Well, the Kings have started winning basketball games. Their current 3-game winning streak is the longest of the season, and they’ll be getting Domantas Sabonis back tonight. The tank weeps.
Who: Sacramento Kings (11-30) vs. Washington Wizards (10-30)
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
When: 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
The big storyline tonight is the aforementioned return of Domantas Sabonis. Sacramento’s best player and starting center hasn’t played since November 16th, and when he was on the court, things weren’t exactly going well. By basically every metric, the 2025-26 version of Sabonis is the worst we’ve seen since he was traded here in 2022. A lot of elements factor into that: he’s older, the team is less talented, the roster makes zero sense, he’s working with a new coach, new point guard, blah blah blah.
All that being said, it’ll be interesting to see if the time away helped him figure any of those issues out. With the NBA trade deadline approaching, a strong Sabonis run here could improve his market, relieve Sabonis from his duties on this awful squad, and allow the organization to recover some younger assets. Win-win.
Part of the reason I’m immediately jumping into Sabonis trade speculation mode is the arrival of Maxime Raynaud. The rookie center out of Stanford played very well in Domas’ absence, and the Kings really need to be using these games to develop their young talent (and lose games). I’m glad Sabonis is healthy, but Sacramento’s very old starting unit is about to get older with his return, and Raynaud’s role will likely be heavily reduced.
Unless Doug Christie shocks the world, and starts Sabonis and Raynaud together. I know that would be my preference, in the spirit of why the hell not? But I’m doubtful that we see it. That’s too bold. Too interesting. Too different.
I haven’t even mentioned the draft position ramifications yet. A week ago the Kings were the second worst team in the NBA. A win tonight over the Wizards, a team they should beat at home, would bump them up to 5th. I know the draft lottery odds are flatter than the last time the Kings were fighting for a top pick, but this thing is starting to trend in the wrong direction. The only thing worse than being old and bad is being old and bad, but not bad enough to land top flight talent in the draft.
There’s plenty of basketball left to play, but the Kings’ schedule is incredibly light over their last 20+ games, and they run the risk of winning a lot of meaningless games down the stretch if they don’t commit to the tank.
Prediction: Kings 120, Wizards 114.