Takeaways From Kings Rout of Knicks in Mike Brown’s Return

The Sacramento Kings take down the New York Knicks 112-101 for their third straight win

Jan 14, 2026; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings center Dylan Cardwell (32) cheers up the crowd after a play during the second quarter against the New York Knicks at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

Former Kings coach Mike Brown received a warm welcome back to Sacramento by fans and ownership alike. 

Nice ovation for Mike Brown when he was announced as the head coach of the New York Knicks. pic.twitter.com/f32K56E4SV

— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) January 15, 2026

However, his former team made sure that warm welcome did not end with a win. The Sacramento Kings trounced the New York Knicks. This marks Sacramento’s first three-game winning streak of the season, moving to 11-30 on the season. Brown and the Knicks fall to 25-15, remaining in the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference.

Wire to Wire

It is not exactly news to say that wins have been hard to come by this season. Sacramento has spend much of the season trailing - usually by double digits. One can probably surmise that the Kings have not enjoyed many wins where they were up double digits all game. 

Sacramento finally had one of those nights. They got off to a great start, jumping out to a 32-17 lead after one quarter, fueled by 10 early points from Precious Achiuwa. Those 17 points is the lowest total for the Knicks, who entered with the third-highest offensive rating this season. 

Sacramento extended the lead to 20 in the second, with the Westbrook/Monk/Ellis/DeRozan/Raynaud lineup looking very comfortable together. Sacramento ended the first half up 56-42 with 42 once again being a season low for the Knicks. 

Some of New York’s offensive struggles can be attributed to missing All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson. Brunson left early in the first quarter and did not return. The second half saw Sacramento keep their foot mostly on the gas, maintaining a double-digit lead until Brown emptied the bench with a couple minutes left. 

Unexpected Revenge Game

Precious Achiuwa clearly wanted to get some revenge on his former team tonight. Achiuwa was everywhere tonight, scoring a season high 20 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. This was by far his best game of the season. 

precious 🤌 pic.twitter.com/sRclvFZcnH

— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) January 15, 2026

Achiuwa has really found his way in Sacramento, carving out a role at the 4 while Keegan Murray is sidelined, and able to moonlight as a small-ball 5 as needed. Since Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell have filled the 5 admirably in Domantas Sabonis’s absence, Achiuwa has been logging more minutes at the 4 lately. 

Importantly, Achiuwa made 2 of his 4 threes tonight, bringing him to 36% from beyond the arc this month. That is on low volume (1.6 3PA/G), but is massive for his long-term prospects. 

Timely Hot Streak 

Jan 14, 2026; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine (8) drives to the basket against New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson (23) during the third quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

On top of tonight being Mike Brown’s return to Sacramento, it also marked exactly three weeks until the February 5 trade deadline. As Kings fans have inevitably heard by now, Scott Perry and the front office are open to trading anyone other than Keegan Murray, Nique Clifford and Maxime Raynaud. 

This makes sense. Perry extended Murray and drafted both Clifford and Raynaud. Those are young players he himself invested in this summer. On a team at the bottom of the standings, it makes sense to value those young players over the veterans who will not be on the team when Sacramento is good again.

While Sacramento has an interesting variety of veteran talent, this season has been such a disaster that nearly all of the individual talent has either suffered because of down seasons or has been lost in the coaching staff’s ..curious rotations. 

If a player’s trade value has not suffered due to the team’s on-court performance, their contract situation limits their value. In a vacuum, Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and others could help many teams. However, their contracts are largely viewed as negative values for which Sacramento would not get a fair return. Perry has repeatedly said he will not make moves out of desperation or from compromised positions, which feels like exactly what he is in right now. This includes attaching draft picks to dump negative contracts. 

Hopefully, these last couple of games where the veterans have popped a bit have helped grease the groove as it relates to interest on the market, so Perry can start retooling this roster to more closely fit his vision. 

Sacramento looks to make it four in a row on Friday, when they host the Washington Wizards.