With six games remaining in the 2018-19 season, the Sacramento Kings officially were eliminated from NBA playoff contention Saturday night after falling to the Houston Rockets 119-108.
Despite the loss, the Kings (37-39) are one of the best stories in the league. A perennial lottery team for over a decade, Sacramento reinvented itself this season with a young cast of characters and a blistering pace of play.
Led by breakout seasons by their backcourt pairing of De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield, the Kings defied Las Vegas oddsmakers and league experts, posting a 10-game improvement over last season’s 27-win total with winnable games still on the schedule.
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After a promising first half, the Kings struggled through their post-All-Star break schedule. With close losses piling up, the team’s hopes of snapping the franchise’s 12-year playoff drought faded.
Sacramento lost to the Denver Nuggets by two points leading into the break, starting a series of heartbreakers. Since that Nuggets loss, the Kings have dropped five games by three points or less.
The Kings have been in every game since a Feb. 27 loss to the Rockets. Their largest margin of defeat since that game was a nine-point road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on the second night of a back-to-back. Eleven of the team’s last 12 losses have been by seven points or less.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s hard not to consider the Kings’ season a success, and the future looks extremely bright. They’ll finish the season with six players on rookie-scale contracts in the rotation.
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Rookies Marvin Bagley and Harry Giles are getting their first real exposure to the grind of an 82-game schedule, and Sacramento has a stack of players 26 years old or younger eating major rotational minutes.
The final outcome isn’t what the team or the fan base hoped for, but the Kings have gained valuable experience this season. With most of the rotation intact and upward of $38 million in salary-cap space to spend this summer, Sacramento looks like a team on the rise.