Sacramento Kings get bigger beam; why huge homestand could be pivotal for playoff chances
Kings owner Vivek Ranadive has informed coach Mike Brown the team now has a bigger beam as it enters what could be a pivotal stretch in Sacramento’s quest to reach the playoffs.
Ranadive made the announcement Saturday on Instagram following weeks of playful banter from Brown, who said he wanted a bigger Kings victory beam so he could see it from his home in El Dorado Hills.
“Coach Brown, we heard you and made The Beam a lot brighter, just in time for our 6-game holiday home stand!” Ranadive said.
The next six weeks could be critical for the Kings (16-12) as they seek to end the longest playoff drought in NBA history after 16 consecutive losing seasons. They will open a six-game homestand when they play host to the Charlotte Hornets (7-22) on Monday at Golden 1 Center, where the Kings will play 15 of their next 19 games.
Brown said it will be important for the Kings to stay locked in and handle their business at home.
“It’s extremely important,” Brown said. “We want to, whether we have six games at home or two, we want to protect home because it’s so hard to win on the road. You take your hat off to the fans here in Sacramento. They’ve been fantastic all year round, not just in the building, but around town, too, but particularly come game time.
“The electricity that they bring to the arena is second to none, and so to be able to utilize that to give us energy in times when we may have some lulls on the road is something that we need to take full advantage of any time we step on our court at home.”
This marks the start of a stretch in which the Kings will play 11 of 13 and 15 of 19 at home, where they are 8-4 this season. Twelve of those 19 games will be against teams that are currently at or below .500.
“I think the biggest thing for us is just focusing on one game at a time,” Kings forward Harrison Barnes said. “Sometimes when you get into these long homestands, you kind of start looking ahead or saying this or that about this team or that team coming in, but I think we’ve seen that if we want to get to where we want to be, it just starts with one game at a time, so it starts with Charlotte and then just build from there.”
In addition to the Hornets, the Kings will play the Washington Wizards (11-19), Orlando Magic (10-20), Oklahoma City Thunder (12-18), San Antonio Spurs (9-20) and two games against the Houston Rockets (9-20) during this 19-game stretch. The Kings will also play three games against the Los Angeles Lakers (12-16), who will be missing star center Anthony Davis for “multiple weeks” due to a right foot injury, according to ESPN.
The Kings will have a chance to get several games over .500 before they embark on a season-long seven-game road trip beginning Jan. 28.
“This is definitely big,” Kings center Domantas Sabonis said. “In the NBA, you’ve really got to protect home court. You might play a better team, but at home you always have a slight advantage, so out of those 15 games at home, then we’ve got to have a high, high number of wins, and that’s going to be on us to come here and be focused. … We’ve got to come in and do our job, and that’s going to show some maturity in this group if we can handle that, and that will just allow us to make a bigger gap in the standings.”
