What to Watch for Tonight
Who Steps Up for Sacramento
The DeMarcus Cousins suspension leaves a giant void for the Kings tonight. Not only are they missing their leading scorer, rebounder, and playmaker, but they need to fill his massive 35.5% usage rate on offense.
If I am coaching the Kings tonight (and spoiler alert: I am not), I would run a heavy dose of my two point guard lineup with Darren Collison and Ty Lawson. I would fill Cousins minutes with Kosta Koufos, Willie Cauley-Stein, Matt Barnes, and Anthony Tolliver combinations and ride the hot hand with my big men.
It will be interesting to see how Coach Joerger plays it. He is often a difficult man to predict, so anything could happen tonight. Stay tuned.
Defending Horford
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The Sacramento defense will also feature a DeMarcus Cousins sized hole tonight. The Kings will have to choose between going small with Barnes or Tolliver and a big man or playing Koufos and Cauley-Stein together (two players probably best suited as centers in this NBA).
Al Horford torched the Kings in the opening meeting this season. The freshly minted big man scored 26 points and chipped in 8 rebounds, 4 three-pointers made, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 6 blocks in 36 minutes against Sacramento. Some King will have to step up and limit Horford’s production tonight if the Kings want to walk away victorious.
Ending the Streaks
I mentioned the Celtics enter tonight’s game on a seven-game winning streak, but that is not the only streak the Kings are hoping to snap tonight.
According to Land of Basketball, the Kings has lost three straight meetings against Boston.
Sacramento is also hoping to get back in the win column after losing their last game. The Kings have lost four of their last five games and five of their last seven.
Here is to hoping, the Kings can put all those streaks to bed tonight after they defeat the red hot Celtics without Boogie.