The Sacramento Kings remain in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament mix, though mostly because of the Phoenix Suns’ recent slide — rather than any sustained momentum of their own.
Yet here they are, staying alive and daring to dream.
This despite the firing of former coach Mike Brown in late December, and a bit of a shakeup at the trade deadline, when they added Zach LaVine from Chicago to pair with Domantas Sabonis and DeMar DeRozan, signed in the offseason. Standout point guard De’Aaron Fox was sent to San Antonio as part of the LaVine deal.
“This is probably our fifth iteration of this team,” Kings interim coach Doug Christie said, via David Aldridge of The Athletic. “We’ve had multiple guys who have been injured. Some are out, still. They come back, they’re rusty. You have to play through it because of who they are and what they bring to your team.
“So, looking at that part of it, you don’t worry about it. … I’m more, like, trying to make sure that their spirit is right. Because if you come in here with the right spirit, and we play the right way, we can compete against any team.”
Christie’s optimism isn’t without merit. Sacramento has notched two wins over Cleveland in the past two weeks and added a road victory over Detroit on Monday. Still, inconsistency remains an issue. The Kings were blown out by 30 points in Orlando and dropped a puzzling game to Washington, one of the league’s worst teams.
Sacramento (39-41) enters the weekend in ninth place in the Western Conference standings, a game ahead of Dallas. So if there’s any time to find some consistency, well, this would be it. And who knows? Maybe the Kings can become a darkhorse. They sure seem to have that potential.
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