Wizards at Kings
The Washington Wizards aren't having very much fun yet on the west coast portion of their road trip after back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors by a total of six points. The Wizards will try to finish the four-game trip off with a win when they visit the Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
Washington, which began its trip with a 109-104 win at Denver on Monday, fell in overtime to the Lakers and then watched second-leading scorer Bradley Beal get tossed from Friday's loss in the first half after a scuffle with Golden State's Draymond Green. "Things were said," Beal who apologized to his teammates at halftime, told reporters. "Things were done throughout the whole game. But I'm not going to go into detail." The Kings are trying to bring along a slew of young players and will give some of them extra time on Sunday by resting veterans. Sacramento is expected to give point guard George Hill and power forward Zach Randolph a night off while elevating rookie De'Aaron Fox into the starting lineup.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, NBCSN Washington, NBCSN California (Sacramento)
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (3-2): Beal failed to reach 20 points for the first time this season when he was tossed with four points on 2-of-7 shooting Friday. The 24-year-old logged at least 35 minutes in each of the first four games and was noticeably absent in the final quarter against the Warriors. "I told my teammates, I can’t put myself in a situation like that to leave them out there to battle out against a tough team without me out there," Beal told reporters. "Granted, we still could’ve won the game. I felt like I can’t put my guys in that type of situation."
ABOUT THE KINGS (1-4): Fox leads Sacramento in scoring (14.8 points) and assists (five) while shooting 50 percent from 3-point range. The Kentucky product followed up a season-best 19 points at Phoenix in a 117-115 loss on Monday with 14 points against New Orleans on Thursday but slumped to 4-of-13 from the floor. Fox formed an early bond with fellow rookie Bogdan Bogdanovic, who missed the first three games of the season with an ankle injury but scored in double figures in each of his first two games while sharing time on the second unit with Fox.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Kings PF Skal Labissiere is averaging 12.2 points on 54.3 percent shooting and could start in place of Randolph on Sunday.
2. Wizards PG John Wall is 17-of-55 from the floor, including 3-of-15 from 3-point range, on the road trip.
3. Washington took each of the two meetings last season in overtime.