The Sacramento Kings jumped up to the ninth spot in the Western Conference standings after their 3-0 stretch last week, boosted by a season-high from former Hawkeye Keegan Murray.
Third-year forward Murray finished Monday’s 130-88 home win over the Charlotte Hornets with 10 points, five rebounds, and two steals. But he followed it up with a season-high 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting along with six rebounds, two assists, and two blocks in the 118-101 road victory over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
Murray’s 13 points, five rebounds, two assists, and one steal was just enough to propel the Kings to the 113-103 road win over the Houston Rockets — a top-five conference team — on Saturday.
Though Sacramento at 31-28 is currently listed above the Dallas Mavericks at 32-29 in the West, the two teams are both half of a game behind the Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State Warriors, and Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers currently own the sixth seed — the last guaranteed playoff spot, the next four sent to the play-in bracket.
Kris Murray
Despite being five games behind the Kings and Mavericks for a play-in spot, the Portland Trail Blazers have jumped ahead of the San Antonio Spurs for the 12th spot in the Western Conference standings after going 3-1 last week with a season-high in minutes from Keegan’s brother.
Second-year forward Kris Murray recorded just one block in three minutes of action in Monday’s 114-112 win over the Utah Jazz. But played 24 minutes in the 129-121 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday where he logged a solid performance of 12 points, six rebounds, two blocks, and one assist.
His season-high 30 minutes led to 11 points, three steals, two rebounds, and one assist in Friday’s 121-102 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. He followed it up with a 10-minute scoreless performance but recorded three rebounds in the 133-129 overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.
Portland’s 27-34 record has it one game ahead of the Spurs and one game behind the Phoenix Suns, but Murray will need to maximize production to main reliable on a growing Blazers team.
Luka Garza
Despite the Timberwolves’ recent struggles, Minnesota still has a firm chance to secure that last playoff spot down the stretch of the season.
Fourth-year center Luka Garza has consistently seen a small sample size of playing time since the beginning of February, including appearing in all four games last week.
His season-high 18 minutes led to 16 points, two steals, one rebound, and one assist in the 117-116 loss to the Jazz on Friday.
The other three games — Monday’s 131-128 overtime win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Thursday’s 111-102 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, and Sunday’s 116-98 win over the Phoenix Suns — saw Garza log a total of 16 minutes. There, he furnished three points, two steals, two blocks, one rebound, and one assist on 1-of-5 shooting.
With the Houston Rockets sitting five games ahead of the sixth seed in the West, the Timberwolves’ only realistic chance to secure a playoff seed is by beating out the Warriors, Clippers, Kings, and Mavs in a tight race down the next month.
But despite Garza’s dominance around the G League, he has yet to emerge on a deep Timberwolves roster.