Kings vs Wizards Preview: A Little Holiday Magic

After a decent little romp over the lowly, dried up husk of professional basketball that is the Los Angeles Lakers, the Kings continue theirbeal homestand against a Wizards squad who just snapped a ten game losing streak on Tuesday night against the Suns, only to start a new one last night against the Jazz. After ending November with a dead even record of 11-11, the Wizards have seemingly lost everything but Bradley Beal’s direct deposit info. Folks, we haven’t seen Wizards free fall like this since Gandalf got his ankle’s snatched by a Balrog on the Bridge of Kazad-dum.

[There’s a Kyle Kuzma “You shall not pass!” joke in there too somewhere, but the man’s averaging 3.5 assists so I’ll pass it by.]

Okay. Enough.

Let’s talk Kings basketball!

When: Friday, December 23rd, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140

For Your Consideration

Better Beal-ieve It: You can stare at the stats all morning like I did and all you’re ever going to see from between the lines of this Wizards team is disappointment. Sure, it isn’t new that the Wizards start a season strong only to get towards the end of the calendar year and have an overwhelming set of the yips – just last season they came into New Years Day with an above .500 record, only to wind up 12th in the East. This team has a decent bit of talent! Bradley Beal is an all-world scorer who just two seasons ago was averaging over thirty points a game. Kristaps Porzingis has gotten healthy enough to turn things around, Kyle Kuzma is playing great ball. Those three alone are all averaging 20 a game for this squad and should, in theory, be enough to form a playoff contending core. With supporting roles for talents like Ruin Hachimura, Den Avdija, Monte Morris, Will Barton, these guys SHOULD be better. They’re the Wizards so its more of a “buddy cancels a coffee date again” disappoint than it is “fiancé leaves you at the altar” wallowing but… these dudes should be BETTER.

Let’s jump into the meat of it a bit. The Wizards are 23rd in offensive and defensive rating alike, scoring at the 7th worst clip this season, allowing teams to score just below average at the 16th in the NBA, and running at a bottom-third of the league pace. They’re Top-5 in the NBA in blocks, 21st in steals, 6th in defensive rebounding and 6th in fouls. Teams that run up against the Wizards shoot the 8th least amount of threes but do at the 2nd best percentage in the league. So, they’re conservative in their scheming, push guys off the three point line and with guys like Zinger and Daniel Gafford anchoring their defense (and both averaging over a block a game), they can swat some shots at the rim. The Kings have played like 5 teams this month that do what the Wizards do, only better. The Kings have beaten a couple of those teams. The Kings should not be taking this game lightly either.

On the offensive end, the twenty point trio of Beal-Kristaps-Kuzma are more than enough to give the Kings headaches, or neckaches if you’re Domantas Sabonis. Any one of those guys could pop off for 40+ points and keep the team afloat long enough for Sacramento to make mistakes. As a team, they’re 18th in the NBA in three point percentage while being in the bottom 10 in attempts, they’re 10th in 2 point percentage while being 13th in attempts because, hey, gotta score somehow in this league. They take care of the ball, 5th in the NBA in turnovers, but are also only 16th in assists. They don’t go to the free throw line much, they don’t make them at an exceptional percentage and they don’t push the pace that often. Don’t expect much from their bench either – they score the 6th least amount of points in the NBA.

A healthy, focused Kings team should wax the Washington Wizards tonight. I don’t trust the Kings because of, well, everything they’ve done for literally half of my time on this planet, but they should absolutely be putting a pillow over this team’s face and pressing hard until any light protests they have peter off.

Okay! With that joyful image, I’m off! Have a wonderful next few days, regardless of what you celebrate. I hope you get everything you want but nothing you don’t need. Come back to me safe and sound on Tuesday.

Prediction

Our Murray Christmas starts early as Keegan hits another 4 threes en route to 22 points. Malik Monk cooks the Wizards bench for 20+ points and another couple of jump-off-your-seat oops to Neemias Queta. Fox and Sabonis play like the All Stars they both have been this season. Bradley Beal defects at halftime… not to the Kings, to a whole other country.

Kings: 127, Wizard: 98