The Kings are in Minnesota to take on the current best team in the Western Conference. Minnesota sports the NBA’s best defense and has lost only six times at home. Fortunately, the Kings were one of those six teams so hopefully they can repeat the effort.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Friday, March 1st, 5:00 PM PT
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140
Last Time
The Kings and Timberwolves last faced off just before Christmas with Minnesota coming away victorious, 110 to 98. Anthony Edwards led the way with a game high 34 points and 10 assists, while Rudy Gobert (21 points, 17 rebounds, 2 blocks) and Jaden McDaniels (20 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals) kept the Kings working on both ends of the floor. De’Aaron Fox led the way for the Kings with 27 points and Domantas Sabonis had a triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Three in the Key
Big D
The Timberwolves are perhaps the biggest surprise in the league this season. After disappointing last year, the Wolves have turned the corner into a legitimate powerhouse, holding the #1 spot in the Western Conference for most of the season. They’ve done so on the back of their #1 ranked defense which has been stifling. The Timberwolves have a defensive rating of just 108.3, which is three points better than the 2nd place Cleveland Cavaliers. That’s greater than the difference between 2nd place and 10th place. Three time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert obviously has to do a lot with it, but it’s also been guys like Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, and more commitment from Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, plus the steady veteran leadership of Mike Conley. This is a long, athletic team that is incredibly hard to score on from anywhere on the floor. They allow their opponents to shoot just 44.4% from the field and 34.9% from three (1st and 2nd in the league respectively). They’re 2nd in opponent points in the paint, 5th in fewest second chance points and 4th in opponent fast break points. When they do lose, it’s usually because their opponents got hot from distance; In their 17 losses, opponents have shots 41% from three, compared to just 32.4% in wins. That lines up with how the Kings managed to beat them in Minnesota earlier this season, as they shot 17 of 35 from distance (48.6%) and just 8 of 33 in the loss in December (24.2%).
Fox and ANT
Both team’s stars are questionable coming into tonight’s game. De’Aaron Fox is dealing with some knee soreness and missed Wednesday’s game against Denver as a result. Anthony Edwards is listed as questionable with an ankle injury but hasn’t yet missed time because of it. Both players are incredibly important for their team’s offense, but the Wolves at least have their defense to fall back on if ANT can’t play; The Kings not so much. The Kings got off to a hot start against Denver without Fox but the Nuggets ended up going on a 43-10 run over 12 minutes at one point. The Kings are 3-4 without Fox this season, but only one of those wins came against a currently projected playoff team.
Don’t make it easy on them
The Wolves are an incredible defensive team, but offensively they’re middle of the pack to below average. Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns are both great scorers but aside from them the Wolves don’t really have anyone they can rely on to get them buckets when necessary. The Kings need to make the Wolves work for their own buckets, because if it is too easy on that end this game will get out of hand quickly. The problem is we don’t know which Kings team we will get from night to night. Will we get the team that lost to the Pistons and Hornets or the one that took down the Clippers and Nuggets handily?
Prediction
Domantas Sabonis throws down a monster poster jam on Rudy Gobert with 0.1 seconds left to win the game.
Kings 119, Timberwolves 118
Fan Predictions
Link to Leaderboard (Updated 2/21/24)
The T-Wolves are leading the pack.
They are great at defense that we lack.
Though at home they’re elite,
We gave them a defeat.
Be surprised if we get back on track!
+1 How about some Wolves-Bane in Minny!
What would happen if this team stopped the other team from scoring?
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes… The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… MASS HYSTERIA!
And we might win more often.
Deep into the playoffs type of winning?
Too many unknowns to make a decent guess for this game, unlike my other incredibly well-researched submissions.
I’m like an alive version of Jimmy the Greek, but for the NBA, and not so mobbed up.
Jimmy the Greek was allegedly mobbed up because he something the mob valued…..actual knowledge.
Your morals are not preventing you from being mobbed up.
Wow, I didn’t realize Justin Jackson was on the T-Wolves. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even realize he was still in the league.
That man is a world champion. Put some respect on his name.
Big fat L here. It’s clear we’re a play in team.
I’m not even sure of that. Seems like the team thought it would be a cakewalk after last year’s run. The league put us on notice. And we can’t beat under manned teams or teams we’re absolutely supposed to beat.
I love the Kings, but it’s becoming apparent that we have regressed. I hope I’m wrong. I do know for sure that there needs to be major roster changes this summer. The West is a beast and the East seems to like kicking our ass.
The Stifle Tower is second in the Association in rebounding at 12.6 to The Ox’s 13.2.
Yes Justin Jackson is on the roster, but has not seen floor time, apparently. The bigger Kings connection is Elston Turner on Chris Finch’s coaching staff. Coach Turner is known as a defensive coach, and that has been Minny’s calling card.
The Kings lost to Minny last time out but KAT didn’t play and having short handed status was obviously Sacramento’s downfall. (Malik Monk didn’t play that game either and he had 30 in the win in late Nov for Sac). The spread is MIN -6.5
Generally, the Wolves make Sac go timber…and I, unfortunately, expect them to fall again tonight. Length is a strength that troubles the Kings and in addition, Mike Conley has always been a Kings Killer, especially if Fox sits.
I wish Malik Monk could run the offense, his assists suggest that he is a backup PG, but at least to me, he is always either playing 2 on 2 (with Domas or whomever is at the 5) or 1 on 1. When he has the ball when they run down the clock (like at the end of a quarter) it appears he rarely scores, and throws up a rushed 28 footer or forces a pass down low.
Go Kings! (please prove me wrong).
Fox is out and Edwards is playing. Blah…
Jackson is alive and well in Minnesota.
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