[Game] 75/82: Kings @ Pacers 31 MAR 2025, 4pm PT/7pm ET

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Sacramento Kings 36-38 (17-19 away) @ Indiana Pacers 43-31 (24-10 home)
31 March 2025, 4pm PT/7pm ET
Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana

Last 5:
Pacers 3-2 Kings 1-4

Series:
Pacers lead 1-0​

Game Preview:
Kings, Pacers Battle With Playoff Positioning On The Line (NBA.com)

Availability:
Broadcast: NBA League Pass (NBC Sports California)
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM

Box Score (via ESPN.com)

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Injury Report (as of 1pm ET):
Kings:
Devin Carter - OUT (shoulder)
Jake LaRavia - OUT (thumb)

Pacers:
Benedict Mathurin - OUT (calf)
Myles Turner - OUT (illness)
Isaiah Jackson - OUT FOR SEASON (Achilles)



Referee Assignments:
Zach Zarba (#15 - Crew Chief), Kevin Cutler (#34), Matt Boland (#18) - Fifty-nine years combined experience



Mister Slim Says:

When a man's an empty kettle
He should be on his mettle
And yet I'm torn apart
Just because I'm presumin'
That I could be kind of human
If I only had a heart​

Contrary to what a vocal percentage of Kings Fans seem to believe, it's too late for the Sacramento Kings to tank. With that in mind, you would think that a team that is ostensibly in "must win" mode would show a little more heart in games where their season is more or less on the line. And, apparently, you'd be wrong. Kings are 3-7 in their last ten games: the only teams that have had a worse performance over that stretch have already been eliminated from playoff contention. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), the Trail Blazers have too much ground to make up, and the Phoenix Suns may be without Kevin Durant for an indeterminate period of time, so it's looking like Sacramento may back into the play-in ass-first.

Next up are the playoff-bound Indiana Pacers, who are bottom-third in the league in 3-point attempts, but 7th in percentage. Considering the peformance that the Kings just put on versus the worst three-point shooting team in the league, that is not exactly encouraging, but hope springs eternal. Maybe somebody besides Murray and Ellis will feel like playing some defense, and they'll catch the Pacers on a rare bad shooting night?

 

[captain bill]

Last game thread was the lowest post count we’ve had in a while. Admittedly I missed it myself because I had better things to do on a Saturday afternoon and would honestly prefer to watch if we were outright eliminated rather than slogging towards futility. I expect more eyes tonight but damn if I don’t hate this stupid play-in chase when we’d rightly be eliminated by now just a few years ago

 

[fansinceday1]

A’s opening night in Sacramento or watch the kings get smashed by the pacers and the guy we should have kept? I’ll be at the A’s game so I might check up on the kings through my score app.

 

[funkykingston]

I 'm largely tuned out to end this season. Unless something unexpected and dramatic happens to finish this season the Kings will likely just miss the play-in, or end up as the 10th seed where I have little hope of them winning two games to earn the privilege of getting beat by OKC in the first round.

Either way, they'll have between a 2.4% and 7.1% chance of keeping their draft pick depending on where they finish.

IMO, there's just a few games left for this current roster to give any kind of argument that it shoudln't be blown up in the off-season.

 

[dude12]

I don’t believe in this iteration of the Kings no matter how many times Ted Lasso says to believe.

 

[Caccia]

IMO, there's just a few games left for this current roster to give any kind of argument that it shoudln't be blown up in the off-season.

They have been together less than half a season--24 games for Zach LaVine. They have experienced multiple injuries. They recently had five games in six against some of the best teams in the league and still came away with two wins.

The blow up already happened when they traded away their leading scorer, De'Aaron Fox. The current team has not really had a chance to show what it can do. And yet the majority of fans here are ready to give up.

I understand you and many others are discouraged, but that is shortsighted thinking. After losing Fox and his 25 points per game, no surprise that the Kings have had trouble scoring. Nearly all the losses since the trade have come because they failed to score more than 110 points.

 

[fansinceday1]

Since this team sucks so bad, there has been some great conversation elsewhere by kings fans who might wear shirts that say SELL where the kings logo would normally go. I think it’s a great idea. Also, would kings officials throw that fan out? And what if that fan refused to walk out? Would he be dragged out? Personally if the shirts are made I volunteer to go and try it out. Since I don’t go to games anymore if they banned me from the arena, big whoop.
I’d want to sit in the lower level so if they do make a scene it will be seen by the most eyes.

 

[gunks]

Since this team sucks so bad, there has been some great conversation elsewhere by kings fans who might wear shirts that say SELL where the kings logo would normally go. I think it’s a great idea. Also, would kings officials throw that fan out? And what if that fan refused to walk out? Would he be dragged out? Personally if the shirts are made I volunteer to go and try it out. Since I don’t go to games anymore if they banned me from the arena, big whoop.
I’d want to sit in the lower level so if they do make a scene it will be seen by the most eyes.

Oh PLEASE let the "SELL" movement become a thing!

The team will never achieve anything with Vivek as an owner.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

5pm ET injury update:

Myles Turner (Pacers) has been ruled OUT due to an undisclosed illness.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I 'm largely tuned out to end this season. Unless something unexpected and dramatic happens to finish this season the Kings will likely just miss the play-in, or end up as the 10th seed where I have little hope of them winning two games to earn the privilege of getting beat by OKC in the first round.

Yeah, but what if you don't like baseball?

 

[QWERTYLICIOUS]

Yeah, but what if you don't like baseball?

Hockey?

 

[funkykingston]

Yeah, but what if you don't like baseball?

I haven't watched a baseball game in years. I'll probably tune in to the 1st quarter of tonight's game and if it looks anything like the Orlando game, I'll probably use that time to play guitar instead.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Hockey?

To paraphrase the great American philosopher Michael Irvin, it doesn't play to my constituency.

 

[SLAB]

I miss Tyrese.

 

[funkykingston]

They have been together less than half a season--24 games for Zach LaVine. They have experienced multiple injuries. They recently had five games in six against some of the best teams in the league and still came away with two wins.

The blow up already happened when they traded away their leading scorer, De'Aaron Fox. The current team has not really had a chance to show what it can do. And yet the majority of fans here are ready to give up.

I understand you and many others are discouraged, but that is shortsighted thinking. After losing Fox and his 25 points per game, no surprise that the Kings have had trouble scoring. Nearly all the losses since the trade have come because they failed to score more than 110 points.

There's losing and there's being completely outclassed. The Kings put up no fight against Orlando. That's not an issue with trying to integrate new players, or guys learning the sets, or even just little glitches in timing as players learn each others' tendencies. That's just a complete lack of effort.

DeMar is 35. Jonas is nearly 33. Zach LaVine turned 30 three weeks ago. Domas will turn 29 in May. Trey is already 29 Malik is 27, Keon is already 25 and Keegan will be 25 this off-season. This isn't a young team. Familiarity will help them a bit, but there aren't a lot of reasons to be optimistic about internal development beyond Devin Carter (23) and Jake LaRavia (23) who the Kings are likely to lose this off-season.

Does anyone believe the ceiling for this current roster is better than fighting for a play in spot the next couple years?

 

[SLAB]

Oh PLEASE let the "SELL" movement become a thing!

The team will never achieve anything with Vivek as an owner.

I don’t think this team will ever accomplish anything even without Vivek as an owner.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

A’s opening night in Sacramento or watch the kings get smashed by the pacers and the guy we should have kept? I’ll be at the A’s game so I might check up on the kings through my score app.

That A's game sounds like a blast. Sacramento is such a baseball town.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

I don’t think this team will ever accomplish anything even without Vivek as an owner.

Slab man come on, that's about as blindly pessimistic as it gets.

 

[iowamcnabb]

I see we are back to cesspool on the forum haha. I get it though.

Even though this season appears to be ending poorly I’m looking forward to the playoffs this year. There are going to be a ton of juicy matchups, should be fun.

 

[Elektrik]

Oh PLEASE let the "SELL" movement become a thing!

The team will never achieve anything with Vivek as an owner.

On this I agree 100%

 

[Sluggah]

Deja vu from behind the arc.

 

[Caccia]

I am ready for this Keon Ellis as starter experiment to be over.

Edit: Nice steal, though.

 

[gunks]

I don’t think this team will ever accomplish anything even without Vivek as an owner.

Depends who we get next.

Magoofs into Ranadoofus was some bad bad luck for this fandom though.

 

[iowamcnabb]

Deja vu from behind the arc.

to me this is the defining characteristic of the 24/25 Sacramento Kings.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I can haz defense?

 

[Tetsujin]

Feels like the Kings are playing 4 on 5 with Lavine out there tonight which is honestly an improvement over the last couple of games.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I don’t think this team will ever accomplish anything even without Vivek as an owner.

This is only a problem if you carry the burden of expectations.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I am ready for this Keon Ellis as starter experiment to be over.

Ellis is not the weak link in the starting backcourt.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Sabonis being "second" on the rebound/assist leaderboard is reminiscent of that one time Stojakovic finished "second" to Tracy McGrady in scoring.

 

[Elektrik]

While I am to the point of not tuning in, turning off, and dropping out, I plan on watching this game… Up to a point. There is still a lot of talent on this team. I feel that ownership has to get their mitts off of the team. In other words stop the meddling. I don’t know if that’s possible with Vivek, the daughter, and her wannabe GM boyfriend.
The potential loss of Sabonis in the off-season concerns me greatly. Obviously he’s a terrific player that has great leadership qualities. You can see it in the interaction between all of the other players. I believe he’s pretty highly respected by his peers. Having said that, if he is looking to get out of this “sad sac” basketball city can you really blame him? With all of the talent that they’ve had in the last two years, they could not muster more than a first round knockout, one embarrassing play in sweep of themselves and this season where they appear that they will not even make the play in.
Was it the coach? That’s debatable, but I’m inclined to believe that it was ownership then and ownership now that is forcing the hand of some of the decisions that were and are being made. It’s ownership’s job to hire the right basketball people and let them do their job. Feel like Vivac wants to be the GM also. He hires people for the title and then tells them what to do.
Now I don’t have any firsthand knowledge. I’m just a fan that likes to read the tea leaves speculate and sometimes pontificate. What I can tell you with the talent that we’ve had we should not be where we are.
Players not getting up for games that they should easily win is frustrating as well. Certainly, the players are responsible, but coaches need to be held accountable as well. I liked Mike Brown. I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t play Keon Ellis more and why did he play Keegan so many minutes early on. If you remember, Keegan could not hit the broadside of a barn and was as meek as a mouse.
As far as DeArron Fox goes, that’s been discussed ad nauseum. I felt, all things considered, that Monty McNair wound up getting a pretty decent haul for Fox. Getting the draft picks, and winding up getting Zack Lavine, Jonas Valenciunas, Jake
Laravia and picking up Markelle Fultz was pretty good work while still holding on to first round picks albeit lower round picks. Somehow though it’s just not working. It could be, not enough practice time, or not enough good vibes or who knows what. It’s just kind of painful to watch at times and I’m pretty sick of it for entertainment value.
I like Doug Christie as a coach. Loved him as a player. He was dealt a lousy hand to be sure with all the instability so I hope he remains however this season turns out, history has shown for this team that ownership cares little for it’s coaches.
Anyway, I don’t really like to go on these long, winded rants, but I feel like if I don’t get this off my chest now it will be nawing away at me until next season. I can read the writing on the wall. So can the players and the fans. Yes I’m thankful that Vivek bought the team when he did to keep it from moving, but for crying out loud, give us more than a season to get our hopes up and be enthusiastic and have hope. I have no hope for this team for the rest of the season so I expect that after tonight‘s game, any involvement in this team for the rest of the season will only be because I got tired of watching Seinfeld reruns. I’m sure next season I’ll be excited and positive and that we will win it all! That’s all fffffolks!!!