The Kings managed to stem the bleeding by knocking off the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday, but tonight they’ll face an even tougher task in a Cleveland Cavaliers team that is currently tied for the best record in the NBA. The Cavs are on the second night of a back to back, but the Kings will be without Domantas Sabonis, so both teams are facing their own challenges coming into this one.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Wednesday, March 19th, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
The Cleveland Cavaliers are having a remarkable season. They’re on pace for 67 wins, which would be the most in franchise history. They’re doing it on the backs of one of the best offenses in NBA history (1st in the league this year), and a top-10 defense. Kenny Atkinson has transformed this team offensively, as pretty much the same roster was only 18th in offense last season. They shoot a ton of threes (41.3 a game) and make them at the league’s highest rate (38.7%). They’re also the most efficient 2P% team at 58.1%. Donovan Mitchell is leading the way scoring wise at 24.1 points a game, but he has plenty of help as five of his teammates also average double digit scoring. Evan Mobley has also taken a leap, averaging a career-high 18.6 points and shooting 36.5% from three on 3 attempts a game while playing Defensive Player of the Year level defense. Mobley is part of a twin towers lineup with Jarrett Allen as well, who is leading the league in FG% at 70.1% while averaging a 13.6 point, 10.2 rebound double-double in just 28.7 minutes a game.
The Cavs got even better at the deadline when they acquired De’Andre Hunter from the Hawks, and Hunter has been averaging 14.3 points on 49.6% from the field and 48.6% from three in 15 games off the bench with Cleveland. This is a Cavs team that is legitimately 10 deep and extremely dangerous from all over the court almost regardless of who is playing. The only regular rotation player they have who isn’t a legitimate threat to be an outside shooter is Jarrett Allen. Cleveland has 5 rotation players making 40% or more of their threes, and 12 making at least 37% (with Mobley just on the outside at 36.5%). That’s not ideal news for a Kings team that has struggled to defend the three this season, last in 3P% defense at 38.3% a game.
The Kings managed to do a decent job of keeping Memphis from shooting too many threes on Monday, limiting them to just 30 attempts, and even then it was mostly just Desmond Bane being 7-7 that was truly damaging. But for Cleveland the three ball is a huge part of their identity, and the Kings will need to be extra focused on their man tonight to not give the Cavaliers too many easy, open looks which is easier said than done.
Sacramento will once again be without Domantas Sabonis, now out with an ankle injury he suffered against Memphis. Cleveland would have been one of the few matchups where it might have made sense for the Kings to play Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas together to try to combat some of their size, but now that option is off the table and the Kings will likely be at a size advantage for most of the game. Ideally the Kings would be putting Keegan Murray on Donovan Mitchell, but they’ll probably have to put him on Mobley instead as he’s simply way too big for someone like DeMar DeRozan to guard. That doesn’t leave a lot of great options to guard Mitchell or Darius Garland, at least in the starting lineup. The Kings might need to work in Keon Ellis and Jake LaRavia into the rotation a bit earlier and more often tonight.
Malik Monk was a big part of Monday’s win, scoring 28 points on 10-17 from the field to go with 7 assists. It was nice to see Monk have a good game as he’s been in a bit of a slump over the last month or so. The Kings need Monk to be playing at his best to have a chance going forward. He’s been particularly bad from three this season, shooting just 31.8% from distance, his worst percentage since he was in Charlotte and second-worst of his career. Hopefully Monday’s performance gave him some momentum that will let him finish the season strong.
This is going to be an extremely tough matchup, but I would have said the same the last couple of years as well given that Cleveland has always been huge, but the Kings have actually gone 3-1 against the Cavs over the last two seasons. A win tonight would be one of the best of the season, and would give the Kings some momentum heading into their own back to back tomorrow night.
Prediction
The Kings and Cavs threaten to break regular season scoring records in a barnburner. Donovan Mitchell and Zach LaVine both score over 40 points.
Kings 151, Cavaliers 146
