NBA scores 2016: The Kings are ready for a serious playoff push

Sacramento holds a narrow edge for the No. 8 seed in the West and they don’t appear ready to give it up this year without a fight.

by Tim Cato

Jan 22, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

It's the end of January and the Sacramento Kings hold the eighth seed in the Western Conference. With four straight wins and a 19-23 record, the Kings have officially taken a one-game lead on the Utah Jazz, slowly but surely making their march back into the NBA playoff picture.

This has been a long time coming for Sacramento, which hasn't reached the playoffs since Rick Adelman left after a first round dismissal in the 2005-06 season. For a few years, the Kings were one of the strongest powers out West, and that those Kings of the early 2000's failed to win a championship will go down as one of the great disappointments in our league's history. After nine straight losing seasons with only one season that came remotely close to a playoff appearance, the Kings are finally in a position to be relevant.

On Thursday, it was a close win over the Atlanta Hawks, a perennial playoff team in the East. Sacramento won 91-88 thanks to a game-winning Rajon Rondo layup. Rondo also notched his fifth triple-double of the season with a line of 11 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. DeMarcus Cousins was back to his usual tricks, scoring 24 points and bringing down 15 rebounds along with five assists. Even with Rudy Gay out with a minor foot injury, Sacramento held the Hawks under 90 points, showing some versatility amongst a four-game win streak that they've mainly run with strong offense.

It's a great win for Sacramento, who also had impressive wins over the Jazz and the Clippers during these last four victories. Even better, four of the Kings' next six opponents are playing sub-.500 basketball. Besides a road game against the Cavaliers, Sacramento's schedule is in fact very favorable headed into the All-Star break.

The missing piece has been Willie Cauley-Stein, and finally, after dealing with injuries, the Kings' young rookie has played eight games in January. The Kings have won six of those, desperately needing his added size and versatile athleticism that allows him to guard virtually every position on the floor. Rondo's revival, Cousins' dominance and Omri Casspi's brilliant shooting are clearly building the Kings towards something special, but Cauley-Stein is a needed ingredient, taking pressure of Cousins and letting him thrive without worry about matching another team's best offensive player every step of the way.

There’s a long way for the Kings to go and way more games than they’d like to play. They would just snatch the No. 8 seed right now and go hide out with it somewhere until April if they could. The next 40 games will test Sacramento and there’s two teams nipping at their heels, but nevertheless, it feels like things might be ready to change for the better for the Kings. For their sake, you’d at least hope so.

2 more things from Thursday

The All-Star Game starting lineups are set

In the Western Conference, it's Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Kawhi Leonard. In the East, we have LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Paul George, Kyle Lowry and Carmelo Anthony. The closest snub was Pau Gasol, who missed being voted in by just 360 votes. It's unlikely he'll get nominated as a reserve by NBA coaches with such a deep field of candidates.

The surprise of the evening, though, was Zaza Pachulia, who finished 14,000 votes shy of sneaking past Kawhi Leonard and becoming the third starter. Yes, that Zaza Pachulia! Nobody's denying Pachulia has had a fantastic season for the Mavericks, averaging a double-double while starting 42 games, but he's clearly not a top-five player in the West. Here's how he accumulated so many votes.

Losing to the Pelicans doesn't make SVG happy

New Orleans has been a disaster this year, beginning with massive injuries and continuing with ineffective all-around play. So no, Stan Van Gundy didn't take his team's 115-99 blowout loss to the Pelicans well. Not at all.

#Pistons SVG: "You've been playing basketball your whole life; how about every time you step on the floor, you play as hard as you can."
— Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) January 22, 2016

Van Gundy called the effort "deplorable" and Brandon Jennings echoed his comments in the locker room after the game. The Pistons are still 23-20, but the loss drops them into the sixth seed, behind the Indiana Pacers and tied with the Heat only thanks to Miami's awful last couple weeks. How Detroit responds to this will help determine how high they can reach this season.