**DALLAS** — The Sacramento Kings suffered a devastating setback to their historic pursuit of an 0–82 season Monday night, accidentally defeating the Dallas Mavericks 115–100 and officially eliminating themselves from winless-season contention.
After opening the year with six consecutive losses, Sacramento entered the game as the NBA's last remaining winless team, carrying the enormous responsibility of preserving a record that had taken six games of consistent underachievement to build.
Unfortunately, rookie Darius Acuff Jr. had other plans.
Acuff scored 25 points, while Malik Monk contributed 24 and Zach LaVine added 23, an unexpected outbreak of competent basketball that Dallas proved unable to contain.
The Kings even outscored the Mavericks in both the third and fourth quarters, apparently forgetting that their usual strategy involved making halftime adjustments exclusively for the opposing team.
By the final buzzer, Sacramento had committed the ultimate betrayal of its early-season identity: winning by 15 points.
Team officials reportedly spent several minutes reviewing the scoreboard before reluctantly accepting that the numbers could not be reversed.
The victory also ended Dallas' three-game winning streak, giving Mavericks fans the deeply uncomfortable experience of becoming the first team to lose to Sacramento this season.
Kings supporters, meanwhile, must now adjust their expectations after discovering the franchise is technically capable of defeating another professional basketball organization.
At 1–6, Sacramento's dream of a perfect losing season is officially over.
The organization now faces the considerably more complicated challenge of winning a second basketball game.
