Nets at Kings
The Brooklyn Nets see piles of losses building up and they attempt to halt their 16-game slide when they visit the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday. Brooklyn dropped the first two contests of the eight-game Circus Trip with stops at Denver and Golden State and has won just one of its past 28 games.
Brooklyn is just three games away from matching the dubious team mark for consecutive losses and allowed 100 or more points in 32 of the past 33 games. "We're always giving ourselves a chance," Nets center Brook Lopez told reporters. "We're within two or three in the last few minutes, and it's just little mental mistakes. I don't know if that has to do with our youth." Sacramento lost its second straight game when it suffered a 102-88 home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Kings are 1 1/2 games behind the eighth-place Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference playoff race.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, YES (Brooklyn), CSN California (Sacramento)
ABOUT THE NETS (9-49): Lopez is coming off his second-lowest scoring outing of the season as he tallied just nine points on 3-of-13 shooting and committed four turnovers against the Warriors. "I don't think I did a good job offensively at all," Lopez told reporters afterward. "I turned the ball over a lot. I didn't make shots I should have made. It just felt like a one-off night for me. I definitely have to do better next game." On a brighter note, Lopez is just 10 points away from becoming the second player in franchise history to score 10,000 points -- Buck Williams is the leader with 10,440.
ABOUT THE KINGS (25-35): Sacramento is in transition mode after trading All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans. The move leaves the Kings without a bona fide go-to scorer and nobody scored more than 14 points against the Timberwolves despite six players scoring in double digits. "With some of the new guys and very slowly putting in more plays, it's going to be a little stagnant," guard Darren Collison told reporters of the offense. "But I'm more confident that once we get things rolling, everything is going to be fine."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Kings are 21-9 at home against the Nets during the Sacramento era.
2. Sacramento backup SG Buddy Hield is averaging 13 points in three games since being acquired in the Cousins deal.
3. Brooklyn backup SG Sean Kilpatrick is just 17-of-51 shooting over the past three games.