On January 24th, the Sacramento Kings were 6–10, with three wins in their previous dozen games. FiveThirtyEight gave them a 2% chance to make the playoffs, and any belief in a bounce back toward competitive, non-joke basketball felt unthinkable for a variety of reasons, including every embarrassing step toward futility that the organization made over the past 15 years.
Of course, the Kings then won eight of their next nine games, beating the Knicks, Celtics, Nuggets, Raptors, Pelicans, and Clippers—their only loss was by one point in Miami. Over the past two weeks, Sacramento’s historically pitiful defense has quietly settled in around league average.