It’s the morning after Election Day in America, and it’s time to see if “No Kings” holds as true in the NBA as its trending to be within the current government.
As nerve wracking and time consuming as this time of year can be, it’s genuinely inspiring too, to see how all across the country small, grassroots efforts can topple well funded, long established organizations with the right discipline and messaging. Enter the Kings, the smallest and dirtiest of grassroots teams, with hapless leadership up and down the command chain, led not by their big money veterans but by a rookie with six total games of experience and tonight facing off against the NBA’s version of… well what I want to say can’t be said, so we’ll just instead compare them to something more digestible, uhh, sure, The Empire from Star Wars cannon. They’re incredibly well funded, well organized, rife with talent up and down their bench and media forever on their side and still: Kings fans will go out to their arena in droves, hoping against hope, spending their hard earned money and time with just the single thought that maybe tonight, the imperfect, mismanaged little guys can overcome the ever present, most pressing NBA evil since the inception of the NBA – The Los Angeles Lakers.
(I’m slipping slightly into the previews of old, a thing I promised I wouldn’t do!)
Here’s hoping that there’s more to tonight’s game than the consolation of knowing the two biggest billionaire losers named Vivek both got embarrassed in losses this week.
Who: Sacramento Kings (1-5) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (6-2)Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CAWhen: Wednesday, November 4th, 7 PM PST
Watch: NBC Sports California / NBA League Pass
I don’t know any other way to say it, but Luka Doncic is the MVP of the league 10% of the way through the season. The former future Kings is playing absolutely insane ball right now. 38.3 points, 8 rebounds, 8.1 assists a game all while being a hair’s breadth away from a 50-40-90 season to boot. Just unreal stuff. On the other hand, the Kings give up the second most points per game, have the third worst defensive rating and also foul the 5th most in the NBA. Luka could go for a 60 point triple-double tonight and sit the whole fourth quarter and it wouldn’t shock me in the least.
Sacramento, on the other side of things, is coming off of a very fun game against the Kyrie-less Mavericks, a game in which the held Cooper Flagg to 3-19 from the field and finally saw some production from their bench with Malik Monk having a 24 point outburst and G-Leaguer Leaky Black going 4-6 from deep and taking on 4 steals. If things start shaking loose bench production wise, the Kings might be able to keep a few more of these games watchable, if not actually competitive.
As for the injuries tonight: Keegan and Max are both still out. Precious Achiuwa is probable with an ankle issue but center Dylan Cardwell is completely off the injury list for the first time this season and is expected to make his debut. How he handles the non-Sabonis center minutes, especially with Walker Kessler is piss yellow and faux purple this season, will be one of my focuses tonight. Lakers are pretty much completely healthy, outside of Adou Thiero having a bum knee and not expected to play.
The billionaire tax doesn’t look like it’s gonna pass, but if the Kings don’t start playing a more competitive style of basketball, regular folks in Sacramento are going to have Vivek worrying about his money in a whole other way.
Prediction: Kings 131, Lakers: 128
(fuck the lakers)
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