The 2024-25 Sacramento Kings may be the most frustrating Kings squad ever.

The Kings lost 130-129 to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night and fell back under .500 at 13-14. It was Sacramento’s ninth loss this season by five points or fewer. The Kings fought back from a 23-point first-half deficit to take a 10-point lead with 4:10 to play. Denver scored 21 points in those final four minutes, capped by a mid-range jumper from Jamal Murray that gave them the lead with 8.6 seconds left. The Kings had a chance to win the game and made an extremely well thought out play that should have allowed DeMar DeRozan an easy layup or dunk, but DeRozan mishandled Domantas Sabonis’ pass and missed after recovering the ball. the fallaway jumper at the buzzer. The final game was a microcosm of the Kings season so far, with this team coming so close but still managing to find a way to fail.

The first quarter was an absolutely disastrous performance from the Kings, with the Nuggets dominating the paint, the glass and pretty much everything else to take a 41-21 lead. The only player who got going early for the Kings was Domantas Sabonis, who scored 8 points on 4-7 shooting from the field in the first quarter. No other player made more than one field goal in that first quarter, as the Kings shot just 9-25 compared to 16-27 for Denver. The Nuggets also had a ridiculous 19-9 rebound advantage in the quarter, including 7 on offense.

However, Sacramento’s offense rebounded significantly in the second quarter. After shooting just 9:25 and 21 points in the first game, the Kings scored a season-high 47 points on 16:24 from the field in the second game. DeMar DeRozan led the Kings with 11 points in the quarter, and Doug McDermott, who started after Keegan Murray was declared a late loss with an ankle injury, made all three of his three point attempts for 9 points in the quarter. Sacramento’s defense still left a lot to be desired as Denver scored 34 points themselves, but by halftime the Kings had managed to cut the deficit from 23 points to just 7.

Overall, the third quarter was Sacramento’s best. Sacramento came out aggressive on both ends of the court and played with much more physicality after the Nuggets scored a game-high 50 points in the first half. The Kings held the Nuggets to just 21 points in the third, and Malik Monk got rolling, scoring 15 points on 6-7 shooting, including all three of his three-pointers. After starting the quarter down by 7, the Kings actually ended the game up 7 and with all that momentum. After overcoming the deficit, all they had to do was hang on for 12 minutes and finish the game at home, as good teams do.

And they did that for about eight minutes. The Nuggets would make a small run, but the Kings would hold them off. In fact, with 4:10 left, De’Aaron Fox managed to put a floater in the game to put the Kings up 119-109, their largest lead of the game.

At this point the wheels started to come off. Jamal Murray hit a three-pointer to cut the game to 119-114. Domantas Sabonis responded with his own three-pointer, extending the lead to eight with 3:01 left. Murray then got to the line and cut it to 6. Fox missed on the other side, and then Westbrook hit a backcut (one of many such cuts that killed the Kings all night) and cut it to 4. DeMar DeRozan made it off From his place at the side the view was as wide open as one could get, but he missed it. Aaron Gordon, who had not yet shot a three-pointer at that point, came to the ground and hit one from the left wing, leaving the game only one point. After a turnover, Nikola Jokic gave the Nuggets a 123-122 lead with a little floater.

If I wasn’t so annoyed, that last minute would have been really exciting. De’Aaron Fox came down and took the lead right back, followed by Jamal Murray, who let Fox get away with a small goal kick and hit his own jumper from mid-range. Fox came right back to Murray and drilled a three-pointer into his face to give the Kings a two-point lead. Nikola Jokic responded with his first three-pointer of the game to take the lead again. Fox then found DeRozan on the baseline for a drive and dunk to give the Kings the lead with 21 seconds left. After a timeout, Jokic and Murray played their two-man game, and I thought Fox and Sabonis did an admirable job on defense, with Fox fighting through the screen to hold on to Murray, but Murray made it to the elbows to get there and press the midrange jumper to set up the nuggets.

The Kings called a timeout to work out their final play, and I thought it was one of the best designed plays I’ve ever seen from the Kings in this situation. Monk threw the ball to De’Aaron Fox in the backcourt, and after Sabonis got on the screen, Fox passed the ball and Sabonis drove the ball into the air. As the defense collapsed, DeMar DeRozan rushed in from the sideline and Sabonis passed the ball to him for another dunk or layup, but DeRozan didn’t catch the pass cleanly and instead had to fight with the Nuggets to control the ball under the basket. He managed to regain it, but had to settle for a hard turn where he hit the back of the iron and popped out. It was a tough end to an otherwise exciting ending.

In so many other years of Kings basketball, I would praise the fight the team showed after giving up so many points so early. But these aren’t the same Kings teams that can walk away with moral victories and what ifs. This Kings team came into the game with expectations and has so far failed to live up to them. After a season in which they narrowly missed the playoffs, they are once again failing to finish games. It takes a lot to excel in the West, and right now the Kings have only themselves to blame. At the moment, the number 6 seed has 14 wins. If the Kings had won just 3 of the 9 games with 5 or fewer losses this season, they would be 16-10, good for 5th place in the West.

Mike Brown criticized the team for still not bothering to do the little things and it’s hard to argue with him. This team still plays too loosely and inconsistently. Yes, it was nice to come back from a big deficit, but don’t let yourself fall into a hole like that in the first place. Don’t let a Denver team score 76 points from the field on a night where Nikola Jokic scored just 20 points on 8-for-19 from the field. Mike Brown was recently remembered for his “possession after possession” speech, but the Kings need to realize that every possession counts, especially when it comes to all of these close games. You can’t miss 3v1 fastbreak opportunities. You can’t watch the ball and allow your man to slide behind you to make an easy layup or putback. It all adds up.

The Kings are back in action on Thursday to take on the LA Lakers.

Random observations

• The Kings still have some work to do on the court, but there’s also a lot of work to do on the front line to add more depth to this team. Doug McDermott did an admirable job today getting into the starting lineup and scoring 16 points, but the bench itself was once again disappointing. Yes, the Kings were shorthanded without Keegan Murray, Kevin Huerter and Trey Lyles, but it’s hard to see just 14 points off the bench, and almost all of those were Keon Ellis’ 12 points. Colby Jones played almost 19 minutes and didn’t score (although I thought he did a good job defensively). The return of some of our injured players will help, but this team desperately needs reinforcements, especially up front. Domantas Sabonis had to play 42 minutes in a game in which he fell badly and was already dealing with back pain because the Kings simply don’t have anyone reliable enough to sign him for an extended period of time.
• Offensively, the Kings definitely look more like the original 22-23 beam team, and the addition of Malik Monk to the starting lineup is a big part of that in my opinion. Malik pushes the pace better than almost anyone on the team, including Fox, and his playmaking is also top notch (10 assists plus 25 points). The Kings also thrived on the fast break against Denver, scoring 30 fast break points compared to just 16 for the Nuggets
• Even though the Nuggets had so many offensive rebounds, the Kings actually had more second chance points at 12 to 9. Denver went just 4-13 on their second-chance opportunities.
• DeMar had a difficult fourth quarter, going 1-for-6 from the field. He also had good looks that usually fall for him.