After an all around team effort led to the Kings kicking down the door of victory against the Golden State Warriors, the Kings now have a follow up act against a Bulls team that just recently stole a victory from the Kings in Chicago. Remember the phantom foul call on Dwayne Wade’s missed dunk, followed by DeMarcus getting his pocket picked to close the game? While it will be near impossible to follow up a game that featured the Kings beating an All Star team, there’s plenty of motivation on Sacramento’s side to provide fireworks Monday night. Let’s talk Kings basketball.

When: Monday, February 6th; 7:30 pm PST

Where: Golden 1 Center, CSN-CA, KHTK Sports 1140 AM

For Your Consideration

I should probably be more of a downer more often. Hype a game up, Kings get blown out. Write a preview based around the Kings focus on the game being solely to not injure themselves and watch how Golden State plays, and we beat the best team in the NBA. It’s maddening to try to figure this team out, and the second they show anything distinguishing a pattern, they buck it for a moment for something entirely different.

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Kings Focus

Tonight’s game is bound to be a bit of a let down energy wise. The Bulls are coming off of three days rest, and while the Kings have a day’s breather themselves, the Kings are still only a few days removed from an eight game road trip that gave a days rest and then a back-to-back in which the games each came down to the wire. Call me Ailene if you’d like, but even the greatest athletes in the world are going to be gassed by a schedule like that. So tonight, the first order of business is for Dave Joerger to open that bench up a bit more and give them some extra time on the floor.

The bench was a standout feature in both the Golden State win, and in the loss to Chicago on the 21st of January, and with Chicago playing the 8th slowest pace in the league, the Kings are going to be able to spring for some minutes from guys like Kosta Koufos and Anthony Tolliver who can still be contributors to a win, but are difficult to play in high paced games like the one on Saturday night. Don’t take this to mean I think the Kings will or should rest the starters tonight in a we’re-definitely-blowing-them-out way, only that the bench has produced well enough to take some of the pressure off of DeMarcus, Darren Collison and whatever other should be, would be bench players are currently starting.

The Kings should also force the Bulls to be the team the stats say they are. The Bulls are the worst three point shooting team in the league in terms of three point shooting percentage, three point attempts per game and three point makes per game; the Kings should be focusing on forcing that issue. In fact, the Bulls are first in the league in two point attempts, but are the second worst in two point percentage. This team can’t shoot. They can’t shoot and the Kings have to defend them as such. They can’t defend DeMarcus Cousins either. In his last game against Chicago, DeMarcus had 42 points and 14 boards and before his game sealing turnover in the waning moments, he’d only had one turnover for the game. The Kings can beat the Bulls, if they just allow the Bulls to be who they tend to be.

Prediction

Dwyane Wade suspends himself for this game as a gentlemanly gesture to make up for the Kings getting jobbed by the refs the last time around. Jimmy Butler will be too busy fishing out spies in the Bulls coaching staff to show up, and Rajon Rondo will inexplicably sit on the Kings bench, and in his uniform from last season, and will need security to move him back to the Bulls side of the floor.

Kings: 109, Bulls: 102