How Kings reacted to being eliminated from NBA playoff contention

Share

HOUSTON -- The visiting locker room was somber Saturday night at Toyota Center. There were no tears and certainly no holes punched through the walls, but the frustration and disappointment of what might have been hung in the air.

The Sacramento Kings’ season isn’t over, but their hopes and dreams of ending the franchise’s 12-year playoff drought are. The upstart Kings officially have been eliminated from NBA postseason contention.

While the locker room was doom and gloom, that is to be expected from a group of young players with much larger aspirations. Watching from the sidelines, management had a slightly different perspective on the team’s elimination.

“I’m very proud,” general manager Vlade Divac told NBC Sports California following the Kings’ 119-108 loss to the Rockets. “I think it’s a great step forward. I like the way they’re still competing because that’s good for next year. I’m very proud of them.”

Shooting guard Buddy Hield isn’t good at hiding his emotions. He’s an emotional player who wears his heart on his sleeve.

“You go through things like this in life,” Hield said. “You never going to get it how you want it. You have to go through ups and downs. Right now, this is downs.

“But I think this team wants to get better. Everybody is pissed off because we’re not finishing games. If we finished games, we’d be talking about something different.”

For center Willie Cauley-Stein, the longest-tenured player on the Kings’ roster, this season was different than the previous three. While he can be a lightning rod for controversy at times, Cauley-Stein has lived through some very tough times while wearing a Kings uniform.

“We have a good group of guys that just came to work and made each day fun, made each day like, you want to get better, you want to get better for the self, for the city, for team,” Cauley-Stein told NBC Sports California. “You wanted to prove that we were different this year, that we’re moving in the right direction.”

While the team has fallen short of its ultimate goal, that doesn’t mean the Kings should hang their heads. The NBA has standard benchmarks for improvement, and the Kings jumped one or two steps in the customary team arc this season.

“It was a good season for us,” Bogdan Bogdanovic said. “I think no one expected this kind of season, but there is a lot of good things, a lot of positivity. We just have to figure it out this summer to step up next (season) even more.”

How often has a Kings team had a true path to success? Not often. A perpetual rebuild for over a decade, Divac and his group have built a strong foundation of talent in Sacramento.

They aren’t done improving. There is no long-term ceiling on this club. They need to add a few pieces, but the nucleus of a longtime playoff contender is in place.

“We’ve got to just keep growing, man, look forward to next year and finish the season strong,” Hield said. “We’ve still got to grow.”

With another game coming Sunday against the San Antonio Spurs, there is no time for the Kings to ponder what could have been. They’ll have less than 24 hours to prepare for a team that is now guaranteed a postseason berth for the 22nd consecutive season under coach Gregg Popovich.

[RELATED: What we learned from Kings' loss to Rockets]

The Kings still have hopes of finishing out the season strong. They have an opportunity to reach the .500 mark, but that would require a 4-2 finish to the year. If they want a legitimate shot to make it to 41 wins, taking care of business in San Antonio is a must.

Contact Us