It's no small secret that the Sacramento Kings are in a volatile period right now. As current owners Joe and Gavin Maloof wait for approval on their sale to a wealthy Seattle-based group and Sacto mayor Kevin Johnson spearheads an attempt to keep the franchise, there are copious questions regarding the future. The team, meanwhile, still has games to play and can't exercise much control over the interplay of politics and commerce.
Not surprisingly, the not-very-good-to-begin-with Kings have suffered on the court, having lost four games in a row heading into Monday night's game against the Wizards in Washington, D.C. The Kings played well against a much-improved Wizards squad, though, and they found themselves with the ball with only seven seconds left and the score tied 94-94. That's when point guard Isaiah Thomas used a screen on the right wing to beat Garrett Temple (subbed into the game for the first time at the previous timeout) and get into the lane for a runner. The shot went in, the Wizards threw the ball away on the inbounds pass without no timeouts, and the Kings won 96-94.
In the grand scheme of things, this victory means virtually nothing to the future of the Kings. The franchise has much bigger issues to consider, and it's difficult for fans to get too excited about a last-minute win when they could officially lose the team within a few weeks.
However, this win does help display exactly what those fans stand to lose. The Kings are bad, and a mess, and facing a long road back to respectability no matter where they play. Even so, they're still capable of pulling out a pretty terrific last-second road against an opponent that had won seven of its last 10 contests. Here's hoping Kings fans don't have to say goodbye to that sort of fun.
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