As usual, the Sacramento Kings schedule is a bit of a mixed bag, though it's much less grueling than last season. One of the oddities is the fact that they take on the New Orleans Pelicans three times in less than three weeks. With any luck, the Kings will pick up at least a couple of wins in that run.
This might come as a surprise to many people, but the Kings weren't actually the worst team in the league last season. They were only the fifth worst team in the NBA, which remains one of their major accomplishments for 2025-2026. There were times even that goal seemed out of reach.
The Jazz, Nets, Pacers, and Wizards all had worse seasons, with Washington coming in last place. An even bigger surprise has to be the fact that the Pelicans somehow avoided being in the bottom five teams in the league. They were in the bottom ten, which was far less of a shock to people.
Neither the Kings nor the Pelicans have great outlooks for this season, though they do face each other four times. Those meetings all go down before Christmas, with three happening between November 30 and December 18. They'll be spending a lot of time together around the holidays.
The Kings need to beat the Pelicans
New Orleans did slightly better than Sacramento in 2025-2026 by winning four more games. That being said, the difference between 26 wins and 22 wins isn't exactly gigantic from any perspective. Both records will firmly put a team in the NBA's basement and keep them well out of the playoffs.
Unfortunately for the Kings, two of the four Pelicans' wins that separated these teams last season were over Sacramento. New Orleans ultimately won their three-game in season series two to one. And the first of those meetings was a 26 point blowout in favor of New Orleans.
ESPN is projecting that the Pelicans with 25 wins and the Kings with 19 wins will be the 14th and 15th teams in the Western Conference by the end of this season. That's rather dismal, particularly for Sacramento. They have to be able to win more games than that, especially against the Pelicans.
This Kings' team has a lot of work to do to be relevant, but they also have some real talent on this roster. It's a group that's more than capable of beating the Pelicans during their weird run against each other between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Let's say a two-two split of the series this time.
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