“We have to stay focused and stay in the mix until we get healthy,” Kings coach Reggie Theus said. “This is basically just surviving for the next couple, two, three weeks for us.”

The Knicks got leading scorer Jamal Crawford back after he missed a game with a bruised right hand, but he had only nine points. Nate Robinson finished with 19 for New York.

Curry and Randolph also were back in the starting lineup, after one had come off the bench in each of the last two games. The two haven’t meshed the way Thomas hoped when he acquired Randolph from Portland on draft night.

Then again, few of Thomas’ players have lived up to expectations, but he still believes he has the core of a team that can win a title.

“I believe that one day we will win a championship here,” Thomas said before the game. “And I believe a couple of these guys will be a part of that. And I believe I’ll be a part of that.”

Curry got off to a strong start, scoring 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the first quarter. But the rest of the Knicks were only 3-of-12, missing all six 3-point attempts while allowing the Kings to open a 28-23 lead.

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The Kings blew it open late in the second quarter, with Salmons making consecutive fast-break layups to give Sacramento a 54-36 lead with 1:12 remaining. The Kings were up 54-40 at the break, with Curry the only New York starter to make a field goal in the first 24 minutes.

Notes: Sacramento concludes its three-game Eastern Conference trip with games at Cleveland and Chicago on Friday and Saturday. ... More from Thomas, whose team hasn’t won a playoff game since he became team president four years ago: “I don’t necessarily just want to win a championship. I want to leave something that’s going to stand for a long time. I want to leave a legacy, I want to leave tradition. I want to leave an imprint, a blueprint in terms of how people play, and how they coach and how they respond when they put on the Knick uniform. And I want to leave what I left in Detroit. Every person that walks through that door as a Piston, when they put on that uniform, there’s a certain pride that they carry. And I want to put that here and I want to leave that here in New York. I want to leave a championship legacy.”

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