The last time the Sacramento Kings took on the Minnesota Timberwolves, history was made. Down 17 with 2:49 left in the 4th quarter, the Kings came all the way back to force overtime and steal a win from the Timberwolves on their home floor. Good times.

A pessimist like myself can nitpick at the comeback and say ‘well, the Kings shouldn’t have been down that much to a bad team in the first place’ and you’d be right, but if we can’t celebrate a miraculous comeback win in a season severely lacking reasons to celebrate, than what are we even doing here? It was fun. Let it be fun, Tony. Don’t overthink it.

Anyway — the Timberwolves are back in Sacramento and looking for revenge. Let’s get to it.

When: Monday, February 3rd, 7:00 PST

Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA

TV: NBCSCA

Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM

Updated injury reports for both teams have not been released as of Monday morning, but I’m going go ahead and assume Richaun Holmes out again today since we have heard nothing that suggests he was this close to returning. We know Marvin Bagley is going to miss the next several weeks. Dewayne Dedmon missed the Lakers game on Saturday with an undisclosed illness, and he is day-to-day. They could definitely use him tonight against Karl-Anthony Towns.

The Minnesota Timberwolves will likely be without Allen Crabbe and Jake Layman tonight.

The Timberwolves are one of the few Western Conference teams that are comfortably worse than the Sacramento Kings. They are currently riding a league-worst 11-game losing streak.

I’ve been writing sentences like this in game previews all season long only to end the night in disappointment, but a bad team is stepping on to your home floor riding a massive losing streak — this is a game the Kings need to be able to win.

I understand that the Kings aren’t necessarily good enough to the point where you can say they will beat any team. I’m not saying they will beat the Timberwolves, but they should.

De’Aaron Fox is playing some inspired basketball right now. January 2020 was one of the best months of basketball in his career. Buddy Hield finally started shooting like an elite 3-point shooter in January, too, and I’ve generally liked the way the Kings have played with their new starting lineup.

The Kings aren’t playing good basketball, exactly, but they played better in January (6-8) than they did in December (4-12), and I cannot stress this enough — the Timberwolves are not good.

If the Kings don’t have Dedmon tonight and have to rely on a combination of Harry Giles and Eric Mika to stop Towns, well, that could be a major problem. Both Giles and Mika played reasonably well on offense vs. the Lakers Saturday, but without Dedmon and Holmes, the Kings are really undersized inside. For as disappointing as his season has been overall, Dedmon’s availability tonight could swing this game in either direction.

Prediction:

Kings go down by at least 15 points in the first half, but comeback to win 115-109.