Mar 13, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) lays the ball up ahead of Sacramento Kings forward Keegan Murray (13) during the third quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
For the second time in a month, the Sacramento Kings got their asses kicked by the Golden State Warriors. The final score of 130-104 gives a pretty good sense of it, but even when the Kings fought back and closed the gap to a respectable margin it still never felt like they really had a chance to win this one. After all the big talk following Tuesday’s loss to the Knicks, the Kings put on a repeat performance and allowed the Warriors to set the tone early and often. Steph Curry made his 4,000th career three pointer (approximately 2,500 of those came against the Kings), but finished with just 11 points. Jimmy Butler had just 6 points. And yet the Warriors thoroughly destroyed the Kings. The Warriors had 7 players score in double digits, led by Draymond Green’s 23 points.
I normally break down my previews into multiple sections, highlighting various thoughts and observations from the game. But for this game, I just have one general observation to explore: **This roster is broken**.
Remember when Sacramento’s issue was a lack of help from the bench? The Kings got 42 bench points from Keon Ellis (18), Jake LaRavia (13) and Trey Lyles (11). Devin Carter also had 5, and Isaac Jones had 2. 49 bench points in a 26 point loss, and don’t be mistaken, those weren’t a bunch of garbage time points. Malik Monk went 0-5 from 3, 3-13 overall, and had just 7 points. Monk did add 6 assists 4 rebounds, and 2 steals, but it wasn’t enough. Jonas Valanciunas had 5 points, filling in for the still-injured Domantas Sabonis. Keegan Murray was 2-8 from 3, 2-10 overall, and finished with 6 points. DeMar DeRozan led the Kings with 23 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 1 steal. Zach LaVine had 14 points on just 6 shots, but therein lies a much larger problem, why did LaVine only take 6 shots??
The few remaining optimists out there will surely point to Sabonis’ absence as reason not to be too down on the starting unit, but I didn’t think they looked much better when Sabonis was playing post-trade deadline. This team has a lot of talented players. I’d argue they have more talent now than at any time since the glory era. But the players don’t fit together, so the result is a team that is less than the sum of its parts. The Kings have looked decent when playing bad teams, but every time they face a good team they look exposed for the middling pretenders they truly are.
This team will likely still make the play-in, unless Phoenix suddenly goes on a win streak and the Mavericks reverse their curse. The Kings may even manage to sneak out of the play-in. But I have no faith in it, and certainly don’t have faith in them to win a playoff series. The Kings are mediocre, and will remain so unless major shakeups happen this offseason.
#### **Up Next**
The Kings have no time to dwell on this loss, the Kings visit the Phoenix Suns tonight. Two back to backs in one week! Great job, NBA schedule-makers!