Sacramento Kings: Game 45 Preview at Cleveland Cavaliers
By Tyler Watts
What to Watch for Tonight
Boogie Battles Love
DeMarcus Cousins handled Tristan Thompson in the last meeting, so I suspect Kevin Love will draw the assignment of guarding Cousins from the opening tip tonight. Love’s advanced stats rate him as a solid defender every year, but defending Cousins is a different animal. Do not be surprised to see a heavy dose of DeMarcus Cousins tonight in Cleveland.
If you want to see what statistical line I predicted for Boogie or any other Kings’ player then check out my predicting the box score column found here. It is a fast read that is heavily researched, so please give it a look. Thank you.
Defending the Big Three
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Last time out, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love scored 57 combined points against the Kings. That sounds okay, but the 21 assists they produced helped the Cavaliers blow the game open. The Kings need to do a better job of forcing the big three Cavs into bad shots and bad decisions with the ball.
Life will be made tougher without Rudy Gay tonight. Gay manned up on LeBron James most of the last meeting, so Garrett Temple, Matt Barnes, and the rest of the Kings’ wing players will need to step up and defend King James tonight.
Breaking the Streaks
I wrote about the many losing streaks the Kings needed to break in the last game preview and low and behold the Kings did it, so I figured I would go back to well today.
The Kings have lost four straight games to the Cleveland Cavaliers. According to Land of Basketball, Sacramento hasn’t defeated Cleveland since January 11, 2015. Over two years since their last victory against Cleveland.
The losing streak in Cleveland has reached three games for the Kings. They have not won a game in Cleveland since January 2, 2013. They only play them once a year in Cleveland, but over four years is too long to wait for a win in any city, so let us hope the Kings can end these losing streaks tonight against the Cavaliers.