So uhhh… The Nets have lost eleven straight games and the Sacramento Kings are absolutely poised to start the post-Haliburton era at 3-0! Will the Kings of today pull a Kings of yesterday and sink to the level of some very dangerous, yet very screwy competition? Will Domantas Sabonis find a new way to reignite the flames of passion on this Valentines Day? Is there any way you’re gonna even watch this game tonight? Thank your florist, your See’s Candy rep and your significant others and let’s get talkin’ about some Kings basketball!
When: Monday, February 14th, 4:30 PM PT
Where: Barclay Center, Brooklyn, NY
TV: NBCSCA – Mark Jones (play-by-play)
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Monday in the Barc(lays) With(out) Irving: The Nets are going to be a weeee bit understaffed tonight: Kevin Durant, out. Kyrie Irving, out. Ben Simmons, in but also, out. Joe Harris, out. James Johnson, out. During this losing streak they’ve dropped from first in the standings to EIGHTH and for a favorite to come out of the East, this team is absolutely not looking like anything but a first round sweep. It’s about to get worse for them too. Nobody’s favorite point guard Kyrie Irving’s personal choices have him put him in a spot where he’s able to play in exactly ZIP-ZERO-NADA of the next four games for Brooklyn and only eight games for the rest of the season. With KD on the mend, Ben Simmons needing to ramp up activities to be ready for the season and role players dropping like flies, the worst super team assembled since the last time the Brooklyn Nets attempted this are looking more and more mortal by the day.
Now this isn’t to say that Sacramento and their suddenly potent offense should just look past the Nets. They’ve certainly lost to worse teams than the one Brooklyn will send out tomorrow night. Patty Mills and Blake Griffin alone could decide to go vintage for a night and spur young guys like Bruce Brown, Kessler Edwards and Cam Thomas into giving it their all in the name of Kyrie Irving’s refusal to hit up a Walgreens. The Kings, however, are healthier, deeper and just plain better than this Nets squad that’s being trotted out tonight.
Fun fact that I mentioned this during our latest episode of the Kings Herald Show and shout out to Kings Reddit for bringing it to my attention, but my favorite Small Sample Size stat of late: The Kings averaged 282 passes made (17th) before the Sabonis trade and in the first two games of the Sabonis era they averaged 317, which would tie them for first in the league. Obviously we should expect some bumps in the road and to run into teams that can out play the Kings current “pass a lot and pray someone on the court knows our terminology” but for now, that’s a nice, positive start to this new era.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you my friends. I hope you know, I wouldn’t trade you for anything… not even Domas Sabonis.
Operation: M.C.N.A.I.R. Update:
Well, the Kings won the other night… again. They might not ever lose again but in the off chance that they do… I’m still holding onto the ASXL Rare Research Endowment as my donation choice. Again, they’re an organization that researches in the hopes of better understanding the ASXL gene family and improve the care for those living with Bohring-Opitz, Shashi-Pena, and Bainbridge-Ropers Syndromes – rare, spontaneous genetic mutations that can lead to seizures, sleep and feeding difficulties, visual impairments, atypical growth, and congenital malformations. On the off-chance that the Kings lose tonight, I’ll be donating to them and will be doing so in the name of Cooper Crowe – a five month old Sacramento-area resident who has been diagnosed with ASXL3. We were able to raise over $350 for the Crowe Family after a win so I’m very excited to see what we can do for them after the next Kings loss. If you’d like to follow their journey or donate to them after their next loss, their info is below!
Prediction
Cam Thomas is going for 30, Sabonis is going for 30 – everybody is getting 30 tonight.
Kings: 420, Nets: 360
Terrific preview, per your usual Will.
Good read for Kings fans here:
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/tyrese-haliburton-nba-basketball-sacramento-kings-indiana-pacers
I’m really glad that now that the shock has worn off a bit, he sees that trading him wasn’t personal, not about his performance, or anything other than two teams trying to move forward. Tyrese was quite eloquent in expressing his feelings during all of this, and since getting to Indy.
I know that he’s going to do well.
Cool. I wonder what Buddy thinks about the trade.
Not me!
Did I read somewhere that he went 1 of 13 the other night?
I want see the Buddy-Carlisle Pay Per View after that performance.
such a great person to root for. hoping he is awesome in Indy and that he finds as good a home there as he did in Sac
If you don’t love Tyrese after something like that, don’t know what will make you love the guy.
Monte did a great job of sending him to a team in a small market who will also have trouble attracting free agents and in a rebuilding situation. I’m even more happy Buddy is gone
The Nets are at home—no Kyrie;
Plus no Simmons and no KD.
We have an advantage;
Can this roster manage
To build our streak total to three?!
Domas and those big hands. Look how small the
ballrock is!Kings win = good but let’s see some real competition
Kings lose = same ol’ Kangz
‘They can’t win when they win but they always lose when they do’ – Websters definition of Kangz, probably.
Donatus Sabonis.
I feel like a dumb naive fan writing this, but I’m excited to watch the Kings again! There’s no way this can go wrong!
Don’t do this man. You’ll jinx it! Just be thrilled you can type ‘fun’ and ‘Sacramento Kings’ in the same sentence again.
They made me feel good for two games! That merits another 10 years on the rebuild!
It does have different feel than previous years. Ill be cautiously optimistic going into each game
Jarrett Allen is in the ASG! That’s awesome for him and for Cleveland. (I know, non-Kings news. But I’m okay with typing that since we don’t really typically waste our time, you know, actually discussing what the writers around here discuss. It’s just how we rubes roaming the hallway roll, you see.)
That’s great to see. I was really hoping he was going to get that spot. If anyone has league pass, I hope they are catching the Cav’s. That is a very fun team to watch. Amazing to see how they integrate all of their size. Garland is an emerging star, and there are a lot of vintage Kevin Love sightings.
Good piece from James Ham at The Kings Beat.
I know it’s unlikely but, I would love to see him back. Still got a soft spot for him. And he CAN play SF…
https://sports.yahoo.com/tyreke-evans-reinstated-league-221506409.html
I’m guessing Celtics. But hopefully not Lakers.
Im guessing those 35 passes were ones Buddy didn’t make.
Bagley’d
Do or Donte?
Not sure of Buddy’s passing stats, but if I had to guess I’d say they’re bad. Bagley was one of the worst passing players in the NBA, and Sabonis is one of the top passers for a big. Big swing from terrible to good!
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