with 12 points. He took double the number of shots DeRozan did. On top of that, both Precious Achiuwa and Russell Westbrook had incredibly muted games against the Spurs.
To be completely clear, the Kings were not going to win this game. Period. But it's quite obvious they decided to put a little extra tanking insurance on it, and it worked. That loss put the Kings back into the league's worst three teams, giving them a better chance to draft in the top three.