The biggest sports game of Sunday, February 7 is definitely the Clippers taking on their division rival, the Sacramento Kings. For a full preview of this game, read on below for notes on both the Clippers and the Kings.
Game Information
Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
When: 12:00 PM PT
How to Watch: Fox Sports Prime Ticket
Projected Starting Lineups
Kings: De’Aaron Fox – Buddy Hield – Harrison Barnes – Marvin Bagley – Richaun Holmes
Clippers: Reggie Jackson – Luke Kennard – Kawhi Leonard – Nicolas Batum – Serge Ibaka
Injuries
Kings: Jabari Parker Out (Health Protocols), DaQuan Jeffries Out (Ankle)
Clippers: Paul George Doubtful (Foot), Patrick Beverley Doubtful (Knee)
The Big Picture
The Clippers have scuffled a bit after their mostly excellent January, though a lot of that is due to injury. Paul George has an issue with his foot, while Pat Beverley has missed seven games with a sore knee. This has not only damaged their defense, but severely slowed their offense, as seen on Friday night against the Celtics. Without George’ shooting and creation, and Beverley’s steady hand, the Clippers reverted too frequently to one on one offensive possessions and turned the ball over more frequently as well. Many of their key players continue to play well, but Reggie Jackson has reverted to bad Reggie as of late, and it’s come at the worst possible time with the Clippers’ injuries at guard. Fortunately, Lou Williams’ play has ticked up. If Lou continues to play sharply, he will more than offset the Jackson slippage. In short, while the Clippers will gravely miss PG and Beverley, they are not doomed in their absence. They just need role players to step up.
The Antagonist
The Kings have won three games in a row, and six of their last 10, turning around a season that looked lost. They’re still in 11th place in the Western Conference, but their defense has improved from historically awful to just bad. De’Aaron Fox is the Kings’ leading scorer and playmaker, and gets help primarily from steady forward Harrison Barnes, underrated big man Richaun Holmes, and sensational rookie Tyrese Haliburton. They’re not an ultra-talented group, but they’re decent offensively, and play hard. The good news is that they just played Saturday afternoon at home, meaning they’re not only on the second game of a back to back, but also had to travel (albeit a pretty short trip). Their key players played big minutes as well, giving the Clippers a firm rest advantage.
Notes
Zu Surging: After an extremely slow start to the year, Ivica Zubac has been tremendous lately. He’s dunking everything in sight, is providing excellent rim protection, and has dominated the glass. The Clippers are infinitely better with Zu playing like this, and he needs to be getting more than 19.3 minutes per game. Ty Lu has given him this extended rope on several occasions, but he’d be better served to do it more frequently. A locked-in Zu like the one that has been present the past few weeks is just better than current Serge Ibaka, and while Serge has earned his starting spot, Zu should be playing more minutes than him on a fairly regular basis. Zu has a good matchup against Kings’ backup center Hassan Whiteside, who is still an effective NBA player, and if he can outplay Hassan, the Clippers should have a good shot at winning.
Nic’s Excellence: We are nearly one-third of the way through the 2021 season, and Nic Batum remains the Clippers’ third best player. He’s 5th on the team in scoring, rebounding, assists, and third in steals, all while playing very good defense on key opposing players and shooting 46.8% from three on 4.8 attempts per game. It’s impossible to know where the Clippers would be without Nic, but it would not be a pretty place. A veteran minimum signing off the buyout market, it’s quite possible that Nic will be a crucial element to a Clippers’ championship run. That’s pretty damn incredible.
Lineup Adjustments: The return of Bad Reggie has, as mentioned above, been a big reason for the Clippers’ struggles the past few games. With Beverley and George out, Reggie definitely needs to play, and it seems like a guarantee he will continue to start, but if he plays badly, he needs to have a shorter leash. Lou Williams is perfectly capable of running the offense (actually, much more capable than Reggi), and should be playing more minutes than Reggie anyway. Terance Mann, too, has impressed in recent weeks, and is by far the Clippers’ best guard defender among their normal reserves. Starting Lou and Terance instead of Reggie and Luke would decrease the shooting around Kawhi, but would improve the defense, ball-handling, and playmaking. A Luke-Terance starting duo could also work, with Reggie filling in more as a 4th guard than as a massively overqualified lead. Reggie can be good, but when he’s bad, he can sink an entire team, and his ability to do so should be curtailed as much as possible.
Blogging Buddies: Be sure to check out our friends over at the Kings Herald, another SB Nation splinter blog. They do awesome work, and have a great site and community.
That’s about it for this preview of the Clippers’ early game against the Kings. Join us in the comments section to give your thoughts on the game – as well as that “other” game that will be happening later today.
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