Kings vs Rockets Preview: Gas in the Tank

After a thorough and complete dismantling of the Orlando Magic on Monday night, the Sacramento Kings continue through their five game homestand tonight against a Houston Rockets squad that’s chock full of youth and opportunity but low on tangible results. Can the Kings take advantage of the follies of youth, or will they revert back to playing to the level of their opponents?

Let’s talk Kings basketball!

When: Wednesday, January 11th, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140

For Your Consideration

Green with Envy: The Rockets are bad. They’re bad bad. They’re not-fucking-around-with-early-wins-to-prove-we-aren’t-tanking bad. The team of Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming, Ralph Sampson and Moses Malone, Chuck Hayes and… CHUCK HAYES – they see the next great big man prospect and they’re not fiddle farting around to get the best odds possible for him. They’re pot committed to the youth movement and while that’s resulted in the worst record in the NBA, I’ve got to say… I love they team they’re building.

Okay, okay, not a big surprise that the resident tank commander here at The Kings Herald loves the most egregious tank in the NBA this season. If you watched how ugly their games can be sometimes, you wouldn’t be nearly as harsh, I promise.

Yes, they’re the second worst rated offense and third worst rated defense in the league. Yes, despite focusing a lot of their higher end picks on offensive only players, they’re the second lowest scoring team in the NBA. YES, despite their youth they play in the lower half of the league in pace. Despite it all, they’ve got the talent to make things incredibly interesting on a night to night basis in the NBA. Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr are a volatile but potent scoring duo, averaging 21.2 points and 19.5 points per game respectively, that still need to figure out even a smidge of the defensive end of things. Alperen Sengun is the heir apparent to the Nikola Jokic/Domantas Sabonis savvy passing big guy and if the Rockets could ever figure out how to use the kid correctly, they’d be in danger of slipping a few draft slots. After a rough start to his rookie stint, Jabari Smith Jr. has started to show why he was drafted. All these young guys, mashed together by Stephen Silas, a man who was hired to coach James Harden and a playoff level squad, now forced to keep his head coaching dreams alive by figuring out how to develop Tari Eason and Usman Garuba without making them millstones for Smith Jr., Sengun and the bunch.

Can the Kings lose this game? Oh sure. They’ve shown themselves enough times this season to be prone to giving a mid-to-bad team a chance at a W that I’d not consider it an absolute shock if it happened. Their slip defensively these last 10 games or so has been an annoying development and there’s always the chance that some of these young Rockets gel for a game and give Sacramento a run for its money. That being said, the Kings played a better tanktastic team in the Magic on Monday night, a team with better defenders and harder match-ups for Sacramento, and stomped them. The Rockets are smaller, worse on both sides of the ball and not quite as well coached.

Oh shit, we’re in for a fight tonight aren’t we?

Prediction

No.

Kings: 141, Rockets: 115