The Kings have won four straight and are heading into tonight’s matchup with the Denver Nuggets looking to make it five in a row and add a perfect road trip to their resumé. The last time the Kings put together a perfect trip of four or more games was back in 2021.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Wednesday, March 5th, 6:00 PM PT
Where: Ball Arena, Denver, CO
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
The Nuggets entered the All-Star break as one of the hottest teams in basketball, winning eight in a row heading into the break, and then adding one more immediately after. However, they’ve gone just 2-3 since that nine game streak, albeit with the losses being to the Lakers, Bucks and Celtics, three of the best teams in the league. The Nuggets are also dealing with some injuries to their frontline, with Aaron Gordon, Zeke Nnaji, Peyton Watson, and most importantly, Nikola Jokic, all being listed as questionable coming into tonight’s matchup with the Kings.
Still, Denver is one of the hardest places in the league to get a win, especially on the back end of a road trip as fatigue sets in. Thankfully this isn’t on the second night of a back to back like the last time the Kings were in Denver, but even still, the Kings will need to bring their A-game in order to beat a team that nobody would be surprised to see in the title contention race. One player who has been bringing his A-game fairly consistently over this winning streak has been newcomer Zach LaVine, recently named the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week. LaVine got off to a rough start with the Kings before the break but over his last six games he’s averaging 25.2 points on 57.4% from the field and 54.3% from three on 7.7 attempts a game as the Kings have gone 4-2 over that stretch. There was always going to be an adjustment period working in such a ball dominant player, but both LaVine and his teammates appear to have settled in a bit more into their roles. The Kings definitely need all they can get from LaVine, especially with Domantas Sabonis remaining out with a hamstring injury.
Sacramento’s newfound depth since the deadline has also been a boon. Jonas Valanciunas has stepped in seamlessly as the starting center in Sabonis’ absence, and while he’s a different type of player that the offense doesn’t revolve around, he’s still providing efficient offense and tenacity on the glass. Jake LaRavia is leading the team in “hustle per minute”, a stat I just made up but when you watch film of him it’s hard not to notice just how active he is on every possession. Even Markelle Fultz has provided some nice minutes despite coming off months of not playing professional basketball. And then there’s Keon Ellis, who can manage to play 27 minutes and miss every shot he takes (which he did against Dallas) and still finish with a positive +/-.
For Denver, it will be like facing a completely different team if Nikola Jokic doesn’t play. Everything about Jokic’s statistics are absurd, but just look at his on-off numbers to see how much better Denver is with him. Denver’s Offensive Rating this season with Jokic on the floor is 127.3, which would be 4 points per 100 possessions than Boston’s NBA record offensive rating from last season. When Jokic sits, that offensive rating plummets to 105.2, worse than the last place Washington Wizards. That gulf is enormous, and it speaks to both how good Jokic is and how integral he is to Denver’s entire offense. Nobody else can replicate what Jokic does, and the fact that he somehow keeps getting better after already winning three MVPs (career-high in Points, 3P%, Assists, and Steals this season, all while comfortably averaging a triple-double) is absurd. I’m not biased or anything, but I feel like Denver should just give him the night off, ankles can be tricky you know, and they should make sure he gets some extra rest before the stretch run.
Sacramento can’t focus on who might or might not play though, they’ve got to play their own game and beat whoever is in front of them. They’ve been playing better basketball of late, but the difficulty is only going to ramp up from here. Over the next 12 games, the Kings play nine opponents ahead of them in the standings. It’d be nice to get a win to start that stretch.
Prediction
Jokic plays, the jokes on Denver as the Kings still win after Keegan Murray hits his first career game-winner.
Kings 133, Nuggets 130
Let’s Smoke the Nugs
Pretty much my kids’ ideal meal here. Minus the toilet.
No Monk.
Start Skal or we riot!
If there were ever a time to catch a break against the Nuggets, it’d be today. Even if all the Nuggets guys who are listed as questionable end up playing, they still have quite a few injuries.
Not saying it’ll be easy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we lost, but gotta take advantage at whatever breaks you can get.
To Denver where Joker awaits—
A win there requires testing the Fates.
While Domas has been out,
JV’s play has been stout.
He’ll need help from all his teammates!
+1 The Kings have won 4 in a row! Tonight…
&ct=g
Slow day here.
Kings must be winning! 😉
I’ll repost this lost at end of Dallas recap:
Some will find this interesting. ESPN Introducing Net Points(Link to Article). Seems it uses the Box Score & Play by Play to assign credit/blame for each player. Total up the Net points for each player on a team for a game and it equals the difference in the game’s score. LaVine’s 42 point game was the 13th best game of the season!
Here’s a link to the Data Thru 3/3
Domas ranks 8th on the season overall. 10th on O, 22nd on D.
Fox ranks 423rd! (No Typo)!
Keon ranks as our 3rd best player. Keegan and Monk rank very low, but not as bad as Fox.
Fox is 410, not 423!!!
this particular stat HATES his defense.
I don’t think Fox is a great defender but he’s rated as roughly 3X worse than Lavine, which is questionable.
I think Fox’s opponents shot really well from 3. Lavine was actually 6% points better in that stat at the time of the trade. Maybe the model has a higher weight for that.
Data is now thru 3/4. He’s streaking up 13 spots!
It’s weird that it seems to make sense for most of the top players, but Fox seems like an outlier.
The FO got Mark Jones to use his influence at ESPN to skew the numbers by blaming Fox for all the Kings defensive shortcomings.
Yeah I agree with where Ant and Lavine are ranked, and they are similar players to Fox IMO.
I was always frustrated with how Fox ran directly into screens and got completely taken out of the play, but I don’t think he’s one of the 20 or so worst defenders in the league.
Well, it always seems like when good players are questionable they suit up against the Kings and have career nights… So I hope the gloom and doom of my expectations does not occur.
Kings’ team stats after the All-Star break:
If they can continue this for the next 5 games then they’d be positioning themselves for a playoff spot. The schedule is absolutely brutal though so fingers crossed.
There are just 22 games left in this Kings season, with many tough matchups still ahead. The Kings might catch a break if Denver is without Jokic, but the Kings will be without Malik Monk and are still without Sabonis. The Kings depth has really saved them so far, and there’s an argument that the starters might be better with Keon Ellis over Monk (although Ellis also is not a true Point Guard). The Kings need every win they can get to continue securing their seeding. Despite the recent successes, I’m still worried about this final stretch, but I hope the Kings continue to make my fears look foolish.
Hi. I’m Greg. I’m super reasonable now.
Would like some help from CHA, MIL, OKC, DET & DEN today.
Go Kings!
Moral victory at least. They played the Nuggets pretty well. Just couldn’t get it done against a top level team at the end.
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