A journey of 7,000 miles: Kings visit Golden State Warriors to begin seven-game road trip
A journey of 7,000 miles will begin with a short bus ride to the Bay Area as the Kings set out on their longest road trip of the season.
The Kings will begin a seven-game trip when they visit the Golden State Warriors on Thursday at Chase Center in San Francisco. The 14-day expedition will take the Kings from California to Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio before they return to Sacramento on the morning of Feb. 6.
The Kings will visit the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, Memphis Grizzlies on Monday and Miami Heat on Wednesday. They will then visit the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 2, Chicago Bulls on Feb. 3 and Cleveland Cavaliers on Feb. 5.
The Kings went 2-3 on their recent five-game road trip. They are in the middle of a daunting 37-day stretch in which they will play 15 of 19 games on the road.
“That’s a lot of games, but that’s what everybody lives for,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “Everybody loves the excitement. I like practice — Malik, Malik Monk, I, coach Brown, like practice — but everybody else, starting with Malik, likes games. That’s what your guys live for is to play in front of fans and compete at the highest level and see what happens at the end of the day.
“Everybody goes through it at some point, so it’s no different for us to have to go through it right now, so we’ve got to lock in, try to take it one game at a time, and we as a staff have to make sure we’re doing our part by making sure we don’t overdo it, whether it’s film, practice, shootaround, whatever it is, to find ways to stay sharp, but also give them their rest.”
Veteran players and coaches are well acclimated to the rigors of the road, but living life for weeks at a time in hotels, airplanes and busses can still wear on them.
“It does to a certain degree because you want to be with your family,” Brown said. “Now, I’m not complaining at all because the travel in the NBA is better than first-class travel if you go worldwide, so please don’t misinterpret this, but when you do have to travel, you’re away from your family. You’re in one hotel and then you’re going to the next, and when you get my age, sometimes I’ve got to call my security and I’m like, ‘What room am I in again?’ if I go downstairs or go for a walk or whatever. So, it takes you out of your normal routine and it’s more a hassle than anything else, but you couldn’t ask for a better way to travel than the way we do it.”
The Kings (24-18) are 14-8 at home and 10-10 on the road. They are coming off a 122-107 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at Golden 1 Center. The win ended a season-long four-game losing streak that caused the Kings to fall to seventh in the Western Conference.
The Warriors (18-22) will be on the second night of a back-to-back after playing host to the Hawks on Wednesday. They lost four of five and eight of 11 before their last two games were postponed following the death of assistant coach Dejan Milojevic.
Draymond Green has returned after serving a 12-game suspension, but Chris Paul is out after having surgery to repair a broken left hand. The Kings are 1-2 against the Warriors this season. They suffered a 122-114 loss Oct. 27 in Sacramento and a 102-101 loss Nov. 1 in San Francisco before beating the Warriors 124-123 on Nov. 28 at Golden 1 Center.
This trip won’t be an easy one for the Kings. The Warriors, Grizzlies (16-27) and Bulls (21-24) are under .500, but the Mavericks (24-19), Heat (24-19), Pacers (24-20) and Cavaliers (26-15) are all vying for playoff spots.
Miami made a trade Tuesday to acquire Terry Rozier from the Charlotte Hornets. The Pacers recently made a blockbuster deal of their own to acquire Pascal Siakam from the Toronto Raptors.
The Kings know this is a critical stretch for them.
“The biggest thing for us is getting the road trip started off right and maintaining focus,” Kings forward Harrison Barnes said. “We’ve been on a variety of road trips, but ... I think with where we are in these games, where we are at this point in the season, this is really just about can we feel good about this road trip at the end knowing we gave ourselves a shot at the start.”
