Wild Stat Shows Just How Disappointing Kings' Preseason Was

Fans were hopeful for a more positive outlook going into the season, but as we saw, that was just not the case. The Kings didn't magically fix everything tonight against the San Antonio Spurs, and it's possible they got even worse in the preseason finale.

It was another blowout loss for the Kings, and the fourth in their five preseason games. It hasn't just been that the Kings have lost, but how they lost. Preseason scores can always get a little wonky as players are in and out of lineups and rotations are all over the place, but the it can't be ignored that the Kings were outscored by a total of 74 points, good for an average of a 14.8 loss across the five contests.

But even that doesn't show the total picture. Most of these games were over by the time they started, and the amount of time in the lead really paints a picture of the Kings' disastrous postseason. Of the Kings 240 minutes of action, they only held the lead for a total of 10:58 across the five games.

Several players were in and out of the rotation. We still haven't seen Malik Monk on the court. Three-point shooting appears to still be a problem. The list goes on and on as to how the Kings got here, and the worst part is there appears to be no end in sight.

It's certainly possible that everything comes together for the Kings, but at this rate, that's not looking very likely. Even if the Kings take 10 games to find their footing and get into a rhythm, they could find themselves 2-8 by then and fall into the same trap they did last season when the year was over before it began.

A Wasted Opportunity

It's hard to look at this preseason as anything other than a wasted opportunity and failure. Even to win 30 games this year, the Kings need everything to go perfectly, and four blowout losses and less than 11 minutes of time in the lead shows just how far they have to go.

Even with players returning from injury compared to last year, Darius Acuff Jr. looking legit, and Ben Simmons in full comeback mode, Sacramento has a very steep mountain to climb. If this were just a five-game preseason trend, I wouldn't be as worried, but this is exactly what we saw from the Kings over and over and over again last season.

The Kings would consistently fall behind early, and in a matter of minutes, games would be over. These five preseason games were a chance to carry some momentum into the regular season from an exciting offseason, but now that momentum is completely gone, just like the Kings' leads in these games.

Follow us on Facebook and X for the latest Sacramento Kings news.