Precious Achiuwa #9 of the Sacramento Kings is guarded by Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the New York Knicks in the fourth quarter at Golden 1 Center on January 14, 2026 in Sacramento, California. (Mandatory Photo Credit: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)

By Jeremiah Salmonson

DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Kings are experiencing their first upswing of the season.

The Kings have now won three straight games as they defeated the New York Knicks on Wednesday night as Mike Brown made his return to Sacramento.

With Wednesday’s win over the Knicks, the Kings improved to 11-30 and have their first three-game win streak of the season.

I asked Doug Christie after the game if this is the type of streak you can build on as a team.

“I mean, our league is funny that way,” Doug said after the game. “We lost a game in Portland and I look at that one as the start of all of this because I thought that our standard began to be met. Then we dropped two in Los Angeles and that wasn’t it, obviously. But from that point, listen, we’ll win some and we’ll lose some. The key is, as we define ourselves, is that we play to a standard.”

Doug has been clear the Kings need to play to the “standard” to build their identity. Precious Achiuwa agreed that playing the right way is something they hope to build off of.

“Momentum in this league is very important and you can capitalize on that,” Precious Achiuwa said after the game to me in the press conference room. “I think right now we have a good flow of things. We’re going to try to continue to build on that. There’s no guarantees in this league… playing the right way, playing hard, and doing the right things.”

As for the game itself, the Kings took care of the Knicks with relative ease on Wednesday.

In the first quarter, the Kings jumped all over the Knicks to start the game. Sacramento, led by an early trio of double-digit scoring performances in the first quarter from DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Precious Achiuwa, outscored the Knicks 32-17 in the first frame. The aforementioned trio had 10 points each in the quarter to propel the Kings. On the other hand, the Knicks were shooting an abysmal 5% from deep on 20 attempts in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Kings didn’t extend their lead but they managed to keep the Knicks at bay without allowing them to meaningfully get back into the game. The Knicks outscored the Kings by a point, 25-24, in the second quarter as the Kings maintained the lead going into halftime. DeMar DeRozan led the Kings with 15 first-half points as the Kings led 56-42 going into the break.

In the third quarter, the Kings turned back up the intensity on the Knicks. The Kings outscored the Knicks 40-34 to take a 96-76 lead going into the fourth quarter of action. Precious Achiuwa was the Kings’ leading scorer in the third as he added another 10 points to bring his game total to 20 points in the first three quarters of action.

In the fourth quarter, the Knicks made a couple of runs to attempt to get the game back to within reach, but they all came up short as the Kings defeated the Knicks 112-101. The Knicks were able to outscore the Kings 25-16 in the final quarter, but it was much too little, too late for New York as they never really got back to within a realistic striking distance.

The Kings were led in scoring by DeMar DeRozan, who had 27 points in the game. Precious Achiuwa finished the night with 20 points and 14 rebounds, as Russell Westbrook led the Kings in assists with 11 in the game.

Up Next: The Kings will stay home to take on the Washington Wizards on Friday at 7 p.m. PST at Golden 1 Center.