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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
Claire de Lune

Light the Beam: how the Kings ended US sports’ longest playoff drought

De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis have been outstanding for the Kings this season
De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis have been outstanding for the Kings this season. Photograph: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

There are the underdogs, and then there are the seemingly cursed. Those franchises who lead a sisyphean existence, one in which they are always the butt of the joke. Until this season, the Sacramento Kings could be described as the latter. Several teams that were founded more recently have a worse win percentage, but the Kings have the most losses in NBA history, with just north of 3,200. While pundits generally approved of their off-season moves this past summer, few would have predicted Sacramento would be third in the Western Conference at the end of March, breaking the longest playoff drought in the the four major US sports leagues. These are not your mom’s Sacramento Kings. So how did they turn it around?

A big swing

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