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Welcome to your morning cup of Kings.

The Sacramento Kings have won four of their last nine games, much to the chagrin of plenty of Kings fans.

What exactly does this mean for their lottery hopes? It’s complicated, but that question was the focus of the latest Locked On Kings episode from Thursday night/Friday morning.

This will be a focus as soon as we get through the regular season, but for some cursory knowledge, the bottom three teams in the standings each have a 14% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick. The fourth place team has a 12.5% chance of landing the top pick and No. 5 has a 10% chance.

Sacramento currently sits at 16-51 and they are tied for the second fewest wins in the league. If the season was to end today, they would be the No. 2 seed in the draft lottery due to the Washington Wizards having fewer losses at this point.

The Kings had practice early Friday afternoon. Dylan Cardwell was back on the court after missing roughly a month due to an ankle sprain. He joined the media for a conversation after working out and was all smiles.

Malik Monk and Russell Westbrook both returned to practice as well. Westbrook is set to return on Saturday when the Kings play the Clippers in LA. A decision on Monk’s return is still being discussed.

Lastly, Keegan Murray was not on the practice floor. He is at the two week mark for re-evaluation from his left ankle injury that has kept him away from the court for nearly three months, outside of a four game stint in late February. The Kings hope to have an update on his status later on Friday.

In addition to today’s podcast, the Kings played a game on Wednesday night. In case you missed coverage from that game, I’m throwing it in today’s cup of Kings.

When you have 16 wins on the season, 2 in a row is a streak. That streak officially came to an end Wednesday night when the Kings ran out of gas against a talented Charlotte Hornets team, falling by a final of 117-109. Here are six quick thoughts as the Kings drop to 16-51 on the season:

🏀 1. Still got it. DeMar DeRozan has taken a step back as a scorer, but with the Kings missing half their squad, the veteran had unlimited shots. DeRozan responded with a turn back the clock game, finishing with 39 points on 17-of-22 shooting to go with 4 rebounds and 6 assists. 

🏀 2. More Daeqwon. Daeqwon Plowden continues to make a positive impression in games where he plays major minutes. He's solid defensively and he's not afraid of the big shot. The Kings' two-way wing scored 13 points on 5-for-11 from the field and 3-of-7 from three. 

🏀 3. So many minutes. After logging 38 minutes in the win over the Pacers on Tuesday, Nique Clifford played another 41 on the second night of a back-to-back. He's young. This is what happens when you're short handed. Clifford responded with 18 points and 8 assists. 

🏀 4. The clean up man. Precious Achiuwa attacked the offensive glass in this game, coming away with 4 offensive rebounds. He added another 4 defensive boards to finish the night with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Achiuwa continues to put up numbers.  

🏀 5. Came out firing. In his first start with the Kings, Killian Hayes was looking for his shot, scoring the first 7 points for Sacramento. He cooled off as the game went on, but still managed to score 11 points to go with 4 assists and 2 rebounds.  

🏀 6. Off night. With all of the standard point guards sitting out, Maxime Raynaud struggled to get anything going. He finished the game with just 4 points on 1-of-3 shooting and added 5 rebounds. In a new development, the 7-footer blocked 3 shots and now has 8 in the last three games.