Sacramento at San Antonio
Time: 7:30 PM CT (NBA LP)
Spread: SAS -12
Total: 195.5
Betting odds c/o 5dimes
The Sacramento Kings are predictably free-falling after having dealt DeMarcus Cousins. Sacto has lost its past five games and now is four games out of the No. 8 seed in the West. Their chances of claiming that final playoff spot are distant and remote, and taking on the San Antonio Spurs tonight probably will not help that cause any.
The Kings find itself 12-point underdogs to the Spurs, who have posted a 22-6 mark at home this season and won its past eight contests. San Antonio remains in hot pursuit of Golden State, trailing the Warriors by just 2.5 games in the standings with some 20 games remaining in the 2016-17 regular season.
Can the Spurs catch Golden State? It seems quite likely. The Warriors are without Kevin Durant and the Spurs are simply rolling along, hot, winning and not really worrying about any potential chatter regarding what is actually happening in the standings. It just fits the team demeanor, and Kawhi Leonard is the most unemotional dominant superstar since Tim Duncan (Imagine that). Leonard is probably the best two-way talent in the Association, but the MVP and accolades are so offensively-focused that any chances of Leonard getting the league’s MVP award die with his 25 point per game average.
He gives San Antonio just what it needs offensively, but the display is a lot less overwhelming than Russell Westbrook and James Harden’s relatively singular offensive attacks. Leonard fitting in so well with his teammates and being a consummate team player actually works against him in winning an award that is given far too much attention anyway (but that digression can be saved for another time and place).
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What is certain is that Leonard puts the clamps on the best wing players nightly, all the while putting up big scoring numbers of his own. The Spurs have a +8.2 point differential and are the only Western Conference team other than Utah to hold opponents to under 100 points per game (and have a plus-.500 record, because Dallas would be in this conversation otherwise). The Spurs’ elite defensive prowess sometimes overshadows just how good and deep the team is, and Gregg Popovich made another brilliant call in promoting Dewayne Dedmon to the starting lineup.
It has allowed Pau Gasol to add a major lift to the bench, and Dedmon can more than hold his own with the starters. He is not an offensive wizard in the mode of Gasol, but his defensive contributions and strong finishing ability on the offensive end make him almost too perfect a fit for a Pop-led team. Of course, Orlando just evaluated Dedmon for three seasons and was unable to draw the conclusion that they once again let a very useful rotation player go for nothing.
Credit Magic GM Rob Hennigan for finding him in the D-League, but Hennigan undid his good work by simply letting Dedmon go. The Spurs swooped in like vultures, and this is part of the Spurs’ M.O. and a reason they have been the most successful pro franchise in the past 25-plus seasons.
Sacramento is really just a strange amalgam of discarded NBA talents still trying to hang on. Ty Lawson has become a featured player in the star-less attack, and Darren Collison is making the most of the opportunity, too. But perhaps what NBA fans are most eager to see is if Buddy Hield could in any way be worth the immense cost Sacramento paid to obtain him.
DeMarcus Cousins certainly could have brought a bigger trade return, but Vivek Randavive keyed in on Hield on draft night and did not let his dream of obtaining the Wooden winner die when Sacto missed him in the draft.
Instead, the Kings now are wagering that Randavive’s prognostications are not as crazy as they sound; he actually had the audacity to heap the pressure upon Hield of being “the next Steph Curry.” If that happens, the Kings and the Randavive ownership group will have its last laugh. But for a franchise that has missed 11-straight postseasons (should it falter this year as it likely will), it is far more likely that the Cousins trade is every bit as bad as it looked initially.
Certainly, Sacto’s recent struggles are indicative mostly of that, not that New Orleans is clipping along so great with Cousins in town, either. Perhaps just moving past Cousins was the right move, but the Kings really should have managed to get a little more with Hield, if he had to be the focus of their trade efforts as it was.
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