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

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

The Kings’ loss to the Blazers left Sacramento the only winless team in Western Conference Group A and is currently 0-3 in the group stage of the tournament. Sacramento has a minus-25 point difference in group play.

Malik Monk led the Kings with 29 points, and Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox combined for 43 points, but that wasn’t nearly enough to make up for the lack of points elsewhere as Sacramento was in double figures for most of the second half remained behind on Friday.

The Kings’ performance in the second annual edition of the league’s regular-season tournament is on par with the rocky start experienced by Sacramento at the start of the 2024-25 NBA season’s deep playoff run.

Instead, the Kings have sat in the 12th seed in the Western Conference playoffs for a quarter of the season and have a steep hill to climb in a conference where even the bottom seed presents a difficult challenge on any given night.

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

So far things haven’t gone according to plan. Coach Mike Brown digs deep to find a spark for his team – including a telling exchange with a referee that resulted in a hefty fine.

Luckily, there’s still plenty of time to right the ship, and the Kings certainly have the pieces they need to put together a run.

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