The Sports Informant

Home is where the heart is, and for the Sacramento Kings, the only place the heart is, apparently, is home. While the team is making major strides in a rebuilding year, it has yet to find warmth while away from the comfort of ARCO Arena, a place the hometown fans have made cozy again.

The Kings are both surging and struggling this season, a tale of two teams in one clubhouse. Off to an 11-13 overall start, the Kings are an impressive 10-3 at home and a dismal 1-10 on the road.

The Sacramento Kings have found success at home. They must find it on the road for the season to be a success. (Photo courtesy Greg Ashman)

Some attribute the lack of success on the road to youth. The young Kings are consistently looking to rookies or second and third-year players to step up and pave the way to victory during game time, but an NBA season can be grueling for players not used to the stop and go of it all, and the wear and tear a road trip can provide may be too much early on. 

It’s a legitimate excuse, but not a good one. The Kings have shown they are capable of doing great things this year. While they’re nowhere near the tier necessary to knock off the upper echelon of Western Conference foes, they are far better than those dwelling in the NBA’s gutter this year. It’s evident nearly every time they meet. NBA squads find ways to beat teams, not jet lag, and when the Kings face teams they expect to beat, they should beat them.

It sounds simple enough, but obviously there’s a complexity involved with road games. A hostile home crowd for the other team proves a great advantage for any team, as is evident with Sacramento’s success in ARCO. The Kings must find ways to harness their energy solely with the unit on the floor, as the sixth man in the crowd can’t always bring his cowbell to work.

With the way the Kings are finding victories, watching different scorers and defenders step up each night to prove their worth to the organization, Sacramento has the tools it needs to win anywhere, whether in Sacramento or New York. The Kings just need to carry momentum into their hotel stays, and that should finally happen this weekend.

The Kings leave the warmth of home this weekend for a three-game road trip that includes meetings with Minnesota, Milwaukee and Chicago, respectively, in four days. If there was ever a time to turn things around on the road, this weekend is it, as the Kings play three winnable games against teams with losing records.

The hapless Timberwolves are 4-22 overall and 2-11 at home. While it’s too early in the season to call games “must-win,” the Kings need to start the road trip positively, and a loss to one of the worst teams in the NBA tonight could have a devastating effect to the entire trip. Milwaukee (11-12 overall, 9-4 at home) and Chicago (9-15 overall, 7-5 at home) are more respectable opponents, but both are beatable.

All three opponents have only won three of their last 10 games. Perhaps next week the buzz will be how the Kings have won three in a row again.

Kings vs. Wizards, Dec. 16, ARCO Arena (Slideshow courtesy Greg Ashman Photography)