Kings eliminated from NBA Cup after frustrating loss to Blazers

Kings eliminated from NBA Cup after frustrating loss to Blazers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Kings’ pursuit of an NBA Cup title must be put on hold until next season.

Sacramento is officially eliminated from NBA season tournament after losing 115-106 to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night at the Moda Center.

The Kings’ loss to Blazers leaving Sacramento as the only winless team in Western Conference Group A, currently 0-3 in the tournament’s group stage. Sacramento has a minus-25 point differential in group play.

Malik Monk led the way for the Kings p with 29 points and Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox chipped in 43 combined, but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome the lack of scoring elsewhere as Sacramento trailed by double digits for most of the second half on Friday.

The Kings’ showing in the second annual edition of the league’s postseason tournament is on par with the rocky start Sacramento has stumbled through to begin The 2024-25 NBA seasonsits at 9-11 after entering the season with expectations of making a deep playoff run.

Instead, through a quarter of the season, the Kings sit at No. 12th in the Western Conference playoff picture, with a steep hill to climb in a conference where even the bottom feeders present a difficult challenge on any given night.

Six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan continues to deal with an ailing back, and missed his fifth game of the season on Friday. The Kings are 2-3 without DeRozan, whose absence is evident as Sacramento struggled to generate consistent offense against Portland.

So far, things have not gone according to plan. Coach Mike Brown digs deep into the bag in search of a spark for his team – including one eye-opening exchange with a judge who got a hefty fine.

Fortunately, there is still plenty of time to right the ship, and the Kings certainly have the pieces to put together a run.

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