After a four-game losing streak that sent the entire city and state of New York into mass hysteria, the Knicks are pacing to set their season back on the right course, winning two of their last three games.

The Knicks’ latest win was particularly encouraging. Playing a cross-country road game against the Portland Trail Blazers, who owned the NBA’s longest active win streak (five games), New York rode the spark of Josh Hart’s return to a rejuvenating 123-114 victory. It marked the Knicks’ first road win of 2026.

Things are trending back up for New York. However, if the championship-hopeful squad wants to keep the momentum going, it needs to take care of business on a routine basis against teams such as the Sacramento Kings, New York’s next opponent in a four-game west-coast road trip.

The Kings are 10-30, placing 14th in the Western Conference. These are the teams that the Knicks must beat at a near-perfect clip if they want to catch the Detroit Pistons for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Sacramento cannot be taken lightly, though. The Kings are on a two-game winning streak heading into Wednesday night’s contest (10 p.m. EST). Both of those wins were by double-digits at home against a playoff team in the West; they took down the Houston Rockets by a score of 111-98 on Sunday, and the following night, they beat the Los Angeles Lakers 124-112.

Here are three keys for the Knicks as they aim to start a winning streak in Sacramento.

Crash the defensive glass

The Kings had an offensive rating of 129.1 across their wins over Houston and Los Angeles. One of the main reasons? They collected 38.8% of their own misses.

Offensive rebounding is not a strength for Sacramento on the season as a whole; they rank 25th in the NBA with a 23.1% offensive rebounding rate. However, in the rare cases when the Kings manage to win or at least keep a game close, it’s often because they dominated the offensive glass, especially at home.

The Kings have had five home games in which they collected at least 14 offensive rebounds. In those games, the Kings went 3-2 with an average point differential of +1.2, and two of those wins came against a Rockets team that leads the league in rebounds per game. Sacramento also stayed within single-digits of the Pistons (who rank fourth in rebounds per game) in a loss.

In home games with fewer than 14 offensive rebounds, the Kings are 4-11 with an average point differential of -11.5.

Allowing Sacramento to gain confidence on the offensive glass is one of the only ways to give them a strong chance of winning. For that reason, it’s imperative for the Knicks to prioritize the defensive glass on Wednesday night. As long as they consistently limit the Kings to one shot, New York should be in great shape.

The Knicks rank third in defensive rebounding percentage (75.7%), so this is a matchup they should be expected to take care of.

Look for a big rebounding game from Josh Hart, who is averaging 7.3 defensive rebounds per game as a starter this season. The Kings only have one non-big ranked in the top 180 of offensive rebounds per game, Russell Westbrook, so Hart should be able to fly around and snatch the ball off Sacramento’s misses whenever he pleases.

Attack the floater range

There are plenty of reasons why Sacramento is 10-30. Chief among them is their inability to force misses inside of the arc.

The Kings are allowing opponents to shoot a mind-boggling 59% on two-point attempts, worst in the NBA. Their roster is overflowing with score-first players who aren’t known for their defense, and it shows in the numbers.

Sacramento is at their worst in the 3-to-10-foot range. The Kings are allowing 56.6% shooting in that area, which ranks last in the NBA and is more than 10% worse than the league average (46.1%). Opponents are easily exploiting the weakness, too; a whopping 28.2% of all field goal attempts against the Kings have come in this area, the highest rate in the NBA (league average: 21.1%).

The Knicks shoot in this range less frequently than any NBA team (16.4% of attempts). However, they have three players who are very efficient in that area: Mikal Bridges (57.4% shooting percentage), Jordan Clarkson (56.1%), and Josh Hart (52.6%).

Look for the Knicks to break from their tendencies and make it a point to scheme these players open in this part of the court. The Kings are actually decent at defending the three, ranking 10th-best with a 35.2% conversion rate allowed, so it would be smart for Knicks head coach Mike Brown to build his offensive game plan around quality two-point shots.

Jalen Brunson has not shot his best in the 3-to-10-foot range this year, hitting 47.4% of his attempts, below his career average of 49.6% (the 2025-26 league average is 46.1%). Nonetheless, Brunson ranks second in the league behind only Nikola Jokic with 3.2 made field goals per game in the non-restricted area part of the paint, so Brunson will also look to exploit the Kings’ weakness in that area.

Let Karl-Anthony Towns cook around the basket

Sacramento can also be exploited at the basket. The Kings are allowing a league-worst conversion rate of 75.4% within three feet.

This presents a unique opportunity for Karl-Anthony Towns to build some much-needed confidence as a finisher. Under Mike Brown, Towns is taking more shots near the rim than ever before, but he is struggling to finish those looks.

Towns has taken 39.1% of his field goal attempts within three feet of the basket, which is up from 35.3% last year and is on pace to beat his career-high (37.8% in his second NBA season). However, he has made just 60.8% of those shots, on track to be a career low by a wide margin. His career average is 70%.

To compete for an NBA championship, the Knicks need Towns to be at the apex of his offensive efficiency. That won’t happen if he is only making three out of every five shots at the rim.

The good news for New York is that Towns is putting together the best shot profile of his career in Brown’s system. He’s taking almost 40% of his shots from within three feet and 33% of them from deep, while he owns a career-best free-throw attempt rate of .467, way up from his .337 last season.

Towns’ shot profile is so strong that he still has an excellent true shooting percentage of 60.7% despite shooting a career-low 52.9% from two-point range and 35.5% from deep, the second-worst mark of his career. It speaks to the efficiency of the looks that Brown has generated for Towns in his offense.

The Knicks just need Towns to start converting shots at his career-average rates. Once he does that, his efficiency will skyrocket to career-best levels. His ceiling in this offense is terrifying for the rest of the Eastern Conference.

A date with the Kings’ atrocious interior defense could be precisely what Towns needs to get his confidence back up as a rim finisher.