[Game] 80/82: Kings @ Warriors 07 APR 2026, 7pm PT/10pm ET

[TaxMan]

I didn’t watch the game last night, but KNBR this morning was lamenting that the Kings deployed a “Hack a Curry” strategy in crunch time last night to secure a Lin?

If true, that’s even more shameless than the Jazz. I’m proud of them

I saw Draymond quoted as making this point in an Athletic article today. Implying the Kings are a undignified tanking team. Seems kind of like a self-own by KNBR and Draymond. The crappy kings team had to "throw" a game to lose to the warriors?? There are a lot of stupid plays that happen in every game. Not sure they all are necessarily evidence of explicit tanking.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

I saw Draymond quoted as making this point in an Athletic article today. Implying the Kings are a undignified tanking team. Seems kind of like a self-own by KNBR and Draymond. The crappy kings team had to "throw" a game to lose to the warriors?? There are a lot of stupid plays that happen in every game. Not sure they all are necessarily evidence of explicit tanking.

The next time Draymond knows what he’s talking about will be the very first time.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

You are sensationalizing things. “Crashing out”.

Possibly. Could be that we define "crashing out" differently.

Feels like the contingent who is having a problem with pro-tank forum members are as equally guilty of being on one end of the conversation where everyone is probably closer to the middle. Somewhere.

Eh... YMMV but I typically find myself of the sentiment that the party who is "hit" by the first metaphorical stone is never "equally guilty" to the party who threw it. I guess it depends on whom you think "started" it?

Yep….here’s the other thing with our young guys…I’m happy they are getting heavy minutes but I also have seen players at the end of the year put up big numbers when a majority of teams are in end of year mode.

Except they haven't been playing against teams in end-of-year mode. This has been a season where it's taken a lot of time for things to get settled. Some things still aren't settled. And with the exceptions of the Jazz, Pacers and Nets (each of whom they've only played once in that span), the Kings last eighteen games have been against opponents who have all been playing to win the game for some reason or other, whether it was to clinch a playoff berth, or for playoff positioning, or to avoid the play-in, or for play-in position, or even (in New Orleans' case), to keep their pick from going to another team.

 

[ESP47]

This is the correct take, but even when the above happens and those guys win the game... you have a contingent that bemoan how stupid this franchise is about not even being able to lose properly.

A couple here are an inch away from saying the Kings should intentionally throw the game. Thats just a bad take too

I feel like most of the takes are pretty reasonable but they aren't being interpreted as such. Although I haven't read through 100% of the posts either.

The truth of the matter is that there have been very few games won by the young guys that was just straight on the backs of the young guys. The Pelicans game and Mavericks game were about the only two that were mostly carried by the young guys. The Pels game could have been lost by playing DDR and Precious less but the Mavs game was pretty much the young guys showing out.

The Raptors game was won by Precious, DDR and Monk.

Nets win had Monk scoring 32.

Jazz win had DDR scoring 41.

Bulls win had Monk at 30 and Westbrook 23.

What people are doing is in any of these wins, if any of the young guys also had a good game, they point to that and sarcastically say that the pro tanker must have wanted one of the young guys to get benched or that Doug had his hands tied and just absolutely had to play DDR 34min. None of that is true. Maybe one or two of those 4 games above would have been won if Doug played the vets less minutes but either way it's just not a smart move to let the vets cook like that when the smart franchises are positioning themselves for better odds.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Sacramento being penalized for tanking over (allegedly) intentionally fouling Curry while Washington, Indiana and Utah skate would be hysterical.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Sacramento being penalized for tanking over (allegedly) intentionally fouling Curry while Washington, Indiana and Utah skate would be hysterical.

Is there league buzz about this or just KNBR talk show complaints?

 

[QWERTYLICIOUS]

Is there league buzz about this or just KNBR talk show complaints?

Sources: Kings' late foul was tactical error, not tanking

The NBA is looking into what team sources say was a strategy mistake by Kings coach Doug Christie -- and not tanking tactics -- during Tuesday's loss to the Warriors.

www.espn.com

 

[Kingz19]

Is there league buzz about this or just KNBR talk show complaints?

It’s part of the “top stories” on espn.com and the NBA is “looking into it”

From the ESPN article

“The strategy was just a misstep, sources told ESPN, as Christie wanted to use a timeout before he automatically lost it when the clock ticked below three minutes. Sources said Christie miscalculated that the Warriors were in the bonus and it would send Curry, an 86.4% career free throw shooter, to the line, despite more appealing options on the floor to foul if opting to hack a player.“

 

[MizzouKing]

Losing by small margins at the end of a very losing season when other teams barely notice your existence is nothing to be confident about. The Kings are a loooooooooooong way from getting to the hallowed ground of mediocrity (.500), much less a winning team that other teams take seriously.

Hey, I said cautiously...

The last time I had this feeling was in the late 90's when we were losing a lot, but just barely. That was right before the start of the glory days seasons. I don't see this team in that stratosphere, but I do think our trajectory has begun an important shift.

 

[MizzouKing]

No, no, no. We can't think that way. The ONLY way out is by losing 70 games a season and banking top-10 picks in perpetuity. Anyone who succeeds too much must be traded for more draft picks that we hope to turn into those type of successful players. Or so I've been told, ad nauseum.

YMMV.

I'm sorry, what on earth was I thinking?!?

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Is there league buzz about this or just KNBR talk show complaints?

You remember that I don't live in California, right? We don't get KNBR where I'm at...

I was glancing at the Bird™ and I saw that Doug Christie was trending and thought, "Why the **** is Doug Christie trending?" So then I clicked on the trend, and saw all these reposts from a segment on NBA Countdown where they were discussing the end to the game last night, and whether Sacramento did it on purpose, as well as remarks from people saying that the NBA was investigating the Kings for intentionally fouling Curry to lose the game.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

You remember that I don't live in California, right? We don't get KNBR where I'm at...

Yes, but earlier in this thread it was mentioned that KNBR was talking about it, so I thought you might have taken it from here. (I don't listen to sports talk radio myself, so I only knew there was any buzz at all from this thread.)