Kings challenge Spurs

Week 14 will see the top two teams in the Western Conference go at each other. The Kings currently trail the Spurs by only 1.5 games and are #2 overall in the league.

Recently: The Kings have shuffled their roster a lot lately and were winners of 8 straight at the end of week 13. The Spurs have stood pat lately, but have lost 3 in a row for the second time this season. The three opponents however where the Bucks, Nets and Sixers and The Spurs were without Embiid.

Previous matchup: There was one previous matchup this season, which the Spurs took 110-105 at the AT&T Center. The Spurs had their twin towers for that one and the Kings front-court looked very different to what it does now. Davis had 35 points and the San Antonio starters dominated their Kings' counterparts while it was vice versa with the benches, making it a rather close game.

The insurgent: The Kings recently acquired defensive stalwart Tyson Chandler. Then flipped fan favorite Klay Thompson for Carmelo Anthony, who they are now playing as a vogue stretch four. Then they went out and flipped some pieces for Rajan Rondo this week.

Melo looked good as a power forward for the Kings in his first five games. But he went against two other converted small forwards in Paul George, Mike Scott and finesse players in Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge and Jon Leuer. His 6 rpg leave a bit to be desired, but Chandler gobbled up 15, so Melo doesn't really have to excert himself on the boards.

It will be interesting to see whether he can use his footspeed to score on the much bigger Davis. Defensively he wont be able to slow him down, but no one can do that currently. Maybe he can get him in foul-trouble, which would bring the entire Spurs offense down with it.

Splits: Behind Melo in the Kings' pecking order is (former Spur) Reggie Jackson at 17ppg and much depends on how efficiently he scores the ball. He is shooting 47% in wins and 39% in losses. Even more frappant is his 3pt% of 40% in wins vs 26% in losses. It makes sense, since he is a scoring guard more than a distributor, who cannot really make up for an off shooting night on the defensive end either.

He will be guarded by (former King) Mike Conley, who is a playmaker and defender first, who picks his spots to shoot carefully. He is shooting 45% in wins vs. 43% in the Spurs losses.

Both players have something to prove to their former teams, just in different areas.

After Jackson, things get a bit muddy for the Kings. There are four more players scoring in double figures (i wont count Nick Collision, who's sample size is 1). Morris and Batum can drop 20 on you occasionally, but wont to so on a consistant basis. And Tyson, he will dunk on you if you don't box him out.

Top Dogs: For the Spurs everything goes through AD, or Embiid (if he suits up). Davis' 61 touches are tops among (real) bigs, narrowly beating out Boogie Cousins. Conley is a perfect complement, the brains to the engine that is AD.

The Spurs remaining starters are nothing to get excited about on paper. Coutney Lee is a sniper and feeding of the attention paid to Conley and Davis, shoots 50/44 for a TS% of over 60%. Much better numbers than what he shot for Boston. Harkless has turned himself into a good defender and can finish inside. And Bogut will knock you down, if you enter his zone.

Looking at the splits, this caught my attention. Looks like AD going commando is not a good idea for the Spurs. Pop certainly has noticed it too:

Split	G	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	3PM	3PA	3P%	FTM	FTA	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TPG	FPG	PPG	+/-
In Games Won	39	39	33.6	412	752	0.55	50	127	0.39	169	216	0.78	11.4	2.4	1.2	1.8	1.5	2.5	26.7	13.0
In Games Lost	11	11	34.7	128	221	0.58	13	29	0.45	66	74	0.89	11.3	1.8	1.2	1.9	1.7	3.2	30.5	-6.0

Team ratings: The Spurs are the top defensive team in the league. Small wonder as they are anchored by the new twin towers and have Bogut to boot, but play at the pace of a dead snail (28th). Other than that they basically top 5 in every category. What do you expect, they're the best team in the league.

Pace is the one angle the Kings may be able to exploit. They are only average in pace at well, but they cannot allow the Spurs to dictate the tempo. Other than free-throws, the Kings are top 10 everywhere too, but they also trail the Spurs in every category.