After an almost joyous beat down of the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night, the Sacramento Kings are back to their winning ways and taking their Sacramento Showtime act down the road a few hours to square up against a Los Angeles Clippers squad missing their two stars. Yes, both headliners for the Clippers are sidelined for today’s early afternoon affair: Kawhi Leonard is still dealing with a sprained ankle and Paul George with a bummed hammy. Don’t let the opportunity for a win in LA fool you – this Clippers team is deep enough to lay the smack down on a team not paying attention!
EARLY GAME, LETS GET INTO IT!
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Saturday, December 3rd, 1:00 PM PT
Where: PowerBalancePNGs.com Arena, Los Angeles , CA
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140
For Your Consideration
Lue and Behold: Okay it’s gonna be a short one this morning – the basketball gods decided that we should be able to enjoy some Kings basketball at lunch time on a weekend day and I’ve decided I don’t like it.
We all know this Clippers squad and their supporting players. Kawhi and Paul George have been hobbled enough in recent years that the Clippers have basically become a Marvel’s Avengers post-Endgame situation- The biggest stars are absent, so the supporting cast has stepped into the role of mainliners and kept the franchise viable. They’re successful, sure, just to a lesser extent and pulling out wins from guys that might otherwise be languishing in lesser roles elsewhere.
Some cold hard stats for you this morning: LA is the lowest scoring team in the league and holds their opponents to the 3rd lowest scoring to boot. They play slow (20th in the NBA in pace) and have the 17th best net rating despite being 5th in the West. This team slowly bleeds their opponents to death and will absolutely allow the Kings opportunities to win. Without their leading scorer in Paul George, the Clippers revert back to their incredibly spread out attack on offense, with six players scoring between 10 and 15 points per game. Norman Powell, who has only started a handful of games, is second on the team in scoring at 14.8 points per game.
We know this team. We’ve seen their depth crush the Kings for the last few years…but lets see what happens when the Clippers’ immovable object meets an unstoppable Kings force… at 1 pm… on a Saturday.
Prediction
Fox has a get-right game, Sabonis out-battles Zubac, and the Kings light the beam.
Kings 132-Clippers 112
A one-game road trip to LA;
Don’t know which of the Clippers will play.
If both George and Kawhi
Decide they will try,
Run them hard to steal this away!
Cold and rainy all over California today…perfect to stay home all day and watch a Kings game.
Just took the pup for a long walk. It’s sunny and pleasant in Pasadena. 🙂
Has the BEAM been lit in the rain yet? I wonder how that will look.
Lucky! It been a lot colder than normal here in NorCal lately and will continue to be like this the next couple weeks or so. The only thing that sucks about it is that the cold and getting dark early has been demotivating me to go for runs/walks, but hopefully it will warm up soon.
Yeah, I feel the same about the cold and getting dark early being detrimental to my motivation for runs/walks.
Maybe you should go see the BEAM. It’s inspiring, seeing that in the cold dark sky.
Hopefully I can see it when I go to the Nuggets game during the Christmas break when I’m in Sac!
After watching USA vs The Dutch and now Argentina vs the Socceroos. Good day to be a couch potato. Still in my PJs and slippers, sipping on some tea. Perfect.
I’m guessing our boy Rik isn’t entirely sober right now. Congrats to our Dutch Kings fans. I think it would be fantastic for the Dutch to win it all this year, but I’m now rooting for England.
England?
I am as sober as I need to be!
I studied abroad there in college so a bit of my heart is still there. I only got into trouble when I visited your fine country. ????
Please don’t boomplantactie
Completely agree. Got a bit of a head cold. Want nothing more than to stay inside with the fireplace on wearing a bathrobe watching a Kings win.
if you’re reading this, the game starts SOON
Everytime I see this GIF used on this website, the guy kinda reminds me of an angry Jerry Reynolds.
Woah. Too close for comfort!
Hope Fox can get back to form and for Keegan to get more comfortable with his shots. I’m just happy to be able to watch this game early (9pm here in England) for once. Go Kings!!
I may be in the minority in wanting this, but I want to see PG13 and Kawhi play. I don’t want any punches pulled. Let’s see these Kings perform against the best!
To be fair, we are playing without Luka.
Too soon. And that will be the case for 10 more years.
Doesn’t look like it’s happening today.
Damn.
Oh well. Norman Powell and Kennard out as well. The Kings need to win a game like this.
Yes, yes they do. I’d argue Chicago tomorrow as well, but one step at a time me thinks. Beat this Clippers team today and worry about tomorrow.
At least this b2b isn’t anywhere on the level of brutal that the Memphis-Atlanta one was.
Lue knew it would be in vain.
Might as well rest them.
Getting spicy, I see. I’m good with it.
Found this take and couldn’t help but think the right thing to do at that point would not be to put said player in the front office:
Kawhi was 25, arguably the best player in the league, playing in maybe the most convincing playoff game of his career when Zaza Pachulia undercut him. Since that time he’s missed 242 games. We should almost be talking about him like we do Grant Hill and Brandon Roy.
That is a fair take
Have his injuries all bee related to that Zaza incident? I think another reason he may not be clumped into those guys, is he still brings it and plays like an MVP when healthy. He also lead a Toronto to a title. One does wonder what else he could have done had he not missed 242 games since that Warrior series.
Just feel it is bad form to place a guy the NBA changed rules over in the front office. He does bring it and also feel he is better that the Hill and Roy. I love a defensive first player. Just remember that play as the warriors were going down and that turned it around.
Yeah, that play changed the course of two franchises and possibly the league. It led to the beginning of a Warriors dynasty and Kawhi eventually leaving the Spurs. Had that play not happened, the Spurs might have gone on to defeat the Warriors and the course of league history would be changed.
I have in-laws in San Antonio who are bitter to this day. Justifiably so and live here in the Bay Area with all these Miami,Fakers now Dubs d-bag fans. Can’t wait to be at the G1C tomorrow for the second time this year. Portland game was tough
I’d imagine for Spurs fans hat Kawhi injury against the Dubs is akin to the Webber injury agains the Mavs. Both forever altered the course of their franchises.
My girlfriend of 5 yrs is a very sweet woman who just so happens to have a tongue like a lash when she’s rooting against teams of any sport for any reason.
For many years, she has tormented me for my love of the Kings and has often cheered for the opposing teams for the sake of getting invested into games she doesn’t care about and whipping up snappy banter to pass the time.
Since the Hornets game, I’ve been asking her who she thinks will win in each Kings game. Against Charlotte, she said they’d lose.
But since she’s always been the Kings hater in the household, I decided this meant little. So instead, I inverted her ominous gut instinct and took it as a good omen for the Kings. Sure enough, they won that night.
To make a long story short, this inversion of her gut instinct has accurately predicted 100% of every Kings outcome for the last 15 games.
I suspect her subconscious mind is channeling some type of psychic energy, which by interpreting the inverse of her gut instinct, has made her some kind of Sacramento Kings oracle.
Anyway, if you like silly fan superstition, she said we’d win tonight (tough luck, Kings).
Certainly now that I’ve published this info will be when her unknowing clairvoyance fails her, but I wouldn’t complain!
Is she helping you with your Nostradumbass predictions?
No, because I refuse to ever suggest the other team may win in those polls lol
I’m in the arena today. I vastly prefer G1C
BYOB bring your own beam
Light the beam chants
Badge Legend