Now comes the interesting part.
In recent weeks, the uncertain status of Kings coach Reggie Theus had been taking a somewhat simple path. More losses, in essence, would inevitably lead to his firing. But after Tuesday's surprising win over the Lakers, the question of most relevance is whether Theus' team can repeat some level of spirit on a routine basis to save his job. The win came nearly three weeks after the Kings' last victory, an upset in New Orleans that was equally shocking at the time. But the weeks that followed were full of blowout losses and late game meltdowns, the Kings falling only by extremes as the onus of the failures increasingly fell on Theus' shoulders.
The schedule is not in his favor. The Kings play at the Lakers on Friday in what now qualifies as a grudge match, then are home against New York on Saturday and Minnesota on Monday. From there, it's a brutal strength of schedule as they play at Portland, New Orleans, Houston and San Antonio.
KINGS 113, LAKERS 101: The Kings jumped ahead 11-2 early and finished equally as strong in upsetting the Lakers on Tuesday night at Arco Arena, holding the juggernaut visitors to 5-of-19 shooting in the fourth quarter. Kobe Bryant was unable to pull off his trademark late game magic as the Lakers guard hit just 9 of 25 shots overall. The Kings were led by Francisco Garcia and John Salmons, who combined for 42 points on 17-of-31 shooting.
