National Basketball Association

Sacramento rallies to keep Kings in season finale

Published Apr. 17, 2013 11:07 p.m. ET

foxsports

Is this the end?

The chatter around Sleep Train Pavilion centered on that question Wednesday night. With NBA owners debating whether to approve the franchise's sale and relocation to Seattle, the ever-faithful fans of the Sacramento Kings pushed the uncertainty aside and did what they have done for parts of four different decades during the regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Clippers.

They rallied.

Maybe for the last time.

Hope rang out in those trademark cowbells. Optimism showed through purple-painted faces and in the jerseys of players past and present worn throughout the expected sellout crowd expected to pack the 17,317-seat arena to capacity.

Most touted the game as the ''regular-season finale'' and not the ''finale'' as Sacramento mounts a bid to try and keep the team in town.