The Kings begin their season-long road trip against the worst team in the NBA.
The Kings are embarking on a season-long 7 game road trip, starting tonight in Milwaukee (5:00 pm on Comcast SportsNet California, NBA TV and KHTK 1140). The Bucks are a team that had been hoping to stay in the playoff race this offseason but instead hold the worst record in the NBA at 12-47. Milwaukee is coming off their biggest win of the season, beating the Jazz 114-88 on Monday.
MATCHUP OF THE GAME
Isaiah Thomas vs. Brandon Knight
The Bucks don't have one star player, so picking a key matchup was kind of tough. I chose to focus on the battle of the Point Guards since Knight is Milwaukee's leading scorer and a guy who has filled it up on the Kings in the past. Isaiah shouldn't have any trouble with him, but he also can't let him get into a rhythm because he can score. If Thomas can hold Knight to his average or less, that will be great for Sacramento.
3 THINGS
1. The Bucks are miserable on both ends of the court. They're 29th in the league in offense and 28th in defense. If there is one thing that they do relatively well it's block shots, where they have the 9th most in the league. That's thanks to the length of guys like John Henson, Larry Sanders, Ekpe Udoh and rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo. Sanders and Udoh are both out with injuries however.
2. Milwaukee has some size, but DeMarcus Cousins should still be able to get whatever he wants. If he can play like he did against New Orleans, drawing fouls left and right, Milwaukee's lack of big depth will be exposed and it will give the Kings even easier scoring opportunities.
3. Can we see some consistency from our McRookies? Both had pretty solid games against the Pelicans, and it would be nice to see them do that in back-to-back games. McCallum is gaining a reputation for defense and aggressiveness, and even McLemore has started attacking the basket more.
PRE-GAME HAIKU
I have a feeling
Giannis Antetokounmpo
was made for haikus
PREDICTION
Kings 115, Bucks 101 as the Kings attack the Bucks with a vengeance for giving us John Salmons three years ago.