It’s wild to think that the Sacramento Kings have just 8 games left in the regular season. The realities begin to settle in. Even an 8-0 finish would have a minimal impact on the Kings overall place in the standings, and yet every win and loss remain critically important to the jockeying at the bottom of the playoff bracket. This final stretch will be full of challenges for the Kings, starting tonight with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Tuesday, April 2nd, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBC Sports California, NBA TV
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140
Last Time
The Kings went down to Los Angeles and beat the Clippers 123 to 107. It was Sacramento’s first win against the Clippers this season, as LA had won the previous two contests. De’Aaron Fox had 33 points.
This Time
The Clippers come to Sacramento having faltered a bit recently. Where LA once seemed entrenched in the West’s top 4, the Clippers now find themselves in danger of falling to 5th, as they hold a 2 game lead on the charging Dallas Mavericks. The Clippers have gone 6-4 in their last 10 games, same as the Kings, as both teams have shown cracks down the second half of the season. Both teams have some injury concerns as well. The Kings will be without Malik Monk and Kevin Huerter, but luckily have Trey Lyles and Sasha Vezenkov back. The Clippers will be without Kawhi Leonard, who is missing this game with knee soreness, but recently got Russell Westbrook back from injury.
Sunday’s win over the Jazz was a good showing against a worse team missing lots of players to injury. It was nice to see the Kings handle their business even without Monk, but the Clippers will be a different test entirely. Looking ahead at the remaining schedule, there aren’t many “easy” wins left ahead. The Kings will need to go out and earn their wins if they want to maintain their place in the top bracket of the Play-In. And yes, right now that’s the most likely outcome. It would take a small miracle to take back the 6th seed, and the Kings would need help from other teams collapsing. All those squandered opportunities against inferior teams have come back to bite the Kings in the ass. All that’s left to do is to handle business for 8 more games.
Prediction
The Kings take advantage of Kawhi’s absence. Fox and Keegan Murray combine for 60. Domantas Sabonis has a triple double. The Kings win, the Beam is lit, and all is right in the world.
Kings 115, Clippers 108
Had our way with them down in LA,
In a game where Paul George didn’t play.
While we’re undermanned,
A win would be grand.
Beat the Clips; put the beam on display!
+1 Nail the Clippers!
Let’s give the Clippers a haircut!
Hilarious clip!
Beat LA!
Kings are favored by 3/3.5 points tonight.
Surprisingly, the NBA.com stats site has the Kings at 17th in drtg while the Clippers are 18th. We’ll be without two of our least effective defenders (Huerter and Monk) while the Clippers will be without “the Claw”!
That’s surprising. I wonder what the reason for that is? Injuries?
Not sure. Betting appears to favor the Clippers by almost two to one with that line.
My uninformed guess would have been that the line would have been close to even, or either the Kings or Clippers being favored by only one point.
Kawhi being out must be the biggest reason, as well as the Clippers having a less-than-stellar last ten games, and the game being held in Sacramento.
Keegan – 3! Barnes – 3! Ellis – 3! Trey – duh! Sasha – 3! Kessler – 3! Fox – dribble drive kick out to the open 3! and yes Domas with regular double2.
A win tonight before a tough-as-nails East Coast road trip that has a back to back with Knicks then Boston. Then back to NYC for Brooklyn, then OKC.
Interestingly, this site has Sac playing the Hornets of New Orleans, which gives them a better fighting chance than what we’ve seen against the Pelicans.
Kawhi has been awesome against Sac (and IMO, awesome in general this season). I am looking forward to PG-13 against KG-13 – who we dream of advancing to be a Paul George level player.
I think you meant KM-13.
I did (unless we keep it Kee Gan)
And Kawhi Leonard is out tonight…I swear teams do this on purpose.
Badge Legend