Sacramento Kings: What are the most important games on the schedule?

The Sacramento Kings 2019-20 season is set to kick-off in late October. What games should fans be most excited about as the season draws near?

The Sacramento Kings find themselves in a very interesting situation ahead of the 2019-20 season. By pretty much all accounts, they should be a significantly better team this season.

The Kings went out and replaced inconsistent big man Willie Cauley-Stein with the more well-rounded Dewayne Dedmon. Luke Walton had been brought in to coach a new-look Kings team that should offer plenty of offensive firepower.

And players such as De’Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley, and even Harry Giles should benefit from another year of development.

With that in mind, it’s fair to assume that the Kings should be able to win 40+ games this season and compete for a playoff spot. But unfortunately, the fate of their season rests just as much on their opponents’ success as it does their own.

Yes, the Kings got better this offseason. But so did the majority of the Western Conference. And as a result of the revamped conference, the Kings’ road to the postseason will be harder than it really should be.

So much of their success could depend on their schedule. And as is the truth with everything in sports, timing is everything.

While matchups against division opponents are already guaranteed, the dates in which they face-off against each other are not. That timing could come into play when the Kings take on the Golden State Warriors for the first on December 15th.

The Warriors, of course, lost plenty of star power in the offseason including superstar Kevin Durant. On top of that, star shooting guard Klay Thompson suffered a torn ACL in the final game of the season that will keep him out for the majority of the season.

Fortunately for the Kings, that injury should limit the number of times Sacramento has to play him.

In fact, out of the four times that Golden State and Sacramento square-off, the Kings will likely only have to face him on April 15th — the team’s regular-season finale.

That first December 15th meeting will be very interesting as it will be the first time these teams have met since their instant-classic 125-123 loss in Oakland last season. The Kings were swept in the season series last year so they will be looking for retribution.

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Another matchup with a California rival that should prove to be intriguing will be their November 15th meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Not only will the Kings be facing their new-look rivals who added Anthony Davis and former Kings center DeMarcus Cousins in the offseason, but this will mark the first time that new Kings coach Luke Walton coaches against his former team.

The stakes will be high even for an early-season matchup and the Kings will be on the road in the Staples Center making for hostile road environment.

Drifting away from rivalry games, the Kings will also have the chance to see first overall pick Zion Williamson in action come January 4th when Sacramento takes on the New Orleans Pelicans at home.

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Not only will it be interesting to see Williamson taking on the young Kings roster, but this could be a crucial playoff matchup if the Pelicans could show enough improvement to compete for the eighth seed this season.

Subsequent matchups against New Orleans on March 11th and March 22th could have similar postseason implications on the line.

Other late-season games that could have major playoff implications include the March 31st and April 7th home/away split with the San Antonio Spurs. Both teams could be fighting for one of the final playoff spots in the West making this a potentially huge pair of games.

Finally, the game that everyone will be waiting for the most will be when the Kings’ 2019-20 season finally tips off when the team travels to Phoenix to take on the Suns on October 23rd.

Is that a cop-out? Yes, a little bit. But there is no game that Kings fans should be looking forward to more than the first one of the season.

The NBA season can’t get here any sooner.