This Friday, the new-feel and new-look Sacramento Kings take their five-game win streak into Boston to take on the C’s, as Paolo Banchero’s return to the Orlando Magic will provide an offensive boost to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and the rest of the shooters as they take on the Milwaukee Bucks at home.
Some other games to watch out for? How about the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry trying to find their first back-to-back win since… before Thanksgiving? They will take on the Indiana Pacers who are currently on a four-game win streak.
The post-Mike Brown Kings era has begun and surprisingly, DeAaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and company have responded with five straight victories. They will put their streak to the test tonight against Boston, who sits at 27-10.
One player on Sacramento we are looking to play around 35-40 minutes and have a positive offensive impact is Keegan Murray. The sharpshooter has nailed seven 3-pointers over the last two games and in his career against Boston, has hit multiple 3s in his last three games against the C’s.
In what looks to become a back-and-forth high-scoring affair, we are using the pace to our advantage and picking Murray’s ‘over’.
In Paolo Banchero’s return to the Magic, the frontcourt in Tristan Da Silva and Goga Bitaze might get a knock in offensive production, but KCP should benefit from Paolo’s return.
Caldwell-Pope has averaged 13.2 PPG over his last five, shooting 48% from downtown over that span.
With Paolo returning and opening up the floor on offense, I’m looking for KCP to play around 30 minutes in this duel against the Bucks - who allow over 38 3-point attempts per game this season (21st in the league).
Want to support an up-and-coming rookie who isn’t on the national radar quite yet? Choose Bub Carrington. The 6’5 jumbo point guard has been making some small waves thus far in his rookie season for the Wizards, averaging 9.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 4.1 APG on 42/36/78 shooting splits.
Playing a slower Chicago defense that allows the 2nd-most APG in the league at 29.0, Carrington should be able to command the Washington offense to a high-point total tonight. He’s averaging 5.2 APG over the last five games in January.
Sticking with this matchup in Chicago, Bulls big man Jalen Smith has quietly served as one of their pillars on both ends of the floor.
Smith has secured five or more boards in 10 of his last 11 games, and against a Washington front that allows a league-high 12.7 offensive boards per game, this is a perfect matchup for JS.
Smith himself averages 1.5 offensive boards this season and as of late has been extremely active in this area, grabbing 8 offensive boards over his last three games.