Finishing the regular season with a 46-36 record and being a 9th seed in the West, the Sacramento Kings have punched their ticket for the Play-In tournament against their not-so-long-time rivals, the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors are a very familiar foe for the Kings, facing them in a very controversial playoff series in 2023. Ultimately, the Warriors did get to move on to the second round, so many are expecting the Kings to come out of the gates swinging.
The Warriors ended the season with the same record as the Kings, but towards the end of the season, the Warriors were on a bit of a hot streak, winning eight of their final 10 games.
This game will have a lot of hype because, as mentioned before, the Kings will likely try to get revenge for the series in 2023, along with the Draymond Green incident, where he stomped on Domantas Sabonis’ chest. The game is also being played in the Golden 1 Center, so it’s going to be very rowdy.
This game will be tough though for the Kings because two very important players are out for them. Both Malik Monk and Kevin Huerter are out due to a left knee sprain and left shoulder surgery respectively.
Monk was a huge piece off the bench in the Kings season and one playoff round. Last season, he averaged 13.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. This season, Monk’s scoring went up to 15.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game.
Unlike Monk, Huerter got worse this season. Last season, he averaged 15.2 points per game on a really good three-point percentage at 40.1%, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game. This season, Huerter’s scores dropped to 10.1 points, on about league average 36.1%, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game.
With all this, De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis will need to step up their game. Not only those two, but the bench will need to step up as well. One player in particular, point guard Davion Mitchell, needs to cause a lot of problems for Steph Curry defensively. Mitchell needs to slow down Curry’s shooting prowess and make him take difficult shots.
Keon Ellis also needs to have a really good game. On April 9 against the Thunder, Ellis scored 26 points, 9-17 from the field and 8-15 from three. We all know that he is capable of exploding off the bench with his really good shooting from three, so, now more than ever, he needs to go lights out from three.
To increase their chances of winning, these bench players mentioned, and even players that were not mentioned, have to play very well offensively and defensively.
