Three Takeaways From Kings' Latest Blowout Loss to Warriors

The Sacramento Kings fell big once again to the Golden State Warriors 137-103.

Jan 9, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) smiles after scoring a three point basket agains tSacramento Kings guard Russell Westbrook (18) during the third quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

This. Team. Stinks.

That's pretty much the three takeaways from the Sacramento Kings' latest blowout loss, this time to the Golden State Warriors 137-103. It was more of the what we've seen from the Kings all season. They were in it, until they weren't.

The game was tied at 84-84 with 3:13 left in the third quarter, and the Warriors would end the game on a 53-19 run. The Kings absolutely collapsed, and there's no way to sugarcoat it. It started with a 13-0 run to end the third quarter and just never let up.

Golden State finished the game with absurd shooting numbers of 54.7% from the field, 42.2% from three, and a perfect 14-of-14 from the free throw line. Sacramento had no answer for Stephen Curry, who finished with 27 points, 10 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal on 6-of-12 from beyond the arc.

The Kings switched on him tonight, and he took full advantage of the mismatches. Whether it was creating space against the bigs with ease of setting up open teammates, he carved up the Kings all night.

But even in the tough loss, let's get into some actual takeaways.

No Fight

This team, as currently constructed, has no fight. That's a hard thing to say for a Doug Christie-led team. It's a key cultural identity that he is trying to build, but this team has repeatedly hit a brick wall in a game and completely collapsed. It could be that everyone is just waiting for the trade deadline to be over, but whatever it is, it's not fun to watch.

That's a tough spot to be in 38 games into the season. We've seen glimpses of the Kings playing with that fight and style that Christie is looking for, but it hasn't been there for the majority of the season, and is unfortunately more prevalent when the young players are getting more minutes.

They struggled all night on defense, but were keeping themselves in the game by moving the ball and getting into the paint.

Kings League Leading Stats To Get Worse

Jan 9, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) smiles as a call is reviewed for a flagrant foul against Sacramento Kings guard Russell Westbrook (18) during the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

The Kings came into the game with a league-worst -11.3 net rating. And after tonight, that's going to drop even further. It's also their league-leading sixth game losing by at least 30 points.

Like I said to start, this team stinks.

Even more so during the last seven-game losing streak, this team is collapsing on a large scale quickly. Just like how we see in games, the Kings' season as a whole has seen them hit a wall hard. It's their second seven-game losing streak of the season, and not the first time that all hope has seemed lost.

They did a good job of pulling out of it with a stretch of close games, but they have their work cut out for them to do so again.

Raynaud's Defense

Maxime Raynaud has had an incredible rookie season so far, showing drastic improvement in multiple facets of the game. But tonight was a reminder that he was a ways to go on defense, especially on the perimeter.

The Warriors hunted him all night as the Kings switched everything, and it forced the Kings to constantly be in rotation.

It's not a bad thing for Raynaud, if anything these are the types of minutes that are going to get him the experience he needs to improve. It just stood out a little, and to be honest, finding a third takeaway from this game was really tough.

The Kings' road back to victory doesn't get any easier as they head back home to face the Houston Rockets on Sunday.