Sacramento’s seven game winning-streak came to an end on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks, but thankfully the Kings have a chance to start a brand new one tonight against the Houston Rockets on National TV. The Kings are home for a brief three-game homestand before heading on the road for what feels like a month and a half (there are 4 home games all of February). The Kings managed to get back to a .500 record on the season, now let’s see if they can do the same for their home record, where they’re just 10-12 so far.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Thursday, January 16th, 7:00 PM PST
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: TNT
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Tonight marks the midway point of what has been a very weird season for the Kings so far. I’ll be completely honest; After the Kings fell to 13-19, I was not confident that this team would get back to .500 again this season. They followed that up by rattling off seven straight wins and playing some of the most exciting basketball we’ve seen from them since two years ago. Thanks to that streak and some unbelievable parity in the West, the Kings are right back in the playoff hunt with plenty of time left. As of now, the Kings are in 9th place, but only 2 games back of the Lakers in 6th. They’re also only a half game ahead of the Suns and Spurs in 11th and 12th. Each game matters a ton, especially in the Western Conference where only 4.5 games separate 4th and 12th place.
The Rockets come into tonight solidly in 2nd place in the West with a 27-12 record, a remarkable feat after not even making the Play-In tournament last year. They’re fresh off trouncing the Denver Nuggets last night and didn’t have to play anybody heavy minutes, so they should be relatively fresh for the second night of a back to back. Houston comes in with the 3rd best defensive rating in the league and aren’t too shabby on the offensive end either where they’re 11th. They’re riding a five game win streak of their own and are probably looking for a little bit of revenge after the Kings took the first of the season series against them back in early December. That game was Malik Monk’s second in the starting lineup, and the first in which the Kings won. It was also a weird game in that Mike Brown chose to not play Keon Ellis at all, something that decidedly won’t be the case tonight. The Kings largely won that game on the back of a huge 3rd quarter in which they outscored the Rockets 42-29. The 120 points allowed by Houston in that game was the 3rd most they’ve allowed this season, and they haven’t allowed a team to score 120 or more since. In fact, they’ve lost all three games that they’ve allowed opponents to score 120 or more points.
Sacramento’s winning streak came to an end against Milwaukee mostly thanks to one terrible quarter, as they allowed the Bucks to outscore them 47-26 in that first quarter and even build up a 28 point lead at one point. The Kings fought back to make it interesting by making it an 11 point game with about 8 minutes to go but weren’t able to generate enough stops to stage a real comeback. The Kings had no real answer for Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the bench was absolutely miserable for the entire game. A good start will be needed against Houston, as their size and defense won’t be easy to dig a hole from.
The Kings should be relatively healthy in this one, with Malik Monk being listed as probable after missing Tuesday’s game against the Bucks. Rookie Devin Carter is questionable however with left shoulder soreness and the Kings will probably take it easy with him since that’s the same shoulder he just had surgery on so I’m expecting he won’t play. Jordan McLaughlin is out for personal reasons as well. Still, having Monk back should help the Kings a ton, as it will allow them to keep a couple of creators on the floor at all times, something they struggled with against the Bucks. The Kings could also have an advantage from outside, as the Rockets are one of the least frequent three point shooting teams in the league, and only make 33.7% of their attempts on the season. Under Doug Christie, the Kings have seen both their attempts (from 35 to 39.8) and percentage (from 34.2% to 36.4%) from outside go up. Shooting well from outside is usually a good way to beat Houston, as they’re allowing teams to shoot 40.9% from three during their losses, but only 34% during their wins. On the other end though, the Kings can’t afford to let the Rockets get comfortable. They have multiple players (Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet in particular) who are capable of getting real hot from outside, and the Kings have seen both do it against them before.
The Kings will need to do their best to keep Houston off the offensive glass, where they are 1st in the league in both offensive rebounds and second chance points. Houston has a ton of size, and uses it to their advantage to get multiple chances as often as they can. Houston also is 2nd in the league in fastbreak points, despite being just 19th in pace. The Rockets had 18 offensive rebounds the last time these two teams met, but the Kings did a good job of limiting the damage as Houston shot just 7/19 on their 2nd chance attempts, scoring the same 17 points as the Kings did on their own 11 attempts. Sacramento also won the fastbreak battle 13 to 12, while also dominating the paint battle 56 to 36.
Still, this is going to be a tough matchup. Houston swept the Kings last season when they weren’t as good as they were this season. They’ll be missing Jabari Smith Jr. and maybe Tari Eason, but still have plenty of size and weapons to throw at the Kings, and will play with toughness and tenacity most of the game. But if the Kings want to continue to climb up the standings, these are the kind of games they need to win, and it’d be nice to be above .500 at the halfway mark of the season. Given how few home games the Kings have over the next month or so, the Kings need to take advantage of these opportunities when they can.
Prediction
Domantas Sabonis puts together a 30/30/10 game to show Alperen Sengun he still has a ways to go.
Kings 121, Rockets 114
Ahhh, this is one of those size teams that scares me. We can beat them if we play our game from beginning to end. But if we dig a hole, the Rockets will just clamp down on defense and we won’t come back. Glad Monk is back. We’ll need him.
Happy to hear Monk is back. The only advantage we have is that the Rockets played in Denver last night (although they won pretty comfortably). Hopefully the tiredness carries over tonight!
Denver to Sac is a terrible back-to-back
Don’t look now, but we have a Sac to Denver b2b coming up soon.
One thing I will credit Brown with, prior to this year he usually had the team playing pretty well after a loss. Let’s see if Doug can get that trend back.
Tall order though these guys are playing really well. Have pined for Udoka as a coach for a long time
He had lots of practice.
Well I mean the last time we had a loss under him we won seven in a row so…
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Doug Christie actually lost his first game at the helm. Then the Kings won 7 straight.
Some predicted the Rockets would rise.
Even so, where they sit’s a surprise.
We’ve shown we can beat them—
This time when we meet them,
Let’s again let the beam light our skies!
+1 Let’s get the Rockets to explode again!
&ct=g
Rockets looked terrific last nite but back to back and no Jabari Smith may be the edge needed . Kings have Monk back so its all set for 3 win homestand .
Put me in the camp that the Rockets just might be better with Amen Thompson starting over Jabari or Eason. That kid is going to be special.
Agree, maybe Monte could get Smith or Eason ? Can’t play them all .
If, and that’s a big IF, Monte were to move Fox to Houston. Any trade would have to include at least one of Eason or Smith…possibly both.
The downside with Eason is injuries. He played only 22 games last season and only 24 so far this season.
I’m in that camp too. Would love to get one of the Thompson Twins
Hold Me Now!
Sacramento, we have an answer…
Need to start protecting the home floor. Go Kings!
As we are about to hit the halfway point of the season there was something I wanted to point out. 2 years ago, almost to the day, the Kings were sitting 4th in the West at 22-18 through 40 games. Today they are 20-20. OKC and Houston, however were 13th and 15th in the standings in the middle of their full rebuild. Today, they are 1st and 2nd while the Kings are not quite where they were two years ago. The tables have turned in the conference but some things (Kings) stay the same.
Hey, we have turned the corner at least 4 times!
and still can’t defend the corner 3
In the 2022-23 season – the Kings rally and ended up 48-32 having a wonderful second half of the season in what was also a parity party in the Western Conference.
The bottom four teams (in reverse order) at that season’s end:
Spurs
Rockets
Trailblazers
Jazz
The Spurs are on a Wemby driven rise, the Rockets rebuild is a combination of assembling draft talent, swinging for vet talent (they added FVV and Dillon Brooks) and Udoka as HC. The Rox are rocking this season, taking the momentum from last season and IMO, you have to credit coaching as their roster is much the same. Jalen Green is bustin’ out too. OKC – I can’t seem to comprehend how they’ve taken that roster and made them so darn dominant. SGA deserves MVP, IMO, the rest of it is hard to explain on roster talent level and with their 2nd (or 3rd) best player out for an extended period (Chet). They are clearly the best in the West.
At the same time – Utah and Portland haven’t seemed to change their standings in the last two seasons.
I’ve been home to these parts and these Kings for too long to believe that Sacramento would be in the OKC/HOU/SAS camp and more likely in the UTA/POR side of a rebuild.
(Sam Presti isn’t walking through that door, Greg Popovich/RC Buford aren’t walking through that door)
I would say that the 2022-23 season was the beginning of the rebuild for PDX and Utah. PDX had just traded CJ and Lillard only played 58 games. Dame was traded later that summer. Utah had just sent out Gobert and Mitchell and had a coaching change. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if either of them made a Houston like jump next season.
Until then… who knows. They need to make a lot more noise this trade deadline and off season to bring about more hope for next season. Maybe they win they Capture the Flagg? Who knows.
I know I am a Sacramento Cynic – but this franchise has not, and still does not inspire trust. A rebuild would be a scary prospect.
It would be scary, but I’d point out that it’s never been attempted. I’d argue the closest thing to a rebuild was when Vlade traded away DMC for Buddy, expirings and a pick, but that was more about removing a toxic individual who was about to want a max contract then a proper rebuild.
Put me on the rebuild side of the pews if this team is still flirting with .500 ball in 3 weeks, because that trend will land the Kings at the cusp of the play-in and will result in them losing their pick.
Either improve this team now or cash in the chips, but by all means don’t stand pat.
There’s a dismissive little doorman standing at the door who’ll scare away talented basketball executives.
I think their win against the Rockets earlier this year was their best win of the season. I fully expected them to get destroyed and they played really well. Tonight will be a really tough test. Houston just destroyed Denver in Denver last night.
I’m hoping to see the Kings come out with fire and physicality. You know the Rockets will, and the Kings need to be ready to match that energy from the jump. We saw in December that if you match Houston’s physicality they get upset and meltdown. Make some threes, play physical team basketball, and the Kings can win this one.
Hopefully very little of Heurter tonight.
From the game preview on “The Dreamshake”:
In the game earlier this season, Huerter played 25+ minutes. He scored 13 pts on 4 of 9 shooting, including 3 of 7 from 3pt range.
TNT and Hello Kitty. Big night for G1C
Excited to hear broadcasters talk about the game in front of them .
Fred VanVleet is out tonight for the Rockets. Tari Eason may end up playing.
Badge Legend