Sports

The Sacramento Kings have had some ups and downs this week, but it’s been mostly up, so let’s start with that. The Kings started their six-game road trip by handing the Los Angeles Lakers their first home loss of the season, 125-110, and you know I was happy about that. After absolutely dominating the Lakers, the Kings traveled on to San Antonio for their second game of the in-season tournament.

Have you been watching an NBA game this season and thought, “Wow, the courts this year look crazy!” The vibrant-colored courts are how you know you are watching an in-season tournament game. The league has never done this before, drawing inspiration from soccer; it’s their attempt to find something new and exciting to keep fans interested. It’s a long season, and they say they want to give the players something to strive for early on. Personally, I’m enjoying it so far, but maybe that’s because the Kings are 2-0. We are in the Group Play phase right now. Teams are split into groups of five, and each team will play four games in this phase. The games also count toward the regular season. Eight teams (the six group winners plus two wildcards) will advance to the knockout round, which is single elimination. The quarterfinals will take place on Monday and Tuesday, December 4th and 5th. I hope we’ll see the Kings there! In addition to the first NBA Cup, each player on the winning team will receive $500,000, so they should be somewhat motivated to do well. Now that I’ve told you all about it, I can also tell you that the Kings beat the San Antonio Spurs in that in-season tournament game, 129-120, and De’Aaron Fox scored his 500th career 3-pointer. Fox was absolutely on fire, and he let it carry on to the next game against the Dallas Mavericks, which the Kings beat 129-113. After that performance, Fox was named the Western Conference Player of the Week; he averaged 32.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.3 steals over the course of the week.

Unfortunately, we’ve come to the low part of the week. The Kings lost to the New Orleans Pelicans 129-93; ouch. We were already missing Sasha Vezenkov and Keon Ellis with thumb soreness and an ankle sprain, respectively, but then we lost Keegan Murray with a back injury and Chris Duarte with a hand injury during the game. All four of these guys are listed as day-to-day on the injury report. We’ll see how they are when the Kings play the Pelicans again on Wednesday, November 22nd, and hopefully, I’ll have good news to report next week! The Kings go on to Minnesota to play the Timberwolves in their third game of the in-season tournament on Friday, November 24th, before going back home to face the Golden State Warriors yet again on Tuesday, November 28th. Can we get a win against the Warriors this season, please? Go Kings!