Kings Tie NBA File By Lacking Playoffs for 15th Consecutive Season
Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Pictures
The Sacramento Kings maintain now missed the playoffs 15 straight cases—an NBA fable—after they maintain been eradicated from postseason contention following a 116-110 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday.
The Los Angeles Clippers franchise previously owned the playoff-less fable alone, lacking the postseason from the 1976-77 thru 1990-91 seasons, per John Schuhmann of NBA.com.
The Kings’ perfect hope for a postseason berth changed into sneaking into the play-in tournament because the No. 10 seed over the San Antonio Spurs.
Nonetheless, the 33-37 Spurs maintain the head-to-head tiebreaker over the 31-39 Sacramento Kings with each team having two games final, so Sacramento has no skill of jumping the Spurs into the play-in field.
The Kings stumbled on grand success in the eight seasons sooner than the hot drought, making the playoffs eight straight cases. They even nearly went to the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals sooner than shedding a closely contested (and highly controversial) seven-recreation series to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Sacramento hasn’t stumbled on itself in that spherical ever since.
The Kings haven’t been particularly shut to increasing the playoffs in any season sooner than this one both, notably going thru 2008-2018 with out a success higher than 33 games in a single campaign.
This yr changed into anxious for the Kings, as accidents and sickness compelled many avid gamers to the sidelines for long stretches. Buddy Hield is notably the staunch King who has missed fewer than 9 games this season. Restful, the team fought exhausting down the stretch, going 6-1 despite lacking De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton and Harrison Barnes.
The notoriously tricky Western Conference is crammed with superstars and ambitious teams every yr, and making the playoff field from there is a yearly gauntlet.
Nonetheless, the Kings with out a doubt maintain the skills to damage thru that glide next yr, with Fox and Haliburton notably starring in 2020-21 and showcasing capability for extra greatness.