By Morris Phillips

SACRAMENTO–Yeah, the Kings are on another losing skid, but they’re not the only one. Losing streaks abound among the NBA’s bottom quarter, with six of the eight clubs on streaks excepting the Brooklyn Nets who beat the Bulls on Monday to snap an eight-game skid.

What gives? Any truth to the rumors that the tightly-bunched bottom dwellers are battling each other for better draft day positioning by tanking? If so, being bad and playing bad don’t make it an obvious conclusion to draw.

For example, take the Kings. Bad performances, poor defense and desultory results at home in the Golden 1 Center have been part of their DNA all season. So what’s different?

Somehow, someway, the Kings just get younger and younger.

In Monday’s 118-100 loss to the visiting Timberwolves, only Kosta Koufos had more than three years of NBA experience among the nine Kings that played. Recent trade acquisition Bruno Caboclo made his NBA debut, Frank Mason played his third game since returning from injury, and veterans Zach Randolph and Vince Carter were healthy scratches while Garrett Temple and Iman Shumpert sat out due to injury.

Not surprisingly, the Kings already-compromised defense had a particularly rough night.

“They got in the paint too much, shrunk up the court, bottled us up and we fouled them too much,” Sacramento coach Dave Joerger said. ”Their physicality was a lot.”

Joerger’s statement regarding the Wolves could have been solely about Karl-Anthony Towns, who led Minnesota with 26 points, 17 rebounds. Frequently matched against college teammate Willie Cauley-Stein, Towns’ production more than masked the absence of the high scoring Jimmy Butler.

For a half, the Kings looked pretty good, much like they did February 6 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, when they shot 47 percent from the floor and placed six guys in double figures in a narrow 111-106 loss to the Wolves. But the Kings again suffered a horrendous quarter competitively–this time the third–allowing Minnesota to extend their 3-point, halftime lead to 20.

Towns had just one basket in the third as the Kings struggled tob stop anyone in a dark blue uniform, allowing 34 points in the quarter. Seven Wolves converted at least one basket in the frame, led by Jeff Teague with eight points and two assists.

“The unselfishness has been there all year. We have to continue to do that,” Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said. ” Defensively, we have got to keep working at it.”

Minnesota shot 52 percent from the floor, and recorded 22 assists on 39 made baskets. They shot 43 percent from three, and generally looked way to comfortable for any group emerging from a visiting NBA locker room.

Tank job for the Kings? Probably not. Unfortunately, they provided the same level of resistance Monday as they have in their first 27 home contests this season. That’s how they got to 8-20, easily the league’s worst home record.