The Sacramento Kings, facing several injuries to key starters and coming off the heels of a rough preseason, are about to embark on another 82-game season in hopes of making the playoffs. Vegas doesn’t believe in them. NBA analysts don’t believe in them. This tired blogger doesn’t believe in them. But all of those entities have been wrong before.
Who: Sacramento Kings (0-0) vs. Phoenix Suns (0-0)
Where: Mortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix, AZ
When: 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET
Watch: LeaguePass, NBCSCA
As referenced above, the Kings will be without Isaac Jones (illness), Keegan Murray (thumb), and Domantas Sabonis (hamstring). On the Phoenix side, they’ll be missing Grayson Allen (hip), and Jalen Green (hamstring).
Doug Christie has yet to reveal his opening night starting lineup, but if they keep pushing the veterans like we’ve seen thus far, I’ll go ahead and predict Dennis Schroder, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Dario Saric, and Drew Eubanks. That’ll be a depressing answer to a Kings trivia question someday.
Coach Christie has mentioned that they might adjust their starting lineup depending on matchups, and the Suns are pretty small. ESPN projects a starting frontcourt of Ryan Dunn, Dillon Brooks, and Mark Williams for Phoenix tonight, which opens the door for the Kings to play a bit smaller, too. They could run Eubanks at center, DeRozan at forward (where he played a lot for both the Spurs and Bulls) with any of Keon Ellis, Nique Clifford… or even Russell Westbrook, and get away with it. I’d probably take any of those options over Saric, but we’ll see how experimental Christie decides to get in this spot.
I probably sound like a broken record with my praise for Keon Ellis, but matching his minutes with Devin Booker would be my preference tonight. He’s the best guard defender the Kings employ, and Booker is the biggest threat on the Suns roster by a significant margin. Limit Booker, and the Kings will have a decent opportunity to take Game 1 on the road.
While betting odds aren’t everything, and some might argue they are nothing, BetMGM set the Kings’ win total for the season at 32.5 wins and the Suns’ at 30.5 wins. I reference those odds to say: Phoenix represents one of the few Western Conference teams many expect to be *worse* than the Kings this year. I understand how silly it is to call Game 1 “must-win” so I’m not going to do that, however if Sacramento is going to make any noise this season, beating the teams you’re supposed to beat, or at the least can beat, is of utmost importance.
Prediction: Kings 112, Suns 102