Tonight marks the start of a two-game stretch where the Kings will take on two of the worst teams in the NBA and arguably the last games of the season that the Kings are outright expected to win (depending on if Kevin Durant comes back for the season finale). This has been one of the most disappointing seasons in Kings history, so losing either of these two games would just be another cherry on top of the shit sundae.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Wednesday, April 2nd, 4:00 PM PT
Where: Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
The Wizards have been having a miserable season of their own, but they at least are on the rebuilding path. They’ve won 7 games since the All-Star break, nearly half of their 16 on the season. For comparison, the Kings have only won one more game in that same timespan despite supposedly being a much better team.
On paper, this should be no contest. The Wizards are dead last in offense and almost the same on defense. When they last played the Kings, they had more weapons (namely Kyle Kuzma and Jonas Valanciunas) and still lost by 23. But this is the Kings we’re talking about, and all they seem to do lately is find new ways to lose. On Monday, the Kings held a 14 point 3rd quarter lead against the Indiana Pacers only to see it vanish in the 4th quarter as they resorted once again to isolation play after isolation play. Domantas Sabonis, once the heartbeat of the franchise, has been frozen out of the offense for the most part since the trade that brought Zach LaVine to Sacramento. Just take a look at Sabonis’ averages since the trade:
14.6 points, 53.1% from the field, 18.2% from 3, 13 rebounds a game and 4.7 assists in 31.1 minutes.
Those stats are still ok, but a far cry from how he had been playing before. The Kings have taken the ball out of Sabonis hands and entrusted the offense more to their guards. He’s getting fewer touches, fewer opportunities to make plays for others and watching his All-NBA hopes flutter away. Now to be fair, he’s likely been playing hurt for a portion of this stretch, and his last few games have been more indicative of the Sabonis we have come to know and love, at least scoring and rebounding wise, but I’d really like to see the Kings once again embrace Sabonis’ playmaking, which has been the most impacted by the changes the Kings have made. Instead the Kings have resorted to dribbling the air out of the ball and playing more and more isolation basketball, better suited to the strengths of DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine.
This team is a far cry from a couple years ago, and the wholesale changes they made this season have made for difficult adjustments. At this point, even making the Play-In isn’t all that exciting because I’m not sure there are any Kings fans who think this team can manage to do anything even if they get there. But just for our sake and the team’s sake, it’d be nice to see this team at least end the season with some heart. Don’t drop games like tonight against a team that truly is just counting the days until the season is over.
Prediction
Jonas Valanciunas outduels Colby Jones in the battle of revenge games that is uncomfortably close.
Kings 123, Wizards 116
