Kings at Trail Blazers
The road-weary Portland Trail Blazers play at home for the first time since Nov. 23 when they host the Sacramento Kings on Saturday. Portland is back in friendly territory after going 2-5 on a seven-game road trip. Both victories on the trip came in overtime and the excursion ended with a loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. The Kings have won back-to-back games but possess the second-worst record in the Pacific Division.
The Trail Blazers made a season-best 14 3-pointers when they posted a 103-86 victory over the Kings in Sacramento on Nov. 13. Rookie Damian Lillard made five of them while scoring 22 points. Lillard was the NBA’s Rookie of the Month for November and has scored 20 or more points 10 times. The Kings were without DeMarcus Cousins (suspension) during the earlier meeting. Sacramento is winless in six road games this season.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, Comcast SportsNet California (Sacramento), KGW (Portland), NBATV
ABOUT THE KINGS (6-12): Starting guard Tyreke Evans sat out for the third time in four games when he missed Friday’s victory over Orlando. Evans scored 23 points in Wednesday’s victory over Toronto before being scratched prior to Friday’s game and is questionable to play against Portland. Francisco Garcia started for the first time this season but the biggest development was guards Isaiah Thomas and Jimmer Fredette being paired together for a large chunk of the fourth quarter. Thomas finished with 17 points and Fredette tallied 15. “He was aggressive, I was aggressive, and we fed off each other,” Thomas said. “We wanted to bring a different pace to the game.”
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (8-11): Center JJ Hickson has nine double-doubles but had run into a rut before breaking out with 14 points and 12 rebounds against Indiana. Hickson had just eight total boards in a three-game span prior to regaining his form. The mini-slump followed a contest in which Hickson had 15 points and a season-high 19 rebounds against the Washington Wizards. Hickson is averaging 11.0 points and 9.8 rebounds and has 11 double-digit rebounding efforts. Hickson, who played in 35 games for Sacramento last season, had 10 points and 13 rebounds in the mid-November meeting.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Kings have won just one of their last seven contests in Portland. The Trail Blazers have an average winning margin of 13.5 during their six victories during the stretch.
2. Sacramento G Marcus Thornton has gone 1-of-7 from the field in each of the last two games while scoring just eight total points.
3. Portland F Nicolas Batum (back) could be a game-time decision.