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Welcome to your morning cup of Kings.

The Sacramento Kings keep winning. It’s too late to win, but they keep doing it nonetheless.

In the grand world of tanking, the Kings aren’t taking the bait. Doug Christie isn’t coaching to the tanking audience. DeMar DeRozan, a 36-year-old future Hall of Famer who posted 41 points in 38 minutes, isn’t cashing it in. And the young Kings love nothing more than marching to the button near the scorers table and lighting the beam.

Maxime Raynaud may have even dropped a giant f-bomb over the PA system at Golden 1 Center before the group of early-20 something players donned shades and sent a purple column into the sky.

On the other end of the court, the Utah Jazz are all in on the tank and probably need another call from the league. They sat young players and veteran players alike, even pulling Isaiah Collier and Brice Sensabaugh, the team’s leading scorers on the night, to the bench for much of the fourth quarter to ensure their 48th loss of the season.

The Kings aren’t exactly pushing all of their chips in on winning, choosing to sit a 37-year-old Russell Westbrook on the second night of a back-to-back due to right foot soreness. Malik Monk missed his third game in a row due to right ankle soreness.

Utah? They started a 6-foot-7 guard named Andersson Garcia…at center. This isn’t a knock on Garcia. He’s on a 10-day contract and playing in his third NBA game. Garcia played 43 minutes, shooting 1-of-7 from the field while a healthy Kevin Love watched from the sidelines in full uniform and a 22-year-old Kyle Filipowski was inactive due to “rest.“

A player named Bez Mbeng played 33 minutes in his second NBA game. He too is on a 10-day contract. Oscar Tshiebwe, Blake Hinson and Elijah Harkless, the team’s three two-way contracts, combined for 79 minutes. When added to Mbeng and Garcia’s minutes, the Jazz used two-way players and 10-day contracts to cover all but 86 of the 240 minutes played.

This is a franchise issue. Jazz head coach Will Hardy has a career record of 105-209 (.334) and after posting a 17-win season last year, he received an extension that keeps him in Utah through the 2030-31 season. He may be an excellent coach, but his record says otherwise.

On the other end of the court, Kings head coach Doug Christie is in his first official season as head coach after coaching the last 51 games of the 2024-25 season as an interim. He has one more guaranteed year on his contract at a reported $2 million and a team option for a third year.

The Jazz as a franchise are completely committed to losing as many games as possible as they build a talent base, while the Kings are dipping a big toe in the water to see if it’s safe. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has a problem on his hands and it isn’t the shade of purple the Kings are wearing.

“Did we get fined?“ Christie asked when the notion of tanking was brought to his attention following the win over the the Jazz? “Exactly,“ Christie answered when the response from a report was “no.“

“Everybody does something different,“ Christie continued. “We’ve had the ‘process‘, we’ve had different things, so it’s not for me to judge someone else’s house. I just know what we do here and it ain’t that. And it ain’t going to be that while I’m sitting here. When we go out there to play, we’re going out there to win.“

Christie went on to reference last season when the Dallas Mavericks, who beat the Kings in the Play-In game, jumped to No. 1 in the lottery where they landed Cooper Flagg. The Mavs can be a prime example for respecting the game, but they could have also been a cautionary tale about a franchise that traded away it’s best player and got flat out lucky in the lottery.

The Kings have a razor thin margin for improvement. They have one of the oldest rosters in the NBA and their salary cap situation is dire. Without an infusion of young talent through the draft, this franchise could suffer for years. Even if they hit a home run in the draft, the road ahead is still long and winding.

There is something admirable about Christie’s stance. For sake of clarity, it is also the stance of general manager Scott Perry, who spoke to the media following the trade deadline and empowered Christie to win as many games as possible and avoid what he called “institutionalizing losing.“

The Jazz have institutionalized losing for the last four years and the results have been a complete roster transformation that on paper might be set to compete for a playoff bid next season despite their current 20-48 record. Whether they can shake the stench of throwing games for four years will be a test for Hardy and the franchise that symbolizes the NBA’s tanking problem.

With their 18th win of the season and their fourth win in the last five games, the Kings have moved from a team with the worst record in the NBA, to the fourth worst record in the span of a week. With 13 games remaining, there is a path for the Kings to move even further down the lottery list, especially with a team like the Jazz just two games ahead in the win column.

Sacramento is praying to the basketball gods to reward them for attempting to respect the game. They aren’t completely clean in this situation, but they also aren’t mocking the league and devaluing the product every time they step on the court.

The Jazz are counting on the math of the lottery to give them one more building block for the future, integrity of the game be damned. What’s worse, they aren’t the only team that is taking this approach.

The NBA has a problem that needs fixing now, not this summer when rewards are already handed out. Fines aren’t enough. Punitive damages need to be handed down like a broadsword cutting through rotten flesh that risks eating away at the soul of the league.

Here is the latest Locked On Kings episode breaking down the win over the Jazz and a further discussion on tanking, which looks a lot uglier when you are sitting in an arena of fans wondering who exactly is playing for the team the Kings are playing.

Just as the Jazz drew it up. In a battle of shorthanded teams looking for an exit ramp, the Kings chose to ride with veteran players to come away with a 116-111 win. Here are six quick thoughts as the Kings climb up the standings at the wrong time and move to 18-51 on the season:

🏀 1. What are you doing here? In a game filled with young players, many of which the majority of the audience had never heard of, DeMar DeRozan did his thing. The 17-year vet scored 41 points on 11-for-21 shooting and added 11 assists in 38 minutes.   

🏀 2. New contract energy. Fresh off a new two-year deal (non-guaranteed for next season), Killian Hayes got the start and went to work. He was confident with his shot and ran the offense well, finishing with 16 points on 4-for-6 from 3 to go with 8 assists and 5 boards.  

🏀 3. Another day at the office. Precious Achiuwa continued to shine, especially against a Jazz team that sat most of its standard roster. He ran the floor and hit the glass for a solid 20-point, 10-rebound double-double.

🏀 4. Needed more looks.When the Kings are depleted, Maxime Raynaud is one of the first to lose shots. It comes down to pick-and-roll opportunities and without Westbrook or Monk, it's tough sledding. Raynaud scored 8 points on 4-for-8 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds.

🏀 5. Solid, but against a team like this? Nique Clifford scored 10 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and dished out 2 assists. He also picked up 5 fouls early and fouled out in 26 minutes. In a game like this, Clifford needs to be aggressive without fouling.   

🏀 6. Getting his legs under him. Dylan Cardwell survived his first game back on Saturday and looked better on the second night of a back-to-back. The rookie big scored a bucket (and celebrated) and hit the glass for 7 rebounds in 16 minutes. 

Unexpected. The Kings led by as many as 20 points against a red hot Clippers team and then held on for dear life down the stretch to pick up win No. 17 on the season. Here are six quick thoughts as Sacramento came away with a 118-109 win at Intuit Dome:

🏀 1. Making money. Precious Achiuwa is showing the league that he is a ball player. He aggressively attacked the Clippers front line, hammering dunks and dropping 3-pointers on his way to 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting to go with 13 rebounds and 4 blocks.  

🏀 2. Roll hard. Maxime Raynaud continued his breakout rookie season by running circles around former All-NBA defender Brook Lopez. He hid in the dunker spot and was lively in the pick-and-roll, finishing the game with 23 points on 11-for-12 shooting to go with 5 rebounds.  

🏀 3. Vintage Russ. Russell Westbrook had a little extra juice for his former Clippers teammates. The 37-year-old stuffed the statsheet with 12 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and 4 steals. He had a few turnovers and his shooting numbers weren't great, but another solid performance. 

🏀 4.Vintage DeMar. Like Westbrook, DeMar DeRozan looked like a player 10 years younger than his birth certificate. He hit one jumper after another on his way to 27 points on 11-of-14 shooting and chipped in 7 assists. 

🏀 5. Keep it simple. Two-way player Daeqwon Plowden's path to long term success at the NBA level is simple. He needs to play defense and hit 3-pointers. That is exactly what he did against the Clipps. Plowden scored 15 points on 3-of-4 from 3 and added 5 rebounds and 2 steals.  

🏀 6. Welcome back. Rookie Dylan Cardwell made his return after missing 11 straight games due to an ankle sprain. He struggled with the speed of the game early and that led to plenty of fouls. Cardwell went scoreless, but grabbed 6 rebounds in 13 minutes.