SACRAMENTO – The Luck of the Irish – or any luck, for that matter – clearly wasn’t on the Kings’ side Tuesday.
Doug Christie and Co. rolled into Golden 1 Center having won four of five, one of their best runs of the 2025-26 NBA season. The good times didn’t continue, however, as the San Antonio Spurs handed out a thorough whipping, 132-104.
This one was bad from the jump.
Sacramento fell behind by double digits in the first quarter, trailed by 38 and spent the entire night trying to play catch-up.
It was San Antonio’s first win Sacramento since March 7, 2024.
Not even another solid game by rookie center Maxime Raynaud was enough to erase the sting from this one. Raynaud had a career-high 32 points and nine rebounds in his tough matchup against San Antonio big man Victor Wembanyana.
Nique Clifford had 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists for the Kings, while Doug McDermott had 12 points with four 3-pointers.
The Kings got off to a slow start, missing eight of their first 10 shots while falling behind 17-6 less than halfway through the first quarter.
That began a troubling trend for Sacramento, which didn’t do much defensively early.
Former Kings player Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson and Stephon Castle teamed for 22 points in the opening 12 minutes and made 9 of 10 shots.
It didn’t get much better for the hometown boys after that, either.
The Spurs led 60-27 midway through the second quarter and led by 31 at the half, finishing the game with a franchise-record 25 made 3-pointers.
Here are the takeaways from Tuesday:
Let the Youngsters Play
The way this season has unwound, the only thing worth keeping an eye on over the final month is the development of the Kings’ younger players, something that should be the team’s entire focus for the final 12 games of the season.
Raynaud has been steady in his development all season and put up another strong game in his showdown against his toughest opponent all season in Wembanyama. Raynaud missed five of his first seven shots before finding a little better rhythm in the second half. He finished shooting 13 of 25.
Clifford had a great all-around game. Dylan Cardwell grabbed eight boards in 18 minutes, while two-way player Daeqwon Plowden scored 14 points.
Russ Movin’ On Up
Russell Westbrook’s name already is etched in the NBA history books, and the nine-time All-Star added another chapter to his story on Tuesday as he moved into fifth place on the NBA’s all-time assists list.
Westbrook reached the milestone in the first half when the game was paused momentarily to acknowledge the achievement, but he kept tacking on more dimes as the night went along.
In doing so, Westbrook moved past Mark Jackson (10,334) and Steve Nash (10,335) on the assists list. Westbrook now has 10,343.
Next up at No. 4 is LeBron James, who had 11,909 assists through Tuesday.
Swipa Returns to His First Foxhole
A familiar face was back in the building doing many of the things that made him popular in Sacramento, where he spent his first seven-plus NBA seasons.
De’Aaron Fox drew mixed reactions from the Golden 1 Center crowd, with a small group of fans booing mixed in with a smattering of cheers.
Sacramento’s first-round pick (No. 5 overall) in the 2017 NBA Draft, Fox had seven points and 14 rebounds.
Another ex-Kings player, Barnes, also did some damage against his former team with 16 points, four rebounds and three assists.