Demar Derozan #10 of the Sacramento Kings complains about a call during their game against the Dallas Mavericks at Golden 1 Center on January 06, 2026 in Sacramento, California. (Mandatory Photo Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
By Jeremiah Salmonson
DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Kings were back in action on Tuesday night at the Golden 1 Center to take on the Dallas Mavericks. However, the game itself seemed like the secondary story of the night.
The Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks are two teams with very recent falls from grace. There are a lot of similarities to draw between the two franchises, to go along with some stark differences. In this one the Kings fell from grace on Tuesday night 100-98 in razor close contest.
Both the Kings and Mavericks were playoff teams as recently as 2023 and 2024, respectively. Yet, neither team has any hopes of making the playoffs this season after major roster blowups were enacted by the teams’ front offices.
Last season, the Kings fired the first coach to take them to the playoffs since Rick Adelman in 2006, Mike Brown. Along with the Mike Brown firing came the departure of De’Aaron Fox at the trade deadline, which marked the end of the “beam team” era for the Kings.
On the other side of the court, the Dallas Mavericks — and since-fired GM Nico Harrison — traded their All-Star and young star Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in what was one of the more puzzling moves in NBA history. Harrison has since been fired, and the Mavericks have moved on to a new group to lead the team.
Two teams with unforced errors now find themselves at the bottom of the Western Conference. As of Tuesday, the Kings sit at 14th in the conference with only eight wins on the year. The Mavericks are a 13-win team and sit at 12th in the West. The two franchises share a lot of similarities in their situations near the bottom of the standings. The main difference is that the Mavericks were fortunate enough to land the No. 1 pick in last year’s NBA Draft and selected Cooper Flagg, whom they now look to as their future.
On the other hand, the Kings have no first-round pick as part of their future and have a roster full of misfit veteran players with very little size or defensive ability.
These issues were on full display on Tuesday during the loss to the Mavericks.
The Kings lost to the Dallas Mavericks in fitting fashion, as the game came down to a botched play with less than 30 seconds left that led to isolation basketball for the veteran players on the team. Fittingly, the Kings were unable to convert, falling to the Mavericks 100-98.
The Kings did a good job holding the Mavericks to just 100 points, but the offense, which is ranked near the bottom of the league, failed them in the second half of the game.
Maxime Raynaud, who fouled out, was confident after the game that the Kings’ offense would turn it around given the level of talent on the roster.
“Everything kind of comes up given where we are at right now, but I do believe we have some extremely talented offensive players,” Raynaud said. “I mean, Russ is the highest-scoring point guard of all time. Zach has been a 50-40-90 player all his life. Deebo is probably one of the best closers in the NBA. So in that sense, we probably just have to find more collective solutions and not only rely on them carrying us every single game. We’ve got to give them some help.”
Help may not be what the Kings need. From the viewer’s perspective, the offense simply seems broken and stagnant — a recipe for disaster in the modern NBA.
“Just being more organized, understanding what we could get instead of trying to rely on a one-leg 30-footer to go in,” DeMar DeRozan said of the late offensive woes after the game. “Just got to give ourselves a better chance.”
The Kings have lacked organization and rhythm on the offensive side of the ball all year, and Tuesday was no different. The offensive stagnation has been an issue since the Kings blew up the roster last season before the trade deadline. Unlike the Mavericks, the Kings have no clear path forward to improve the team or their chances at another playoff appearance in the near future.
Up next, the Kings will travel to San Francisco on Friday to take on the Golden State Warriors at 7 p.m. inside Chase Center.
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