Success-starved Kings close in on long-awaited playoff berth

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Sacramento Kingsmight just be riding the beam all the way to the NBA playoffs.

The resurgent Kings are on the verge of ending the longestpostseason drought in league history, with first-year coach MikeBrown employing a fast-paced offense led by the dynamic duo ofDe’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis to put Sacramento in first placein the Pacific Division.

“It’s a great feeling. It’s great because it’s my first time,”Fox said of being in the playoff hunt. “This is something we wantto make annual. We want to be contending for a title. ... It’sgreat for the city and organization. We still want bigger thingsfor ourselves.”

The Kings (43-29) are in third place in the Western Conferenceand might be able to clinch the franchise’s first playoff berthsince 2006 during the final three games of a four-game homestandthat ends Monday night against Minnesota.

The 16 seasons without a playoff berth are the longest in NBAhistory and the longest active postseason drought among any team inthe NBA, NFL, NHL or Major League Baseball.

“I do feel that that group believes in themselves, not justbecause I’m telling them they’re good, but because they’ve actuallygone out and proven it time after time after time, whether it’sindividually in certain situations or collectively as a team,”Brown said. “When you have a team that believes, they can bedangerous. You’ve got a connected team that believes, they can be avery dangerous team and that’s what our group is right now.”

The Kings are also one of the best feel-good stories of the NBAthis season with an entertaining style of basketball that leads theleague in scoring at 120.9 points per game for the highest mark inthe league since 1983-84.

Each win at home is punctuated with the lighting of the beam — abeam of light from purple lasers atop the Golden 1 Center — andfans have even chanted for the beam at road games around thecountry.

“There’s like a playoff atmosphere every night,” swingman KevinHuerter, one of the key offseason acquisitions, said after a recenthome win. “The only thing that’s missing is handing out theT-shirts and maybe some towels, whatever they’re doing for theplayoffs. But it really is this every night.”

The Kings have been one of the most success-starved franchisessince moving to Sacramento in 1985. They had a losing record ineach of their first 14 seasons in California, winning just oneplayoff game.

That all changed in 1999 when general manager Geoff Petrie andcoach Rick Adelman built a winner around players like Chris Webber,Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic that played an entertaining stylein a grind-it-out era that nearly delivered a championship.

The Kings posted eight straight winning records and playoffberths under Adelman, but lost a heartbreaking seven-game series tothe Los Angeles Lakers in 2002 and then saw their title hopesderailed the following year when Webber went down with a seriousknee injury in the second round of the playoffs.

Adelman kept the team competitive through 2006 but was let gofollowing a second straight first-round playoff exit.

Then the dark era began with 16 straight losing seasons under 11coaches, an ownership change and fears that the city would lose itsonly major pro team to Seattle.

Vivek Ranadive bought the team from the Maloof family in 2013and kept the team in Sacramento by building a downtown arena, butthere was no on-court success until this year.

The Kings traded away star DeMarcus Cousins and botched severalhigh draft picks. But they have been revived following last year’strade with Indiana that sent promising guard Tyrese Haliburton toIndiana for a playmaking big man in Sabonis and the decision tohire Brown as coach.

Sabonis proved to be the perfect piece to team with the speedyFox, giving Sacramento a dynamic duo.

Fox is averaging 25.4 points per game and has been the bestclutch scorer in the league this season, scoring double figures inthe fourth quarter a league-high 25 times.

Sabonis, acquired in a controversial trade from Indiana midwaythrough last season for promising guard Tyrese Haliburton, has beenthe perfect piece to team with Fox with his playmaking ability as abig man. Sabonis is averaging 19 points, 12.5 rebounds and 7.3assists with 12 triple-doubles.

Add in outside shooting from Huerter and rookie Keegan Murray,the veteran presence of Harrison Barnes and scoring off the benchfrom Malik Monk and the Kings have gained the attention of othercontenders.

“Give a lot of credit to Mike Brown,” Celtics star Jayson Tatumsaid. “He has the guys playing a lot better. Fox is playing at anAll-NBA level. Sabonis has been great for them. They play with somuch pace. All those guys have a lot more confidence.

“When you’re playing with confidence, it naturally opens thingsup for the individual and the group.”

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AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney contributed to thisreport