SACRAMENTO -- Sometimes a loss is just a loss. And sometimes a loss means so much more.
The Kings were manhandled on their home floor by the Utah Jazz Sunday night, falling by a final of 133-112. It was an ugly game for Sacramento, but one that you could see coming after Saturday's close, last-second defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.
"When you lose a game like that...," Kings' shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic said of the team's 117-116 loss in Oakland. "If we won, especially in the last second against a championship team, it would be way easier to recover. That comes from that loss last night and that's why sometimes you look really, really bad like we did tonight."
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There is such a thing as a "schedule" loss in the NBA. Those tough back-to-backs against quality rested opponents. Sometimes it includes odd travel. Sometimes it's a tough team in the last game of a long road trip.
If you glanced at the Kings' schedule before the season, this was one of those sets that you would circle. The Warriors and the Jazz were both playoff teams a season ago. Golden State picked up their second consecutive ring, and Utah was a 48-win team on the rise.
In a normal season, you pencil in both losses for the Kings and you move on. But this isn't a normal season for the Kings. They came into the stretch at 10-8 and they have new, raised expectations.
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Sacramento had the Warriors on the ropes. They had multiple opportunities to win a huge game in the final seconds against the champs and they came up just short in an almost comical way. Who loses a chance at a buzzer-beater with a wedged ball between the backboard and rim?
It's a young team. Hiding the disappointment isn't as easy as it sounds. Moving onto the next game doesn't happen with the snap of the fingers.
"Last night was one that we dropped that we felt like we should have got," Kings' guard De'Aaron Fox said. "Today, we just didn't have it. We didn't have the energy and they came out and played well. It feels like we should have gotten the win last night."
It all comes back to the Warriors game. It didn't help that the Jazz had an off day leading into Sunday or that the Kings handed them a loss earlier in the week at the Vivint Smart Home Arena.
"We've got to come out every game ready to play, no matter what the circumstance is or what the schedule says, we've just got to be ready to play," Kings' rookie Marvin Bagley said. "I think tonight, we were kind of sluggish a little bit and it showed out there. They were here, ready to go."
The Kings have a three-day break before jumping back into the fray Thursday against the Los Angeles Clippers. They have plenty of time to clear their heads and move past what has gone from a tough loss in the final seconds of a game, to a two-game losing streak.
Every day is an opportunity for a new learning experience when you’re a young team trying to find your way.