The Kings remain prone to long stretches of absolute madness, but under the team has taken a step forward in this young season: it's finally winning at home. This is what separates the truly awful from the bad: the ability to hold serve at home, no matter how ugly things look on the road.
After the win over the Blazers, the Kings are 5-4 in Sacramento this season and 2-11 on the road. This is new. Last year, the Kings finished with equally poor records at home and away: 11-30 in Sacramento, 13-28 on the road. The Kings are, to date, worse on the road this season, but much, much better at home.
That's something to build upon, to begin to expect as players and coaches. To count on wins. Unfortunately, there's not much left at home in February: Saturday's game against the Warriors, a pair next week against the Thunder (TNT Night) and Suns, then nothing until the Jazz aftr the All-Star break. The Kings will go 16 days without a home game, which makes the next three oh so important to continue to build confidence for the team.
The good news is that many of these road games are winnable. The first two games of next week are against the Hornets and Wolves (both potential wins). The six-game road trip that follows the Phoenix game features stops in Detroit and Washington (should be wins) as well as Cleveland and New York (potential wins). There's a chance for the Kings to eek out a couple more home wins and road wins this month, and build on a good start to the season in Sacramento.
Of course, the Kings exist in that dead zone between the very worst teams and true playoff contenders; Sacramento simply isn't getting into the playoffs this season, so the utility of these extra wins remains a legit question. But if the team is winning, that likely means some of our young players are doing well. I'll take that over some ping pong balls, especially considering that the ping pong balls have never been particularly kind.