Sacramento Kings’ fall from hope to humiliation is accelerating fast

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Sacramento Kings’ fall from hope to humiliation is accelerating fast

There are nights when every one of your problems is embarrassingly obvious. When every mistake you’ve made – and keep making – appears like a ghost on the shoulder of a road that leads nowhere. A road you’re flying down anyway. For the Sacramento Kings, lately, every night has been that kind of night: eight straight losses, all by at least ten points and four by 27 or more. It’s the worst streak in a Western Conference in which they’re second from last, in a year when, it’s worth remembering, they weren’t supposed to think about the draft or develop young talent. They were supposed to compete and win. They aren’t (3-13). But the real issue now is how they’re losing.

Because in Memphis – and bear in mind the next stop is Denver – the Kings took a 41-point beating (137-96), a score that had stretched to 48 (137-89) a couple of minutes earlier against a team that came in with only four wins (now 5-11), its own existential crisis and its own stack of unanswered big-picture questions. And worse yet, the Grizzlies were without their two stars: Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr topped an injury list that still includes key rotation pieces like Ty Jerome and Brandon Clarke. Even so, without their main axis and on a five-game skid, Memphis feasted on a rival that looked like a prop – a dead team walking. No pride, no professional shame, no semblance of cohesion or dignity on the floor. A disaster rarely seen from a franchise that, unfortunately, has lived through too many already and just matched, incredibly, the worst 16-game start in its history.

The Grizzlies set a franchise record with 42 assists on a night when they committed only eight turnovers. They dominated every metric: +17 rebounds, +18 in assisted baskets, +24 in points off turnovers, +10 in transition, +16 in the paint, +17 in second-chance points. Vince Williams Jr became the team’s quarterback, as Tuomas Iisalo put it afterward, finishing with 15 assists (he said he wanted to reach twenty – that’s how easy the game looked to him). In the paint, and with Domantas Sabonis out (more on that in the next paragraph), Jock Landale (21 points, six rebounds) and Zach Edey (16 points on 7-for-7 shooting) played house with the Kings’ front line. Edey didn’t miss a shot all night and admitted afterward that his ankle is finally healthy and that he hasn’t had both feet right since college (this is his second season in Memphis). Cedric Coward (an efficient 19) continues pushing for All-Rookie honors and is building with Jaylen Wells a young forward pairing that might be the best long-term positive this franchise extracts from a season that, beyond nights like this one, doesn’t look promising.

Santi Aldama capped the win with an exceptional showing: 29 points, five rebounds, three assists, two blocks, 11-for-18 from the field, 5-for-11 from deep. A +28 in 28 minutes, starting in place of Jackson and thriving with the extra responsibility against a rival that posed no physical challenge and let him play freely. The Canary Islander showcased his full repertoire and tied his career high in the NBA, a leader on a young lineup without its main stars. He and his team did their job without looking at the other side of the court because that’s not their problem. That problem is massive – and belongs to owner Vivek Ranadive, who seems to break two things for every one he tries to fix; to general manager Scott Perry, who still doesn’t seem sure what he should do or what he’s being asked to do; and to Doug Christie, a franchise legend from better times who is already burned out and out of answers as head coach. He even tried appealing publicly to his players’ sense of representing a city, a fanbase, a franchise. Right now, it feels like nobody in that locker room cares.

If the good – excellent – news was Keegan Murray’s return (still rusty at 1-for-6 from three), the bad news this time was the confirmation of Domantas Sabonis’s knee injury, which will sideline him a minimum of three to four weeks, and likely longer. That’s the medical report. On the court, everyone who played posted at least a –10, including Keon Ellis, who continues to have less of a role than the fanbase insists he deserves, the recently returned Murray (who should be the bridge to the next project, whatever that is) and young players like Devin Carter (who already shows signs of becoming another squandered high first-rounder) and Nique Clifford.

At the very least, they should be playing to see whether anything useful can be salvaged – and, more importantly, to stop subjecting fans to such low-effort minutes from veterans like DeMar DeRozan (seven points on three shots) or Dennis Schröder (three points, 0-for-8). Russell Westbrook drifted through the game like a lost soul; Zach LaVine at least piled up another 26 of his points – the kind he gets, not the team – after failing to score even those in previous nights. In the end, it was an absolute disaster, a low point so grim it will be hard to top, from a team playing so terribly that before thinking about winning, it needs to worry about losing better.