The Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard center drives past the Sacramento Kings defense at TD Garden in Boston on Fri Jan 30, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The Sacramento Kings (12-38) have struggled all season trying to handle an extremely difficult game schedule, constant injury and this recent road trip was more of the same. Games against some of the best teams in the NBA, and Friday night’s matchup with the Boston Celtics (30-18) was no different.

Boston built an instant 15-point lead in the opening quarter and by the third quarter had close to a thirty point lead. The final was 112-93. The Kings did cut the 31 point lead to 19 points when all was said and done but the Celtics prevailed all evening. The high for the Kings was Zach LaVine who scored 17 points and Maxime Raynaud had a double double, 14 points and 14 rebounds. Raynaud had a terrific effort.

After getting edged Thursday night by the Philadelphia Sixers 113-111 the Kings traveled to Boston for a matchup with the Celtics Friday night. The Celtics remain in a second place tie with the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference.

Friday night Zach LaVine started and Malik Monk was back on the floor as Keegan Murray remains out with an ankle injury. Domantas Sabonis will be out and Russell Westbrook remains out with a foot injury.

The Celtics were short-handed due to an injury to two of their outstanding starters. Jalen Brown is out until February 1st with a hamstring injury and Jayson Tatum has a serious achilles injury keeping him sidelined until April.

Despite these losses the Celtics remain a huge threat and the struggling Kings couldn’t get the maximum effort from the starters to the bench to avoid their eighth loss in a row.

Sacramento got off to an awful start in this game. As the first quarter came to an end the Celtics had a 40-25 lead. The King had dug themselves into a deep hole that just got deeper as the second quarter concluded.

Boston had outscored the Kings 32-21 in the quarter and led at the half 72-46. Despite being without Jayson Tatum the entire season and Jalen Brown missing their last game Boston had built a huge lead in the first two quarters of the game.

Where were the starters in the first half of this game for Sacramento. LaVine finished the half with 13 points while the rest of the starters collectively scored ten points. The bench was slow to get started with Monk the high with eight points.

The Kings had a whole lot of work to do in the second half. The Celtics Payton Pritchard had it all going on with some great support from Baylor Scheierman and Neemias Queta. Boston had simply outplayed the Kings at every turn in the first half.

It was more of the same for the Kings in the third quarter as the Celtics continued to build on their lead with Boston closing in on a 30 point lead. The offensive effort from Sacramento remained stagnant as the quarter wore on. They never really got started and never recovered. The Kings outscored the Celtics in the third 20-17 but those three points made little difference in the 89-66 Boston lead.

The Kings cut the Celtics lead by a bit in the fourth quarter. The highest Boston lead in the game had been 31 points but Sacramento had cut it to 21 points.with 8:29 left in the game. That was about as much headway as the Kings were able to make. With under three minutes left on the clock and a 21-point lead this game was all but done. Sacramento had lost their eighth game in a row.

LaVine had the high for Sacramento with 17 points and off the bench Nique Clifford finished with 15 points. Raynaud had a double double with 14 points and 14 rebounds. The Kings did outscore the Celtics in the fourth quarter 27-23.

Sunday afternoon the Kings take on the Washington Wizards another struggling team. Both teams have similar records with Sacramento looking to put an end to an eight game losing streak. Tipoff for this game is scheduled for 3:00 PM.