The Sacramento Kings went into Sunday’s season finale against the Portland Trail Blazers with a 22-59 record and one last chance to avoid reaching 60 losses. The Blazers were desperate for a win, and Sacramento’s injury list had already stripped the game down to survival for both teams.
DeMar DeRozan was set to miss each of the Kings’ final three games after playing in 77 of their first 79, another sign of how battered the roster had become. Malik Monk was also among the absences, leaving Sacramento without 10 players for a game that carried far more weight than a season finale usually should.
That weight comes from the standings as much as the schedule. The Kings’ 2025-26 season had already settled into one of the worst in recent franchise history, and they had reached 60 losses only once before, when they went 17-65 in 2008-09. A loss to Portland would likely drop Sacramento to fifth place in the lottery standings, making Sunday less about finishing the season and more about trying to limit the damage from it.
That is where the tension sits. The Kings were playing to avoid a number that has only touched their record books once in decades, while the Trail Blazers, with Matisse Thybulle on the floor, were pushing for a result that could shift their own place in the picture. Sacramento’s final game was not just the end of a long year. It was a test of how much a depleted team could still control the last line of its season.
