The Clippers face the Sacramento Kings five nights after a 38-point pasting and with a five-game winning streak on the line. Read on for a full Clippers vs Kings game preview.

Game Information

Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA

When: 7:00 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: Patrick Beverley — Paul George — Kawhi Leonard — Nicolas Batum — Serge Ibaka

Injuries

Kings: TBD — Hassan Whiteside (hip); OUT — Jahm’ius Ramsey (groin); OUT — Daquan Jeffries (ankle)

Clippers: QUESTIONABLE — Lou Williams (hip)

The Big Picture

. . . is about the winning streak, of course. Why, is there something else going on today?

The Clippers are wading through the shallow end of their schedule, with back-to-back home tilts against the Thunder up next, followed by a trip through the Eastern Conference and many of its lesser opponents. In other words, it’s a good time to make money.

Much has been made of the Clippers’ ability to close out games, but they’ve become more coldly efficient in recent weeks, using third-quarter surges to submerse their opponents for good. Some of that might be the easing schedule, but you get your reps in where you can.

You can also experiment, and Head Coach Tyronn Lue has discussed their rarely-used-so-far small lineups. Serge Ibaka is reported to be returning tonight, but if he’s less than 100% and Ivica Zubac maintains hismediocre form, the Kings and their lack of low-post brutes present an opportunity for downsizing. Watch out for those rebounders though.

The Antagonist

. . . needs to pick it up on defense. Like, seriously, stand in front of somebody. No, between them and the basket. Yeah, right there.

If you hadn’t heard, the Kings’ current defensive rating is — checks notes — the worst ever. They approach basketball like you approach Madden: just give me the ball back so I can play offense again. They turn every offense into the second-ranked Clippers’, only better. So what will happen when they face — checks notes again — the Clippers. Fireworks, I hope.

Notes

• A Rare Luxury: Both teams enter tonight’s matchup well rested. (Well, they’ve had the opportunity to rest.) Neither team has played since Sunday, giving them two full days off between games. In a blurring gauntlet of a season, it should be a welcome respite, one the Clippers won’t experience again for three weeks. Games have seen some understandably listless starts. Let’s see if this one crackles from the off.
• Fox Score: Now a man with a freshly minted max-level contract, De’Aaron Fox must find another level to his play. The fourth-year guard has been up-and-down, but Sunday night’s game might’ve been his highest point yet, a 43-point career scoring night in a five-point loss. Notably, it was also his first double-digit assist game of the season. Sacramento’s lack of ideal court spacing handcuffs the downhill guard, but Fox may be turning his long-range game around as compensation — he’s made at least one three-pointer in four straight games. He needs more help, but he’s also learning to help himself.
• Game Thread: That’s about it for this game preview of the Clippers’ facing their division rival in the Kings, but the comments for this post will serve as our live game thread. Create a free account and join the conversation!

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Clippers vs Kings Game Preview: Fight for Five
Thomas Wood

Game Information

Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles

When: 12:30pm PT

How to Watch: Prime Ticket

Projected Starting Lineups

Clippers: Reggie Jackson-Landry Shamet-Kawhi Leonard-Marcus Morris-Ivica Zubac

Kings: De’Aaron Fox-Bogdan Bogdanovic-Harrison Barnes-Nemanja Bjelica-Harry Giles

The Big Picture

The Clippers are the only team in the league that has yet to play a game after the All-Star break, but that’ll change this afternoon when they host the Kings in an old-fashioned matinee affair in DTLA. Even with Paul George and Patrick Beverley sidelined, Vegas has the Clippers as 10-point favorites at home today.

Reggie Jackson will make his debut today, and Doc Rivers just confirmed that he’ll start in place of Beverley. That means Lou Williams will play his traditional role as pick-and-roll partner for Montrezl Harrell with the bench bunch. It’ll be interesting to see how much Reggie plays, but considering he’s the only real point guard on the active roster I’d assume we’ll see him plenty.

I’d expect Marcus Morris to eat some of PG-13’s vacated usage in this one, but the offense will obviously still revolve around Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi struggled to a 10-for-27 performance in Boston just before break, but I’d expect him to bounce back in a big way today against a much weaker defensive opponent this afternoon.

The Nuggets lost last night, which means the Clippers will have the chance to pull into a tie with Denver for the No. 2 seed in the conference if they take care of business today. A win would also put the Clippers 5 games behind the Lakers for the top spot.

The Enemies

The Kings beat the Grizzlies in their first game after the break on Thursday night at home. It’s been a disappointing season overall for Sacramento, but they have won 6 of their last 10 games overall.

The Kings are without two rotation bigs in Richaun Holmes and Marvin Bagley, which means the Clippers will see plenty of Harry Giles with Nemanja Bjelica logging some small-ball center minutes.

The Kings are 20th in offensive rating and tied for 19th in defensive rating, and they have also been one of the slowest-paced teams in basketball after ranking among the league leaders in that category last season under Dave Joerger. They have picked up the pace since De’Aaron Fox returned from injury, but this is a team that shouldn’t really give the Clippers many issues from a matchup perspective, even with 2 quality defenders out.

What Happened Last Time?

The Kings beat the Clippers by 21 points the last time these teams met, which came late last month just a few days after the death of Kobe Bryant. The Clips shot just 38% from the floor that night as Fox torched them for a career-high 34 points. The Kings shot 50% from the field, including a blistering 21-for-41 showing from 3-point territory.

Needless to say, I’d expect the Clippers to come out more focused this afternoon. They’ll hopefully be feeling fresh after the lengthy All-Star layoff, even if the early tip time generally leads to some ugly basketball.

Clippers vs. Kings Preview
Taylor C. Smith