One day after watching the Portland Trail Blazers accomplish the feat, the Sacramento Kings hope to break into the win column for the first time this season when the clubs meet Monday night in the California capital.
Both teams were off to 0-2 starts before the Trail Blazers got 28 points from Jerami Grant and 27 from Anfernee Simons in a surprisingly easy 125-103 home win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday.
The Pelicans beat the Trail Blazers 105-103 two nights earlier at the same site.
The Kings had Sunday off, still stinging from a pair of tight season-opening defeats, 117-115 at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves and 131-127 on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday.
Even though they were separated by 25 games in the Western Conference standings last season, the Kings and Trail Blazers played each other on relatively even terms. Overtime was needed to determine Sacramento’s 121-118 home win in November before the Trail Blazers ran up a 130-113 home victory in December. The Kings countered with a blowout of their own, 121-82 at home in April.
Actually, the biggest difference in the three meetings was Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson. He sat out both losses, sandwiching a 17-point, 11-assist performance in the home win.
Still just 20 years old, Henderson has been consistently good in Portland’s first three games this season. He has done a little of everything already — scoring 22 points in the season-opening loss to Golden State and amassing 15 points, six assists and three steals in the first New Orleans game before recording a plus-20 plus/minus off the bench Sunday with nine points, seven assists and five rebounds.
“He’s just getting better,” Grant said of his young teammate. “The more games he gets, the better he’ll be. He’ll figure out his pace, the pace that works. He figured it out (in Friday’s game). Hopefully he can keep re-creating that for the future.”
Meanwhile, the Kings believe they’ve played well enough offensively to be 2-0. But De’Aaron Fox missed an 18-footer that could have given Sacramento a two-point lead with 27 seconds left in the Minnesota defeat, and Anthony Davis drilled a back-breaking 3-pointer with 37 seconds left for the Lakers on Saturday, resulting in two rough defeats in three days.
Kings coach Mike Brown found a silver lining in the loss in Los Angeles after watching his team lead by as many as seven despite early.
“I thought our guys did some good things,” he said. “That first half, especially, I thought we came out, we really got some great looks. The guys moved the ball. The spacing was beautiful. The ball just didn’t go in. (If) we keep playing like that offensively, good things will happen.”
With Domantas Sabonis hitting 10 of his 14 shots en route to 29 points and DeMar DeRozan 9-for-12 shooting during a 23-point effort, the Kings shot 51.1 percent in the loss in Los Angeles.
Kevin Huerter chipped in with 14 points as did Keegan Murray on the eve of his fourth career head-to-head against twin brother Kris of the Trail Blazers.
Keegan won the individual battle all three times last year, outscoring the fellow Iowa alum 9-0, 5-0 and 12-9.
-Field Level Media