I hope you all enjoyed your break from Kings basketball and your blood pressure is all normalized because we’re now entering the stretch run of a tight playoff race and you just know there’s going to be some Kardiac Kangz moments these next couple months. It all starts tonight as the Kings take on the San Antonio Spurs at home, but they might have to do it without Domantas Sabonis who could miss his first game of the season.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Thursday, February 22nd, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140
Last Time
The Kings have played the Spurs once this season as part of the In-Season Tournament, beating the Spurs 129-120 in San Antonio. The Spurs got out to an early 23-7 lead but the Kings stormed back to make it a two-point game by the end of the first quarter. It was a close game most of the rest of the way but the Kings were able to pull away with the victory in the 4th quarter thanks to some classic De’Aaron Fox clutch moments. Fox scored a game and season-high 43 points to go with 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Zach Collins led the way for the Spurs with 28 points and Victor Wembanyama scored 27 himself.
Three in the Key
Nomantas Sabonis
The news broke yesterday that Domantas Sabonis would be listed as doubtful for tonight’s game because of an illness. If he doesn’t play, it would be the first game this season that Sabonis has missed. Obviously this is not ideal; Sabonis is an integral part of Sacramento’s gameplan on both ends of the floor. On defense, he’s the leading rebounder in the NBA and the reason the Kings have the best defensive rebounding rate in the league and allow the least second chance points. On offense, he’s both the primary initiator and the team’s second leading scorer. Without him, the Kings will likely have to play a completely different style of basketball. Neither JaVale McGee or Alex Len will be able to provide similar styles of play so it will be interesting to see how the Kings adjust and who Coach Brown will go to as the main replacement. In my opinion, I’d go with Alex Len, who is less erratic than McGee.
Ball Movement
The Spurs may have one of the worst records in the league but there are characteristics that all of Gregg Popovich’s teams have: They like to share the ball. The Spurs rank 2nd in the league in assists per game and have six players averaging three or more assists a game. The Kings have definitely seemed to struggle more against teams that share the ball a lot and don’t necessarily have a featured offensive player to focus on, so hopefully they can come out of the break a bit more focused on defense and play on a string to deal with the Spurs passing attack.
Just beat a bad team at home already
The Kings have one of the toughest remaining schedules in the league going forward which isn’t great news for the playoff race. On paper, the Spurs are the easiest team they’ll face for the remainder of the season. The Kings have already lost to the Hornets and Pistons at home, and barely beat the Trail Blazers here. There’s something about bad opponents that brings the worst out of the Kings. This is not a game the Kings can just take for granted (in fact there are no games the Kings can take for granted). With Sabonis or not, this Kings team is better than the Spurs and they need to show it and start this post-break stretch on a good note.
Prediction
De’Aaron Fox comes out rejuvenated after a nice break and ends up breaking the franchise record for points in game by dropping the first 60 bomb in Kings history and announce to the rest of the league that the reigning Clutch Player of the Year is more than ready for the final part of the season.
Kings 134, Spurs 119
Fan Predictions
As promised, the leaderboard has been updated and wouldn’t you know it, three former champions are all in the top three. I guess they’re former champs for a reason.
