NBA

NBA Game of the Week: In-form upstarts Kings and Knicks do battle with points set to rain

By Sports Desk March 09, 2023

Two of the NBA's biggest upstart and in-form teams do battle on Thursday when the Sacramento Kings host the New York Knicks with both pursuing high seedings in their respective conferences.

Both sides actually dropped their most recent games, but Mike Brown's Kings have won six of their past seven and nine of their past 12, with Memphis' recent wobbles – in the absence of Ja Morant after his highly publicised nightclub incident – seeing them move up to second seed in the Western Conference with a 38-26 record.

It's been a similar story with Tom Thibodeau's Knicks, who had won nine straight games until falling to a shock 112-105 loss to the 21-46 Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday. Before that defeat, the Knicks had the NBA's longest active winning streak.

Arguably, the Knicks felt the absence of Jalen Brunson, who missed his second straight game due to foot soreness against the Hornets.

Brunson had won February's Eastern Conference Player of the Month, helping ignite a winning run that has seen the Knicks surge up to fifth in the east with a 39-28 record, breathing down the necks of the fourth-placed Cleveland Cavaliers (42-26).

The Knicks guard averaged 27.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists during the eight games he played in his side's hot streak.

But Thibodeau downplayed the seriousness of Brunson's issue, suggesting he will likely be available to take on the Kings as both teams look to bank wins down the final stretch of the regular season ahead of the playoffs, with seedings up for grabs.

And the Knicks will not be fazed by taking on a high-ranked team from the West, having toppled the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets – both sitting inside the east's top five – twice each during their recent run of victories.

The Kings' threat is their offense, leading the NBA in points per game (121.1), including a league-high home return (124.3), led by Domantas Sabonis, Harrison Barnes, Kevin Huerter and De'Aaron Fox. Sacramento (50.0) are behind only the Denver Nuggets (50.9) – currently atop the West – for field-goal percentage.

PIVOTAL PERFORMERS

Sacramento Kings - De'Aaron Fox

Across the past 10 games, Kings point guard Fox is second only to Portland Trail Blazers veteran Damian Lillard (39.9) in the NBA for points per game, averaging a staggering 33.5 on 57.2 per cent field-goal shooting.

Fox scored a season-high 42 points in last month's wild 176-175 double-overtime win over the Los Angeles Clippers, which was the second-highest scoring game in NBA history.

New York Knicks - Julius Randle

Brunson's recent impact has grabbed the headlines, but Julius Randle's output should not be lost in that, averaging 28.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists in their past 10 games, including a clutch game-winning three-pointer against the Miami Heat.

Randle has exceeded the form that saw him win the NBA's Most Improved Player in 2021 after dipping in offensive output in 2021-22.

KEY BATTLE - Can the Knicks control the key?

The Knicks will need to find a way to shut down the Kings' prolific offense, at least to some extent, but they will be buoyed by having the NBA's best record for fewest opposition points in the paint this season (45.3).

The paint is Kings power forward Sabonis' domain, sitting seventh in the league for points in the foul lane (8.5 per game), so his battle with Knicks center Mitchell Robinson will be important. On the flip side, the Kings are 28th for opposition points in the paint (54.6).

HEAD-TO-HEAD

These two sides have only met once this season, with the Knicks winning 112-99 in December with Randle and R.J. Barrett top scoring with 27 points each.

Sacramento's offense was kept below 100 points for the first time this season in that contest, which has only occurred twice in 2022-23. The Knicks have won three of their past four meetings.

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    Jokic and Murray became the teammates in NBA Finals history to record triple-doubles as the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat 109-94 on Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

    Two-time NBA MVP Jokic had 32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists for the first such game in Finals history, or at least the first since assists were tracked.

    The triple-double was his 10th this postseason and 16th of his career, a number that trails only LeBron James (28).

    Murray had 34 points and 10 assists and completed his first career playoff triple-double with a rebound with nine seconds remaining, and Jokic lauded his teammate for leading the Nuggets through the playoffs so far.

    "He's playing phenomenally, I think, the whole playoffs," Jokic said of Murray.

    "We're just following him and he's a really good leader. His energy is amazing, and we are just following.

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    Asked how proud he was of his record-achieving performance, Jokic replied: "To be honest, I just think it's a win because if you lose, nobody is going to even mention it. I don't care. It's just a stat."

    The Nuggets' win came after they had lost Game 2 of the series at home.

    Jokic added: "When you lose the game, of course it's a bad atmosphere, whatever, it's a bad momentum. But maybe it helped us to refocus and just be better in the details. But that doesn't mean that we can relax now or whatever. We need to have the same effort because they're going to be even better."

    Nuggets coach Michael Malone eulogised over the performances of his star players.

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    "But that's what champions do. That's what warriors do. They battled back. I felt his presence all day long. Forget the stats for a second. I felt Jamal's presence, his energy, and he was here in the moment and for him and Nikola to do what they did tonight in a game that we needed to take, regain home-court advantage of the series was special to watch."

    Reflecting on his performance in Game 2, Murray said: "I felt like I didn't bring the intensity that the moment called for. Even though I didn't play terrible, I felt like I could have done a lot more.

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    “I’m just glad that we won the game,” Jokic said. “It was a big one for us because they won in our arena. We just didn’t want to go down 2-1. We were more locked in, more focused.”

    Jimmy Butler scored 28 points for the Heat and Bam Adebayo finished with 22, but the hosts were unable to produce one of the comebacks which have been their trademark during the play-offs.

    Seven times in the post-season they have rallied from at least 12 points, but down by 14 heading into the final quarter they were unable to produce another late rally.

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    Miami’s Udonis Haslem, who turns 43 on Friday, came off the bench in the final 30 seconds to become the oldest player in the NBA Finals, taking the record of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

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    Jokic had 32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists for the first such game in Finals history, or at least the first since assists were tracked. The triple-double was his 10th this postseason and 16th of his career, a number that trails only LeBron James (28).

    Murray had 34 points and 10 assists and completed his first career playoff triple-double with a rebound with nine seconds remaining.

    Christian Braun provided Denver with a lift off the bench, scoring 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting in 19 minutes. Aaron Gordon had 11 points, nine rebounds and five assists to help Denver win its fourth straight postseason road game.

    The Nuggets took the lead for good late in the first half and outscored the Heat 29-20 in the third quarter for an 82-68 advantage heading into the final quarter. The lead ballooned to as big as 21 points before Miami whittled it down to 103-94 with just over a minute left.

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