Memphis Grizzlies: Previewing The Four-Game Road Trip

Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings have been one of the biggest surprises of the NBA season so far. They were expected to be near the bottom of the west but they are right in the thick of the western conference playoff race.

These two teams split the previous meetings with the home team winning in each game. Both games were decided by single digits so we should expect that in this meeting as well.

Each team point guard played well in the previous matchups so it’ll be interesting to see which team will have the edge at that spot.

In the first two games, De’Aaron Fox averaged 22 points and 8 assists while Mike Conley averaged 23 points and 5.5 assists.

We should expect a pretty even matchup between those two but the Grizzlies should have the advantage inside.

In both meetings before the winning team scored 54 points in the paint. In the Kings win they had 54 to the Grizzlies 44 and then Memphis had 54 to Sacramento’s 42 in their win.

JaMychal Green didn’t play in either of the previous matchups due to injury so expect him to have some success in this game.

Joakim Noah was also still not on the team in either of the first two games so expect him to provide some key minutes off the bench as he has so far for this team.

A guy they want to get going is rookie Jaren Jackson Jr. He was such a key part of their offense early on but he has struggled to get going recently.

So far in December, he is averaging just 11 points per game while only taking eight shots per game. That is well below the 10.5 he shot during November.

In the home win over the Kings, he had 27 points and 6 rebounds so they would like to try and duplicate that success in this one.

With how much this team has struggled to score the ball they need to find a way to score consistently and Jackson may be their best option to do so.

Marvin Bagley recently suffered a knee injury so it isn’t very likely that we get to see the two young bigs matchup as we did in the previous meetings.

For all the talk some of the youngsters get for Sacramento they have other guys who are among the most underrated players in the game.

Leading off with that is their starting center Willie Cauley-Stein. He is averaging 14.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

Cauley-Stein is just 25 years old and has developed in a starting center that the Kings can use for the long-term future.

Another guy who has been questioned is shooting guard Buddy Hield. Coming out of Oklahoma everyone knew he could score but he was struggling to adjust to the NBA.

He was selected 6th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Pelicans. It didn’t work out for him there and he would be a part of the trade package to Sacramento that brought DeMarcus Cousins to the Pelicans.

He came off the bench to start his time with the Kings but so far this season he has started in every game and he has taken full advantage of his opportunity.

In 28 games this season Hield is averaging 18.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. He has done that on 48% shooting overall and 43% from three-point range.

The Kings have a lot of young guys that can give the Grizzlies problems. If Memphis can play hard defense and contain the starters then this game will be very winnable.

They let the first game in Sacramento get away from them. They will do whatever it takes to make sure that it doesn’t happen again this time around.