Sacramento has finally won without DeMarcus Cousins after Carl Landry's game winner in Overtime last night, but now they'll have to do it again as the Orlando Magic come to town. Both teams are on the second night of a back to back, but the Kings have home court advantage and hopefully an experience edge. Tonight's action tips off at 7:00 pm on Comcast SportsNet California and on KHTK 1140.
3 THINGS TO LOOK FOR
1. Orlando's not a great team, ranked just 27th in offense and 18th in defense, but this is still not a team the Kings should take lightly. We saw what happened yesterday when the Kings took their foot off the pedal and it almost cost them the game. This is a young Magic team that will feed off any momentum. They've also had abnormally good luck on the road, where 6 of their 8 wins have come from.
2. The Magic are a bit banged up as rookie Aaron Gordon is out indefinitely with a foot fracture and center Nikola Vucevic has missed the last few games due to back spasms. Vucevic is one of the better rebounders in the NBA but even without him the Magic are a very good rebounding team. They lead the NBA in defensive rebounds and total rebounds, but are just 17th in offensive boards. Vucevic is also Orlando's leading scorer at 18.6 points a game, and not having him is a big blow to a team that isn't good offensively.
3. The Magic don't shoot a whole lot of threes but they do have several good three point shooters and are 6th in the league in three point accuracy. Tobias Harris, Evan Fournier, Channing Frye, Victor Oladipo and Ben Gordon have all proven they can hit the long ball with regularity, and Sacramento will have to do a good job of contesting those long shots and not allowing open looks.
MATCHUP OF THE GAME
Tobias Harris vs. Rudy Gay
Tobias Harris is a strong scoring forward who can also rebound and do a little bit of everything else. He's Orlando's best player and has a bright future ahead of him at just 22 years old. He doesn't have much of a defensive reputation however so Rudy should be able to take advantage of that on the other end to get good looks in the paint.
PREGAME LIMERICK
The Magic are coming to town,
hopefully for a good ol' beat down.
No Boogie again,
but we've got Ben!
So enjoy the game and don't frown.
PREDICTION
Kings 104, Magic 100 after Orlando uses actual magic to turn Ramon Sessions into a newt, which was an improvement.