The Sacramento Kings are as cold as the Arctic blast that flew in with them on their East Coast road trip.
They dropped their eighth straight game Friday night in Boston, matching their longest losing streak of the season in a 112-93 loss to the Celtics at TD Garden. Sacramento never led.
It started early, with Boston jumping ahead 9-1 before the first timeout. The Celtics pushed the margin to 40-25 after one quarter and never looked back.
“Just a bit of lethargic energy,” Kings coach Doug Christie said of his team’s slow start. “Not the pop that we wanted.”
Sacramento was playing on the second night of a back-to-back following a last-second loss Thursday to the Philadelphia 76ers, its road losing streak stretched to 12 games. It is the Kings’ longest skid away from Golden 1 Center since they lost 13 straight road games from Dec. 10, 2021, to Feb. 3, 2022. They’ll try to avoid matching that mark when they finish the trip Sunday against the Washington Wizards.
The Kings haven’t won on the road in nearly two months, with their last victory coming Dec. 6 in Miami. The loss, paired with New Orleans’ win over Memphis on Friday, dropped Sacramento to 12-38, the worst record in the NBA.
“It’s going to be frustrating when ups and downs come,” DeMar DeRozan said. “When you hit a wall you got to keep pushing through it. You just can’t lay there. As long as we stay together regardless of whatever’s going on. The trade deadline, weather, we got a million excuses. At the end of the day you just gotta keep pushing forward.”
The Kings have dealt with travel disruptions and severe weather throughout the trip. They haven’t had a full practice after travel delays in Cleveland and Detroit to open the swing, followed by three games in four nights in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Temperatures were well below freezing in each city, including Boston, where it was 4 degrees when the team left for the airport Friday night.
Sacramento will have Saturday off before a chance to end the trip against a struggling Wizards team that owns the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference at 12-35.
Zach LaVine returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench during Thursday’s loss to Philadelphia. It was his first start in a week after missing two games with lower back soreness. He led Sacramento with 17 points. Rookies Nique Clifford scored 15, and Maxime Raynaud added 14 points and 14 rebounds.
“I’m not used to losing like this,” Clifford said. “It’s been an adjustment in that sense, and being able to mentally get over these (loses) and move on, because we got so many games that you just got to stay mentally focused on the next game, next game. So that’s challenged me.”
Boston guard Payton Pritchard scored 22 points and dished out eight assists in the first half, finishing with a game-high 29 points while making 5 of 6 3-pointers.
The Kings were without Russell Westbrook for a second consecutive game because of a foot injury.
Christie said before the game there was no timetable for his return. Malik Monk returned after missing two games with a lower leg injury, while Domantas Sabonis sat out to manage a knee issue he returned from earlier this month.
The Celtics were without their leading scorer, Jaylen Brown, who was sidelined with left hamstring tightness and a right knee contusion.