Happy Monday! The Sacramento Kings are screwing with your heart and soul again and are headed to San Antonio to tease you just that little bit more in the hopes that you’ll jump back on the bandwagon you left in February. They’ve changed they say: their bench is deeper, their starting line has been good for almost ten games now, they’re even beating the teams they’re supposed to beat! Sure it took a miracle to beat a Top 5 lotto team the other night, but look how fun they seem to be again! Sure they still have to navigate around some combination of the Grizzlies, Warriors and Pelicans to get that 10th spot but shhh… don’t you worry about that right now. De’Aaron Fox is going for thirty something again and that’s alllllllllll you need to know!
…Goddamn it – it’s starting to work on me too. Let’s talk Kings basketball.
When: Monday, March 29th, 5:30 PM PST
Where: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
TV: NBCSCA – Mark Jones on the call
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
The Beginning of the Middle of the End: We’re gonna find out a lot about who the Kings really are here in the next two weeks. Outside of playing Minnesota and Detroit during this stretch, the Kings’ next fortnight and change will feature the Spurs twice, the Lakers and Bucks on a back-to-back, the Jazz and the Pelicans. This is less than ideal for a team hoping to make waves in the middle tier of the lower half of the Western Conference and while the Kings should benefit from having an overall easier schedule in the remaining second half of this season, this upcoming stretch certainly isn’t going to reflect that.
To kick off this stretch, the Kings are in San Antonio, the current 7th seed in the West, who happen to be losers in four of the last five games. In yet another season of the Spurs being more than the sum of their parts, San Antonio has found a way to balance an infusion of youth with their vets and more or less done what it takes to stay competitive in this topsy turvy quagmire of a season. While letting go of LaMarcus Aldridge might be a hit to the locker room, the Spurs won’t be missing much on the court and if Popovic isn’t absolutely plastered with fine wines before this game, I’d suspect he’ll have men ready to step up and fill the 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds that Aldridge leaves behind.
The Spurs as a team rely on their defense to win games and outside of DeMar DeRozan’s 20.5 points per game, it’s scoring by committee for San Antonio, with six players averaging between 10 and 15 points per game. While the Spurs really do struggle to score at times (they’re 22nd in the league in points per game) their defense is top notch – 8th in defensive rating and in opponent points per game. To add to that they’re 9th in the NBA in both blocks and defensive rebounds, while also 3rd in the league in player fouls. They’re contained, they don’t take many risks and they play within themselves, also evidenced in the fact that teams attempt the 5th lowest amount of free throws in the league against the Spurs.
Their play style also comes out on offense. While they do struggle to score and they’re firmly in the middle third of the league in assists, the Spurs are the best team in the league in taking care of the basketball, #1 in team turnovers at just 11.4 a contest. Actually, on peering over at the Kings side of things, I’m happy to report that the Kings are 9th in the league in turnovers, while being #12 in the league in assists. For as frustrating as individuals on the Kings have been sometimes in that regard, damn, that’s nice to see.
Overall, this is going to end up being a game of “Whose is bigger?”. Can the Kings high powered offense outperform the Spurs staunch defense? Can De’Aaron Fox keep up his offensive explosion and outduel DeMar DeRozan’s money mid-range game? Can the Kings stay the Kings or will they once again slip back into Kangzdom and make all this discussion of play-ins vs. draft picks an amplified, silly mess by choosing the worst of both worlds?
Prediction
De’Aaron Fox gets the 50 piece we’ve all been dying for during this run. Richaun Holmes decides that tonight is the night to do the damn thing and gets himself 6 blocks without committing more than two fouls. Greg Popovich weeps as he watches Tyrese Haliburton make correct decision after correct decision. Devin Vassell clenches his fists in his car after the game as lightning streaks across the San Antonio skyline and he swears under his breath that Popovich will cry no more from this day forward. He’ll have just scored 7 points in limited minutes.
Kings: 125, Spurs: 117
Double date down in old San Antone
Let’s play well as lately we’ve shown.
The Spursmostly steady
Cause Pop gets them ready,
While we’ve seen how much Fox has grown!
I’m hoping that Fox and Haliburton are so good that Pop decides he wants the coaching job after the season.
AND 1!!!!!!
The Kings may not be 8th seed material, but I also don’t think they’re a bottom 5 team. Sure, you can hope to get lucky in the lottery, but I don’t think play-ins vs. draft picks is an accurate description of the trade-off. Even if Barnes was traded, there’s no way this team drops into the bottom 5 with the way Fox is playing. We were going to be stuck in the middle, either way. So you can aim for 8th worst in the draft or 10th best in the conference. The difference seems somewhat inconsequential.
I think you underestimate how big of a hole Barnes would leave.
And I was a full on “trade Barnes” guy
If I had a dollar every time I read this…
It’s great to see the team playing well lately. I’m trying not to get too worked up about the play in push. We do have a chance to make it interesting if we can win some of these games against San Antonio and Memphis in particular. Ready for some success but also prepared to fall short again.
Agree that if HB was traded Kings could not reach bottom 5- too many serious tankers ( Minnesota, Detroit, Houston, OKC and Orlando) to break into that group. Plus Cavs, Toronto Washington – that’s 8 teams in an 8 player draft.
Kings stuck in middle, so might as well go for 7-12. Draft strong in top 5 then tails off significantly with a few exceptions ( maybe 8 “players”)
Besides, SAS, Mavs, duds, Memphis, NOP, vulnerable in West.
I would love to finish above the duds and shut that mantra- “oh, stephie is back and we will contend in the West” junk.
Interesting that since Bagley is out, Kings win.
Guy vs. Wright- one is a vet and has experience and length. The other is shorter and has potential as a shooter. Needs consistency ( and playing time for that) Different players. Right now- go with DW.
Not at all sure of the value of Harkless and Silva for Belly- should have gotten a pick. T. Davis on tryout- and is RFA next year. Seems a good deal- a potential #46-7 for a player who was second team all rookie just last year. Would #47 net that? Woodard and Ramsey picked in that range and neither is second team rookie material.
The league must value DW moderately high since it took a vet + two second round picks ( #42 or so and #50 or so) to get him.
Why only get two marginal vets for Belly?
Trivia and irrelevent question- what ever happened to Vanja Marinovic?
I’ll bet the farm that Purple reigns tonight!
Literally impossible to think of anything better than Prince on Sesame Street.
It’s basically impossible to figure out the exact game that’s the pivotal game of a season. I also understand that no one game is technically more important than any of the other games in the season. This game feels like the moment that everybody is nervously wondering if the Kings can get over the hump, or are we just at the apex of our perpetual Sisyphean struggle.
You get an up vote for Sisyphean
They sisyphucking won
Maybe I missed something in the last preview, but why has Will been planning a military invasion of Sacramento?
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