The Sacramento Kings had a nice stretch off days between games this past weekend. Did it help the team in preparation for tonight’s game?
The Sacramento Kings flew home after defeating the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night, who were without second-leading scorer John Collins. In the game, Sacramento took control and was looking to dominate from start to finish. The history of third-quarter woes continued as the Hawks used a 12-0 run in the second half to cut the lead to six. Saving the day was the hot 3 point shooting from Trevor Ariza, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Harrison Barnes, as the trio shot a combined 11-16 from beyond the arc. This was scoring by committee the way Luke Walton wants the team to incorporate shots with the long ball. Utilizing the three-point shot was a big part of the game plan.
Schedule Gives Kings A Break
The gap between Friday’s game and tonight’s contest against Portland was the perfect time to run a mini-training camp to get the team up to par by tightening up the offense and getting reps on defense. In a small but smart move, Walton moved game-day practice from morning to afternoon. The excuse of going to India costing the team valuable practice time is over. This is not a new style of play that the squad is trying out for the first time, this is pace with purpose that has been used for a couple of years.
Walton Used His Bench In Friday’s Game
At the start of the training camp, the question was how would the Kings take advantage of their deep bench? How big will the team rotation be? During training camp, Walton alluded to the fact that he would likely only be going ten deep in his rotation.
Friday night’s game in Atlanta used a ten-man rotation to secure the win. True to his word, Walton benched the struggling Buddy Hield in the second half to go with the hot shooting combo of Bogdanovic, Barnes, and Ariza. It was a pleasant turn around for Ariza who had struggled to find his shot to start the season. After a stellar performance in the FIBA World Cup, Bogdanovic cooled off after coming back to Sacramento. He is showing the effective play he had for the Serbian National Team over the summer.
Barnes has been the most reliable player for the Kings so far this season. It is nice to see chemistry starting to form with the guys. The purple and white have work to do, but showing signs of steady improvement gives hope the team can be the exciting group expected before the season began.
Kings Must Beat Good Teams
The Kings must win the games from teams they are expected to beat. Every victory over quality opponents will keep the dream alive of ending the longest playoff drought in the league.
Tonight, Sacramento faces the Portland Trailblazers, a team that has underperformed to start their season, giving the Kings their best chance to beat the Blazers. The injury to De’Aaron Fox is certainly a blow that the Kings did not expect, and they will need excellent guard play from their backups in order to have a chance against Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.