West Finalists Revive Rivalry

An exciting matchup this week with the Sacramento Kings visiting the San Antonio Spurs in a replay of last year’s Western Conference finals. This is the second meeting for the season, with the Spurs currently 1-0 up in the head to head.  Both teams are top 4 in the west, but have struggling a little recently, injuries, chemistry and playbooks still being worked out this early into the season.  

Previous Matchup

They have already met this year in round 3 at AT&T Center. The Kings were within 4 points near the start of the final quarter, with the Spurs running away victors 101 – 117.  It was the Davis show with 45 points and 15 rebounds, Melo was important for Kings with 33 points. 

Sacramento Kings

Kings are a top team in the West who go into this match low on confidence. Having a record of 5-5 in recent games, last round losing 3 very winnable games, the players will be looking to get back onto winning ways.  Melo leads the team in scoring, delivering on a regular basis, Boban is his unlikely partner smashing expectations and providing a threat down low. So far this season, the starting line-up has changed every week, with this starting line-up having the most success in wins and expected wins. 

GM Klemm has built the Kings around chemistry and finding the best players who fit together in 2k, instead of relying on the NBA names and standard positions. Moves this season have proven this, trading out James Johnson a top 10 rated Power forward who seemed to underperform. Bringing in Darren Collison, a pass first point guard, with 80 rated defence to lead the team. PJ was traded in last week, going straight into the starting line-up, Kings may have regretted this move, the team -9.8 with him on the court. 

Ranking:

2nd West          10-10

Offense            13th

Defense            9th

Rebounding      16th

Leaders:

Points               C. Anthony       25.6 ppg

Rebounds        P. Gasol            9.3 rpg

Assists             D. Collison        6.8 apg

Injuries:

Mike Muscala (Ankle), Okaro White (Foot), Jahlil Okafor (Personal - traded)

San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs have the best big combination in the league, Embiid and Davis make it impossible to stop both on any given night. Based on stats, both players are even better this season than they were last year in a championship season.  The hardest test for this juggernaut has been losing both starting guards for all but 1 week of the season so far. 

Having started the season with an 8-2 rush, the team has since struggled winning 4 of the last 10 to bring them almost back to the pack. The starting line-up will change for the 6th time in 6 weeks, Joel Embiid will be a welcome return after a week of rest. Another notable change is Harkless who has been in and out of the starting lineup, moving to shooting guard which could generate matchup problem with his height and length. 

Ranking:

2nd West          12-8

Offense            11th

Defense            7th

Rebounding      10th

Leaders:

Points               A. Davis           32.2

Rebounds        J. Embiid          11.1

Assists             M. Conley         11.0

Injuries:

Alan Williams (Knee), Patrick Beverley (Knee), Mike Conley (Achilles)

Match ups: 

Boban Marjanovic vs Joel Embiid

The Boganator has been incredible since moving to the starting lineup averaging 21.5ppg, 11.4rbg, 2.3spg and 2.3 bpg, the team is +4.7 better when he is on the court.  Embiid may just top that averaging 24.4ppg, 11.1rbg, 1.8spg and 2.1 bpg, the team is +7.3 better when he is on the court. This is a pretty even matchup, Embiid plays a couple more minutes, yet Boban is more productive when on the court, Boban with the slight advantage here only if he doesn’t get in foul trouble like the previous matchup.

Pau Gasol vs Anthony Davis

Pau has his work cut out for him this week, playing against the number 1 rated player in the NLL. Gasol has only played PF one round this season, and makes his way back into the starting line-up with Okafor’s time off. Pau will contribute decent numbers around the 15points and 10 rebounds. Davis on the other hand will dominate this game as he does every game, expect him to be an X-factor and double Pau's contribution, if not triple.

Carmelo Anthony vs T.J. Warren

Melo is the engine room for the Kings and will be relied on heavily again. In Kings wins, Melo scores more, he rebounds more and the team is +14.3 with Melo on the court, in losses he costs the team -6.2. T.J has recently taken over the starting Small Forward position, he puts up serviceable numbers, staying out of the way, taking only 7 shots. The biggest risk will be on defence, TJ is a pretty ordinary defender and the team may regret playing him on Melo with a better option available.

Courtney Lee vs Maurice Harkless 

Both players are great defenders, the main advantage here, Lee is meant to be a gun shooter, not sure how that is meant to happen when you only take 5 shots a game, hitting 50% of them. Harkless otherwise stays hidden, be interesting with the change of position if he takes more than 2 shots a game. Based on insane wages, on average, both players are getting paid $85,000 each time they get a bucket in. Lee might make 1 shot more, so he gets the advantage.  

Darren Collison vs Ramon Sessions

The matchups of the generals could help decide the result. The last time they met, it was Collison’s first game for the Kings and Session’s first as a starter for the Spurs, that was the last time Collison scored over 10 points. Since then Sessions has been the better of the 2 averaging 7ppg and 10 assists as a starter, Collision will hopefully see this is a chance to reignite his season, but Sessions has the advantage here.

Bench

Spurs have a quality bench, arguably one of the best in the league, lead by the dynamic Lou Williams who can tear teams apart. It will be a great test for Mike James after signing his new contract. Last season Kings had arguably the best Bench in the league, this season they are yet to click. The Kings bench one of the main reasons for the loss in the last matchup going -13 while on the court, since then it has had an overhaul bringing in James, PJ tucker and Tarik Black. Spurs will be hard to stop here, I think the Kings will be hoping at best to break even. 

The bench, this was a huge factor the last time they met and will again come into play. The Kings will have a newly untested bench, the Spurs will have the advantage coming into the matchup and if they dominate again, it will be game over.