Sacramento Kings: What to watch for against the Trailblazers

New year, new team? The Sacramento Kings closed 2018 on a 5-5 stretch and will look to start 2019 the right way against Portland.

Well, 2018 is in the books. We’ve seen the Sacramento Kings close out a 27-win season, draft Marvin Bagley III, De’Aaron Fox turn into a star and the Kings return to relevance, all in the span of one calendar year. Suffice to say, it’s been an up and down year for the Sacramento Kings, but they’ve got a chance to start 2019 on a good note against the Portland Trailblazers at home.

Not only that, but Tuesday marks the first time the Sacramento Kings have played on New Year’s Day since the 2014-15 season, unfortunately for Sacramento they’re 2-3 on New Year’s since 2000, but did win their last game on Jan. 1.

With that said, there’s a few things Kings fans should keep a lookout for in tonight’s game, the first of which being De’Aaron Fox’s health.

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Fox’s Injury

On Dec. 21, Sacramento Kings star point guard De’Aaron Fox suffered a shoulder injury that’s hobbled since, though he hasn’t missed any time. Against the Los Angeles Lakers, however, Fox took a foul from Kuzma at the end of the half and appeared to be in pain, but he remained in the game.

Still, it’s worth monitoring not only his status, but his play as well if he suits up against Portland. Since suffering the shoulder injury, Fox is shooting just 43.7 percent from the floor, but is coming off a game against Los Angeles in which he shot 12-19.

The Sacramento Kings could very well choose to rest Fox for a game or two and could be very quick to yank him from a game if he’s feeling discomfort. For what it’s worth, Fox told media after the game that the shoulder injury isn’t something that’ll keep him from suiting up, but did say it bothered him.

Buddy’s Slump

Buddy Hield has been in a dramatic slump recently. After a blistering two weeks of play, Buddy cooled off—quickly. In his last three games, Hield is shooting just 30.2 percent from the floor, good enough for 12.6 points per game over that same stretch.

Buddy is a scorer, a long-range one at that, so a shooting slump is to be expected. With that said, the Sacramento Kings need to Buddy to regain form and fast if Fox is hobbled at all or is forced to miss time. Buddy’s shown he can take over games and lead this team to a win, but it won’t happen if he’s shooting from the floor like Shaq did from the free-throw line.

Willie’s Rebounding Woes

It’s no secret that Willie Cauley-Stein has been struggling at almost everything a center should be good at. While Willie has played at a high-level at times this season, his play—especially defensively and on the boards—has sunk recently.

This all came to a head a couple of weeks ago when Willie made his now infamous ‘they get paid $100 million to rebound’ comment and it seems he truly did put a price on his effort level. This, however, isn’t a condemnation, but rather highlighting an opportunity for Willie Cauley-Stein to get back in the good graces of Sacramento Kings fans.

The Sacramento Kings and Portland Trailblazers haven’t played in the regular season yet, but they met in the preseason and boy did Willie have a game to forget. While he only played 20 minutes, Cauley-Stein was out-rebounded by every starter on both teams except for Damian Lillard (one) and Yogi Ferrell (two). To make matters worse, only five of 22 players who saw playing time in that game compiled less than two rebounds and all five played under 15 minutes.

What I’m getting at is, this game could give Willie an opportunity to prove himself and re-establish himself as a major contributor for this Sacramento Kings team.

Final Score: Sacramento Kings – 104, Portland Trailblazers – 117