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Two of the best young guards in the NBA faceoff on Friday when the Sacramento Kings (27-19, 5th in the West) travel to take on the Indiana Pacers (27-21, 6th in the East). Indiana will be playing on their second night of a back-to-back, as they are playing in New York on Thursday (Note: Article was published before the results of the Pacers/Knicks game). The Kings are coming off a road loss in Miami, going down 115-106 to the Heat as 2.5-point underdogs. In the Pacers' most recent action, they lost in Boston 129-124 as 7.5-point underdogs. This is the second and final matchup between these teams this season, with the Pacers winning the first game by five on the road. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 EST from Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
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The Sacramento Kings are right in the middle of a seven game road trip. They started out in the West then gradually moved East on their journey. They have been playing well in the trip, then won their first three games in Golden State, Dallas, and Memphis, before finally losing in Miami coming into this matchup. In the game against the Heat, Sacramento was led by Keegan Murray with 33 points, including 7 three pointers in the loss.
THROW IT DOWN YOUNG FELLA! ??
Keegan goes baseline and throws it down! ?? pic.twitter.com/Sia1hBo14V
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) February 1, 2024
The Kings are led in scoring by their dynamic point guard De'Aaron Fox with 27.2 PPG, while adding 5.5 APG and 4.1 RPG. He has become a strong shooter from the outside, he is making 3.0 threes per game on 38.0% shooting from deep. He only shot 4-16 with 13 points against the Heat, but put up 34 two games before that against Dallas. Domantas Sabonis is leading the league in rebounding with 13.0 per game, while scoring 19.9 PPG and leading the team in assists with 8.0 per game. Sabonis had a triple double against Miami with 19 points, 17 rebounds and 13 assists. Keegan Murray continues to improve, he is averaging 16.1 PPG and 5.5 RPG as a stretch-four. Harrison Barnes (11.8 PPG) and Kevin Huerter (10.9 PPG) are two more shooters that fill out the starting lineup.
Malik Monk is a high energy scorer off the bench, he is often in the lineup in crunch time and is averaging 14.2 PPG. Trey Lyles and Davion Mitchell got the rest of the minut es off the bench in recent games. The Kings rank 14th in the NBA in offensive efficiency and 16th in defensive efficiency according to dunksandthrees.com. The Kings play at the 11th fastest tempo in the NBA.
Injury Report:
Out: Sasha Vezenkov