Kings at Rockets
The Sacramento Kings face elimination from the Western Conference playoff race with their next setback. Making matters worse is that the Kings have lost nine straight games in Houston entering Saturday's matchup with the streaking Rockets.
Sacramento is 6 1/2 games behind eighth-place San Antonio for the final playoff spot with seven left to play and visits the Spurs on Sunday in the second end of the back-to-back. Though the idea of a postseason berth is close to evaporating, the Kings can achieve a winning record for the first time since the 2005-06 season by winning five of their final seven games. Houston is battling the Portland Trail Blazers for the third seed and kept the heat on with Thursday's 112-85 home trouncing of the Denver Nuggets for its 13th victory in the past 16 games. All-Star guard James Harden scored 38 points and is averaging 41.4 over the past five games, including efforts of 61 and 57 points.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, NBCS California (Sacramento), AT&T SportsNet Southwest (Houston)
ABOUT THE KINGS (37-38): Shooting guard Buddy Hield scored 27 points in Thursday's costly 121-118 road loss to the New Orleans Pelicans and watched his 3-point attempt with four seconds left rim out to cap a 1-of-8 effort from long range. Point guard De'Aaron Fox recorded 25 points and 12 assists against New Orleans for his first double-double since March 1 and he is averaging 24 points and 10 assists over the last two games. Rookie power forward Marvin Bagley III is averaging 12 points and five rebounds over the past two outings after averaging 22.4 points and 10 rebounds over the previous five contests.
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (48-28): Houston put forth a strong defensive effort in the rout of the Nuggets as it limited Denver to 36.9 percent from the field, including 4-of-24 from 3-point range. "Outside of the first quarter, I feel like we played our defense," forward P.J. Tucker told reporters. "We were aggressive, we helped each other, we stuck to our principles on what we wanted to do against this team. And when we do that, we feel like we could beat anybody on any given night." Backup shooting guard Eric Gordon scored 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting against the Nuggets after missing all seven shots during 23 scoreless minutes in a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Rockets are 2-0 against the Kings this season with the victories coming by margins of 20 and 26 points.
2. Houston PF Kenneth Faried (knee) will miss his third straight game.
3. Sacramento PF Nemanja Bjelica (illness) departed Thursday's game and is questionable to play against the Rockets.