Sacramento Kings showing signs of life after dreadful 0-5 start to the season

The Sacramento Kings are beginning to show signs of life after a dreadful 0-5 start to the season. Even with their rough start, the playoffs still remain a possibility.

The Sacramento Kings didn’t exactly get off to an ideal start this season. After five straight losses and an overall lack of focus, many were already discarding this year as yet another lost season in a seemingly never-ending cycle of hope followed by misery.

And while all concerns haven’t been erased, the Kings are finally beginning to show signs of life.

With two victories in their last two games, the Kings have managed to claw back to 2-5 early in the year. And although there’s still plenty of work to be done and plenty of basketball to be played, they’ve at least managed to remind us a little about why we had hope for this team from the beginning.

Perhaps no player has done more to quiet the criticism than third-year point guard De’Aaron Fox.

After a disappointing rookie season, Fox broke out in his sophomore NBA campaign smashing his career-high numbers and becoming the face of a very young Kings organization.

The hope was that Fox would take another leap this season, perhaps one that would even lead to him being selected to his first All-Star Game. And the Fox that we’ve seen over the last two games is exactly the one we hoped we would see.

The Kentucky product dropped 25 points, five rebounds, and four assists in the Kings victory over the Utah Jazz and followed that up with another 24 points and six assists on Sunday against the New York Knicks.

But what was most impressive was his ability to take over and halt a prospective comeback attempt from the Knicks who trailed by as much as 32 points in the third quarter.

His signature play in that game came midway through the fourth quarter in the midst of an impressive run by New York.

Knicks guard Allonzo Trier drove to the basket to attempt a dunk — something that would surely ignite the home faithful in Madison Square Garden — but he was met and rejected by an awaiting Fox.

The crowd would then erupt, only to a chorus of boos as the Knicks hopes for a comeback had literally and figuratively been blocked. For good measure, Fox would steal a ball from an unsuspecting R.J. Barrett with a little over three minutes to play to seal the deal.

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The Kings closed out yet another game, something they’ve struggled with early on in the season. Sacramento has had a halftime lead in all but one of their games this season but they’ve failed to capitalize more often than not.

But this team seems to have gotten into a groove as of late. Aside from Fox, the addition of Richaun Holmes into the starting lineup has paid dividends for the team’s energy and overall attitude.

Buddy Hield is still Buddy Hield and he’ll have his off days shooting. But against the Knicks, he was on knocking down 5-of-11 from three-point range. Meanwhile, Harrison Barnes continues to be the glue that holds everything together on the wing.

The Kings are a talented team, more talented than they’ve really shown so far this season. Sure, it’s easy to look at their last win as a victory over the lowly Knicks, but their down-to-the-wire victory over the Jazz is a win over a quality team.

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They’ll get another opportunity to prove themselves this Wednesday when they take on the defending champion Toronto Raptors. Yes, there’s no more Kawhi Leonard, but this is still a talented Raptors team that sits at a healthy 4-2.

If Fox and company could continue to play their brand of basketball and further adapt to new head coach Luke Walton‘s system, this could be a playoff team. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but this is a good start.

The season is still young, but Sacramento Kings basketball has given us a reason for optimism again.