Kings Report – 1/15

Who gets two wins in a row? The Sacramento Kings! If you can believe it, for the second time this season, the Kings have lit the Beam for two consecutive nights, and after the train wreck that was last week, this week couldn’t feel better. I’m in an especially good mood because one of those wins came against my favorite team to beat, the Los Angeles Lakers. As usual, Golden 1 Center was packed with Laker fans on Tuesday, January 13, but the Kings were in complete control from start to finish.

Despite the first three quarters going our way, I still wasn’t sitting comfortably in the fourth, especially when the Lakers went on a 6–0 run to cut the lead to eight with 3:09 left. That’s when Coach Doug Christie used his final timeout to stop the momentum, and the Kings responded with a decisive 10–0 run out of the break, highlighted by two three-pointers from fan favorite Malik Monk.

And yes, Malik Monk is back. After several games of reduced minutes for reasons unknown, he returned with a vengeance against the Lakers, scoring 26 points while hitting seven of his nine three-point attempts and dishing out a team-high eight assists. The whole team was on fire from deep, shooting better than 65 percent. DeMar DeRozan, who recently passed 26,000 career points, also looked terrific, leading the team with 32 points.

The Lakers were sure missing Austin Reaves, who’s been out with a calf injury since December. It felt like Luka Dončić was the only player who really showed up for Los Angeles, but even his 42 points weren’t enough this time. The Kings beat the Lakers, 124-112. One person also watching the game from home was Kings point guard Dennis Schröder, who was recently suspended for three games for seeking out Dončić after the Kings’ December 28 game in L.A. and attempting to punch him. Why all of that surfaced just now is anyone’s guess. While I obviously don’t condone violence, I will admit that Dončić has a way of getting under people’s skin. Schröder earned a few extra points from me for not backing down.

Look at that, I’ve talked so much about the Lakers, I don’t have much room to talk about how we might actually own the Houston Rockets, since we’ve now beaten them twice in a row, something I’m sure no one saw coming.

By the time you read this, the Kings will have welcomed back former coach Mike Brown, who returns to Golden 1 Center with his new team, the 25–14 New York Knicks, on Wednesday, January 14. I went to the Knicks game two years ago, and it was brutal; Jalen Brunson is something else. But as we’ve seen, anything can happen, and maybe the Kings have built just enough momentum to go on a little run.

After the Knicks, the Kings continue their seven game home-stand against the 10-28 Washington Wizards on Friday, January 16, I’ll be at the game against the 19-22 Portland Trailblazers on Sunday, January 18, they then take on the 21-19 Miami Heat on Tuesday, January, 20th and the 24-17 Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, January 21. There’s no reason we can’t win some of these games. Let’s keep the momentum going and light the Beam!