The Sacramento Kings will be without De’Aaron Fox this afternoon after a bone bruising smack to the thigh ruled him out of the second half of Halloween’s contest against the Hornets. But fear not – Davion Mitchell is here to turn around his early season woes and smack the Miami Heat in the process. Yes, the Kings are in Florida today, where the skies are… well… cloudy currently, the humidity is 75% and, while the Heat are just 3-5, the Miami nightlife is still undefeated. Can the Kings find a rhythm without their best player to start the season? Can Davion Mitchell continue his hot shooting from Monday right? Will tonight be the night the refs finally decide enough is enough and ban Domas Sabonis from the game of basketball forever?
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022, 4:30 PM PT
Where: FTX Arena, Miami, FL
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140
For Your Consideration
Off and On Nights: A lot has been made of the Kings slow start, especially the slow start of guys who are supposed to be core rotational pieces for Sacramento. In previous seasons, Harrison Barnes would do his disappearing act enough to be annoying but he has for the better part of his career with the Kings been an incredibly serviceable, reliable member of the team. Richaun Holmes was playing like a man possessed before getting a new contract, two excruciating dings to the eyes, a new set of on-the-court protection and a star teammate that happens to play his position. He ended last season fairly hapless, but, hey, every one has those seasons in their lives. Both Holmes and the aforementioned Barnes were expected to be their average selves, nothing more, nothing less coming into this season and their struggles have a direct impact on the record of the Kings.
All that being said, games like the one Davion Mitchell just had in Charlotte is the reason we don’t buy too much into the doom and gloom this early in the season, from anyone. Tony, Greg and I harped on this a bit in the latest episode of The Kings Herald Show (not an intentional plug but hey, if the shoe fits…) but Davion Mitchell came into that game against the Hornets shooting sixteenish percent shooting from deep, looking inept on the offensive end of the floor for the most part. A guy the Kings had enough confidence to draft while already holding De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton looking pretty damn depreciated. Then in one night the guy was so damn efficient (9-11 from the field, 5-6 from deep) that he’s shooting at a 38.9% clip from behind the arc on the season.
Yes, one game doesn’t make up for the others. Yes, we also discount the good that’s come to start this early – Fox finally starting a season on an offensive and defensive tear, Kevin Huerter becoming a mix of prime Manu Ginobili and Klay Thompson… these things are just as likely to go away as it is that Barnes, Holmes and Davion Mitchell regain form. But, the fact of the matter is, it’s still early, everything is volatile and nothing is close to settling into normalcy. The Blazers, Jazz and Spurs have lost the same amount of games combined as the defending world champion Warriors. It’s EARLY.
As for the game today, the Heat could be without a star scorer of their own, with Tyler Herro leaving last night’s game against the Warriors with an apparent eye injury. Herro was a microwave against the Kings, scoring a team high 34 points including 5-8 from deep, and removing him from the board helps the sans-Fox Kings immensely in their quest to win their third game in a row. It’ll be curious to see how Davion responds to having the reigns in his hands from the start. With Fox out to end last season, Davion went bananas in his stead. In 19 games as a starter last season, Davion averaged 18 points, 7.4 assists shooting 45% from the field and 33% from deep, nearly doubling his scoring and assist averages and shooting 6% better from the field. If he’s keeps his hot shooting alive, it might end up quietly making the case that he should eventually be starting… Whether that’s in a small ball lineup as a shooting guard with Huerter taking the 3 or as the point guard.. I’ll leave the “how” to you all and Monte McNair.
Prediction
Huerter goes for 40 on like 12 shots. Davion Mitchell goes for a triple doubles with 16 points, 10 assists, 10 steals and Domantas Sabonis gets three fouls in the first quarter with a ref making a visible thumb-across-the-throat gesture and some raised eyebrows at him after the last call. He retires tomorrow.
Kings: 114, Heat: 109
Keys to the Game:
At least one referee chokes on his whistle
Is it weird that I now really want to see a Sabonis highlight reel set to “blow the whistle” by Too Short?
Sabonis’ court time is too short
because the refs are too huffy
The NBA refs, don’t you know,
See Sabonis and whistles do blow.
It sure seems unfair
that Sabs sits in his chair,
while we try to win three in a row.
I’m lovin’ that I get to read two pre-game rhymes nowadays.
…If you light a fire under your steer, you’ll set your cow ablaze.
Please don’t moo!
For the Heat it’s a back-to-back game
Pray Domas won’t have refs’ calls to blame.
The odds are still steep
For getting a sweep.
Beat the Heat—three game win streak to claim!
As a great Kings fan wrote on twitter, we have a chance at the
LINEAL TITLE
Warriors won the NBA championship.
Miami beat the Warrior last night. Miami are the new lineal champs.
Can we beat the heat and grab that lineal championship?
^This gif is old and outdated, like LeBron.
If the injury to Fox is minor and can be healed with no lingering effects with missing a few games, even if we lose a game or two we might have won with him playing, I am not certain it is the worst thing in the world. If the extra minutes and touches he would have had get distributed to Davion, and even Monk and TD, and they gain some traction in this new system and rotation, I think that is going to pay off over the 82 game season.
This looks promising. He’s standing out there taking shots. I know he won’t play today, but hopefully he won’t miss too many games.
https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/1587848719201878016?s=20&t=OXnmAuBCSf7zsnAqxI8K5g
Thanks for the update.
I most nervous about the boat cruise in Miami the night before …
if the Kings lose by 30, we know why!
I here that the player Ti Tanic can shoot the lights out.
I love these early games now that I mostly work from home. Watch the entire broadcast and get on to other things by 7p.
Those other things are mostly watching other TV, but the point is, I could do something if I didn’t suffer from crippling malaise.
Yeah, me too. Work is really slow on Wednesdays for me and I work until 10pm, so it’s nice to fill up the time in the middle of the day.
I live in Central time zone, so the east coast are nice for me. West coast games start at 9pm, which is late for me.
I grew up in the Eastern time zone, and for my money, the time there is the only time that matters. The only caveat is getting the more reasonable start times in the Pacific, which is much better in pretty much every way.
Some of those 9am Ohio State kickoffs are pretty rough, though.
When I first moved to Reno from MD I was, “10am NFL start, WTF is this?”
In an instant it morphed into, “Oh I can start drinking one dollar Heinekens at the Cal Neva at 9:30am? Rad.”
🙂
Truly. Back east, the games run basically 1-8pm, and that’s your whole day. Having them on by 10 gives you decent opportunity to do something afterward other than bitch about having to work tomorrow.
I still lean toward mimosas for my morning drinking. They have orange juice in them, so it’s basically a health drink.
That’s my excuse for a bloody mary.
Agree but unfortunately tonight THERE IS ANOTHER IMPORTANT SPORTS THING ON OMFG!
🙂
Early season woes? That’s a bit of an overstatement. I think Davion has been solid all year and he’s probably the player I watch most often. He’s difficult to guard because he’s quick to notice what the defense is doing and has a deceptively deep bag of maneuvers from pretty much anywhere on the court that can get an open shot for him or a teammate. the “point five” rule that the coach mentioned once to the press might not be an absolute rule if it takes another second or two for something to develop.
Before the Charlotte game Davion was averaging 4.4 points, 2.2 assists, and 1.6 rebounds per game on 34.6% shooting overall and 16.7% shooting from 3. He was struggling hard the first five games and it is not an overstatement to say so. We also recognized, especially on the podcast, that it was just a couple games and it was likely that Davion would bounce back.
He is too much of a hard worker to be a bust
He’s busting his ass out there
woe = grievous distress, affliction, or trouble.
It’s not applicable to Davion
I’d say 16% from 3 is pretty grievous, your mileage may vary.
Greivous, eh?
Greivis?
I’m going to engage in some stupidity here:
If Davion has another good/great game that leads to a win, knowing about that stupid Bill Simmons tweet from last game, do we get a small scale, yet annoying PG controversy debate?
Not among anyone whose advice you’d consider on any other subject.
I’d be willing to engage in that debate IF (and that is a big IF) Davion is often the best King on the floor and leads the team to multi-game winning streak against the likes of Miami, Golden State, and Cleveland.
If Fox is out for an extended amount of time and Davion plays like a top 20 PG, I think it’s only natural to have that discussion.
I think the bigger question the Kings would have to answer is how to best utilize Davion. He seems to struggle when he’s coming off the bench in shorter stints, seems like he does better when he is in longer and can find a rhythm. Maybe that means starting him next to Fox (slide Huerter to the 3, bring Barnes off the bench), or finding ways to get him longer runs instead of short stints as a sub.
It’s crazy that someone who once had a job with Espn and now has his own site and is one of the more well known sports writers out there can start something like this after just “zooming thru the kings-hornets game” lol big fan of Davion but this was one good half of offense in 6 games of him looking very bad and now people think the kings should trade Fox to bail out the Lakers apparently? Wuttt
How about the Kings turn the tables or flip the script, and instead of having an opposing team’s bench player scorch us for 30 points, a Kings player, let’s say Malik Monk just goes off tonight.
We need a couple of guys to do something unexpected tonight. I’d like to see TD with 15-20, and Barnes with 27 or so.
I just hope we don’t do a repeat of the last game’s first half.
You kind of nailed it on Monk here, k_k.
Looks like Butler is out!
https://twitter.com/JandersonSacBee/status/1587929601409372160?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Dammit.
Early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Clear example of why procrastinating pays off. My Nostradumbass prediction from earlier today is screwed.
What happens when you submit a second time?
!!!
With those favorable winds, the Kings need to take advantage. Playoff teams don’t loose games like this when their opponent is down multiple stars.
Exactly. If this team is truly different, they will take advantage of these situations.
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