Sacramento Kings: Game 18 Preview at Washington Wizards

The Sacramento Kings travel to take on the Washington Wizards on November 28, 2016. This article examines everything Kings fans need to know about tonight’s game.

Tonight, the Sacramento Kings invade the Verizon Center to take on the Washington Wizards. The game tips off at 4pm Pacific Time, so be prepared from some late afternoon basketball for the second day in a row.

The Kings are coming off a 122 point performance against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. Let us hope they can ride the moment of that win into tonight’s game.

Without further ado, let us get to the essential things you need to know about tonight’s contest against the Washington Wizards.

Injuries

The Sacramento Kings enter tonight’s game with a clean bill of health. They have no reported changes from yesterday’s game but monitor the news wire until tipoff just in case we get some late breaking developments.

It is worth mentioning that Matt Barnes could be suspended after getting a flagrant-2 foul in last night’s game. No guarantee the league office will rule in time for tonight’s game, but be on the lookout for any news there.

Washington Wizards’ Scouting Report

The Kings played the Wizards during the preseason in Kentucky and I wrote about many of the Wizards offseason changes. That article can be found here if you care to read more about it.

The Wizards are led by 3-time NBA All-Star John Wall. Wall is averaging 23.5 points, 8.7 assists, 4.2 rebounds, 1.9 steals, 1.2 three-pointers made, and 0.6 blocks per game in 13 games this season. When Wall is healthy, the Wizards are a very fun team to watch, so that is worth the price of admission tonight in itself.

The Wizards enter tonight’s contest with a record of 5 wins and 10 losses. They surprisingly only have 4 wins in 9 home contests.

Last time out, the Wizards were defeated by the San Antonio Spurs 112-100. Below is a highlight video from that game to give you a glimpse at this year’s Wizards squad.

Let us now move on to what to watch for on the Sacramento Kings in tonight’s game.

What to Watch for?

Another New Starting Lineup?

It seems like Coach Dave Joerger changes the starting lineup every game now. Will Darren Collison start? Matt Barnes? Kosta Koufos? Arron Afflalo? I really do not know anymore either. The only two guaranteed starters are DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay and anything after that is an educated guess.

I expect that Coach Joerger begins to tip his hand in the near future on the starting lineup. He will either start playing the matchups or he will stick with a firm starting unit. Be on the lookout for yet another piece of information in tonight’s game.

Continuing the Wizards’ Struggles

Sacramento needs to come out and figuratively punch Washington in the mouth. The Wizards have struggled this season and Sacramento needs to get an early led and keep that doubt in the Wizards’ minds.

I expect the Kings fade slightly down the stretch because it is the second of a back-to-back, so grabbing an early lead while combat that problem too. This is a winnable contest for the Kings if they play a clean game and limit mistakes.

Summary

There you have it, the game preview for tonight’s contest against the Washington Wizards. If you live in the greater Washington DC area head out to tonight’s game and cheer on the Kings. If you are stuck at home, then tune in and cheer like crazy for Sacramento from your couch.

It should be a good entertaining game between two teams who want to push for the playoffs but have struggled so far. Here is to hoping the Kings leave the nation’s capital tonight victorious.

Check back to A Royal Pain for the game recap and everything you need to know about the Sacramento Kings this season. Thank you for reading.