The Kings have won three straight and will look to make it four tonight as they take on the Miami Heat. This is the first of seven back to backs the Kings will have in their final 26 games so hopefully the Kings can take advantage of Miami being shorthanded and a little energy boost from the home crowd to keep their winning streak going.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Monday, February 26th, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBA TV, NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140
Last Time
The Kings last faced Miami as the Heat were in the midst of a season-high seven game losing streak. The Heat responded by beating the Kings 115-106 behind 31 points from Jimmy Butler and 24 points from Josh Richardson off the bench. Keegan Murray led the way for the Kings with a game-high 33 points.
Three in the Key
Too Heated
The Heat will be a bit shorthanded tonight and not necessarily just because of injury. Josh Richardson and Terry Rozier are out due to injury, but Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovic and Thomas Bryant will be missing tonight’s game due to a league suspension for a fracas in their last game against the New Orleans Pelicans. You’d think this would be a good thing for the Kings, but as all Kings fans know, a team missing its best player is our Achilles Heel. Hopefully the refocused, post-All-Star break Kings can shake that curse and just take care of business at home. Miami still has plenty of weapons, and Erik Spoelstra-led teams always play hard.
Defensive Intensity
The Kings are coming off one of their best wins of the season last night, and defense played a big part. The Clippers scored just 107 points, shot just 29.6% from distance and turned the ball over 15 times. De’Aaron Fox in particular was playing with phenomenal defensive effort and intensity at the point of attack and set the tone for the team in the final quarter. We’ve seen the Kings have good games on the defensive end here and there but they’ve yet to string it together for long stretches. Hopefully last night wasn’t just a one-off.
Aggressive Fox
It’s been really nice seeing De’Aaron Fox return to form of late. The All-Star break looks to be just what he needed because since coming back (and even a couple games before), he’s looked like the StarFox we all know and love that can take over games by himself. The Kings are hard to beat when Fox has it going and he’s been bringing it on both ends lately. In his last four games he’s been averaging 32.8 points on 51.5% from the field to go with 7 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 2.5 steals. The steals number has been going up all season too, and he’s now 2nd in the league in total steals and steals per game behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, more than earning his “Swipa” nickname.
Prediction
Jamie Jacquez and Tyler Herro do their best, but without Kings killer Josh Richardson to provide a boost, the Kings take care of business on their home floor and keep streaking to gain an inch of separation on the rest of their Western Conference counterparts in the playoff race.
Kings 126, Heat 113
Fan Predictions
Link to Leaderboard (Updated 2/21/24)
