The NBA Cup has an interesting impact on the schedule, as every team has two unannounced games until the brackets are sorted out. Unfortunately for the Sacramento Kings, they now have one more game against the Wolves and one more against the Nuggets. This season just isn't letting up.
As other teams advance to the NBA Cup knockout stage, the Sacramento Kings have had two games added to their schedule:
Thursday, December 11th vs. Nuggets
Sunday, December 14th @ T-Wolves
The Kings have already faced Denver & Minnesota three times this season.
— Frankie Cartoscelli (@FCartoscelli3) November 29, 2025
When the season schedule was announced, the Kings had one of the most unenviable runs over the first couple of months in the league. It was a veritable who's who of the toughest matchups possible. That included going three rounds with the defending champions before the end of November.
It's not an excuse for the fact that the season is 25% over and the Kings have five wins to their name. The franchise has its issues to sort out, which is why a major rebuild of the roster is looming. At the same time, it's hard to build any momentum when you're facing a contender almost every night.
The only upside was that the schedule was slowly becoming more manageable as the Kings started to get more winnable matchups. Then, the two missing games on hold due to the NBA Cup schedule got announced, and Sacramento was left with two more tough battles before Christmas.
Someone in the NBA hates the Kings
After going zero and four in the tournament, the Kings were eliminated from contention. As such, the NBA filled in the gaps in their schedule with the Nuggets on December 11 and the Timberwolves on December 14. What? Were the 1990s Chicago Bulls not available those evenings?
Oddly enough, the Kings' only back-to-back wins this season were against the Nuggets and the Wolves. It's also important to note that the Kings have also lost to both teams twice this season. Currently, Sacramento is two and one against each of them, with one more round to go.
In case you're keeping score, that means the Sacramento Kings will end up facing the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves four times each before Christmas. Whoever is making the scheduling decisions for the NBA seems to really have a problem with the Kings for some reason.
Sacramento absolutely could pull out another unlikely win against either the Nuggets or the Wolves. They've done it before. It's just a long shot in both cases, particularly considering how the Kings have played since those two wins. This is turning out to be a season where nothing is going their way.