The Sacramento Kings and the Toronto Raptors will face off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. The Raptors are crawling into this game hobbled by four consecutive losses, while the Kings will bounce in with three consecutive wins.
The Raptors are giving their home crowd exactly what they were hoping for. They have jumped out to a 96-86 lead against the Kings.
On Friday, the Kings earned a 123-115 victory over the Hawks. The Kings' success was spearheaded by the efforts of De'Aaron Fox, who went 11 for 16 en route to 31 points plus seven rebounds and four steals, and DeMar DeRozan, who went 9 for 16 en route to 27 points plus eight rebounds and three steals.
Meanwhile, the Raptors were within striking distance but couldn't close the gap on Friday as they fell 131-125 to the Lakers. Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from RJ Barrett, who dropped a double-double on 33 points and 12 assists. Those 12 assists gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Gradey Dick, who scored 31 points along with seven rebounds.
Even though they lost, the Raptors smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 12 offensive rebounds in seven consecutive contests dating back to last season.
Sacramento now has a winning record of 3-2. As for Toronto, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-5.
Looking forward, the Kings are the favorite in this one, as the experts expect to see them win by 7.5 points. This contest will be their fifth straight as the favorites (so far over this stretch they are 3-1 against the spread).
The Kings took their win against the Raptors when the teams last played back in March by a conclusive 123-89. In that match, the Kings amassed a halftime lead of 68-45, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Saturday.
Sacramento is a big 7.5-point favorite against Toronto, according to the latest NBA odds. The line on this game has moved quite a bit since it opened, as it started out with the Kings as a 2.5-point favorite.
The over/under is 232.5 points.
The Raptors entered the contest with four straight defeats and they're well on their way to making it five. Can they turn things around, or will the Kings hand them another loss? Only time will tell.
Toronto has won 6 out of their last 10 games against Sacramento.
The matchup I’m interested in watching tonight is Sabonis vs. Poeltl. Although Sabonis has won the career matchups and keeps Poeltl in check, Jakob has held Sabonis below is averages.
Domas dominated their last meetup back in January. He put up 24, 15, and 11 to Jakob’s 14, 6, and 2. Let’s hope that trend continues.
Poeltl has had good defensive games against Domas.
Two close losses against what so far appear to be good teams, three wins against teams they should beat. They’ll likely be a bit tired tonight after those minutes last night, but they should still be able beat a terrible team like Toronto, and are clearly the better team than Miami right now. Would be nice to make a statement by sweeping this road trip.
Toronto is also on a B2B. No excuses. If they wanted rest they should have stood on the Hawks’ necks early in the third quarter.
The Raptors won’t be a tough out, right up until the point that the Kings decide they are. This is, even more than against ATL, a take care of business game for Sacramento.
Revenge game worries? That’ll be on the Northern cousins side with DeMar DeRozan. I expect him to spread some Mid Game Love all over the Maple Leafers.
Roster construction-wise – Masai Ujiri (President of Ops) and Bobby Webster (GM) ditched all of their expensive contracts of former high level players and are paying Quickley ($32.5M), Rj Barrett ($26M), Bruce Brown ($23M) and Jakob Poetl ($19M) that $100M on those 4 – I am just a no nothing fan – but I don’t see an emerging high level team (yes – Scottie Barnes and Grady Dick are up and comers still on rookie deals) for that amount of scratch.
It’s a 3 Point League: Will addressed this nicely. Dinos are 29th in 3PM, 27th in 3FG% yet 9th in scoring, just behind Sacramento. How’s that? Well, fhey make 4 FG more a game than the Kings. (Kings also make 2 more FT/game and 2.4 3PM- somehow it adds up- Toronto can score the ball).
Light that beam! Go Kings!
For the love of all that is holy!, can we defend the 3 tonight?
Fox broke up the pass there, Monk grabbed it. Anyone know if that’s a steal for Fox or for Monk?
Turn on the jets. LFG
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