NBA Predictions: Predicting Sacramento Kings vs Detroit Pistons

Saturday, January 19th, 2019 7 p.m. Little Caesar’s Arena

The Detroit Pistons will host the young Sacramento Kings on Saturday night. Both teams are out of the playoff picture but the Kings have a winning record at 23-22. The Pistons are just 1.5 games out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Kings come into Detroit with a record of 9-12 on the road and are 4-6 in their last ten games.

The Pistons beat the Orlando Magic in overtime on Wednesday night and are 12-10 at home with a win against Miami on Friday night before facing Sacramento.

Expectations For The Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons will be tired as they played the Miami Heat Friday Night. The Detroit Pistons have been a streaky team all season.

They could be due to extend to a three-game winning streak or start a mini losing run. Expect them to rely heavily on post offense and points in the paint. The Pistons get 25ppg from Blake Griffin and 16 points from Andre Drummond.

Griffin operates down low like a point forward and averages over 5apg for the Pistons. The frontcourt duo of Drummond and Griffin also account for 23 rebounds per game.

In their overtime victory over the Magic, Drummond grabbed 22 rebounds. Expect the Pistons to dominate the battle of the backboards in this contest.

The Pistons do average 34 three-point attempts per game but only shoot them at a 33% rate.

The Pistons will need to improve their long-range efficiency as those 34 attempts from three-point range represent nearly 37% of their total shot attempts per game. At the moment, small forward Reggie Bullock is 39.4% from the three-point arc and Griffin is at 36%.

Expect the Pistons to try and grind this game out by getting to the foul line where they average around 24 free throws per game.

Detroit is 23rd in the NBA in turnovers giving the ball away over 15 times a game. They need to take care of the ball so expect them to slow things down against a Kings team that wants to run.

Expectations for the Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings are an up-tempo team who you can expect to push the pace looking for fast break points.

They average 21.7fbpg which is best in the NBA. However, they only had 4 against Charlotte in their last loss. The Kings are also a fairly high scoring team averaging 114.2 points per game.

They get 20 points a game from Buddy Hield, nearly 18 from De’Aaron Fox, 15 from Bogdan Bogdanovic and 13 from Willie Cauley-Stein. In fact, the Kings get double-digit scoring from six different players every game.

This is supported by the fact that the Kings share the ball averaging 25 .7 assists per game.

They are led by De’Aaron Fox who averages 7.3 assists per game. The Kings are 10th overall in turnovers in the NBA so the pace and efficiency that their offense is played at are very good. Expect the Kings to share the ball.

Key Players

Fox is shooting 37% from the three-point arc and 47% overall from the field

The Sacramento Kings have a star in the making in one De’Aaron Fox. The sophomore is having a splendid season so far averaging 17.7 ppg and 7.3 apg. Fox is shooting 37% from the three-point arc and 47% overall from the field.

In the Kings’ previous match with the Pistons, Fox scored 16 points and had 9 assists. Buddy Hield is also a dominant performer for the Kings. Hield averages 20 points per game on 44.7% shooting from behind the arc and shoots 47.8% overall.

The Detroit Pistons will be led by Blake Griffin. Their all-star power forward averages 25 points a game but also provides over 5 assists.

In his last game against Orlando, he scored 30 points in an overtime victory. When the Pistons last played Sacramento on January 10th, 2019, Griffin did not play.

Andre Drummond is a double-double machine for the Pistons. In that last meeting against Sacramento, he had 12points and 11 rebounds.

In Wednesday night’s victory over the Orlando Magic Drummond grabbed 22 rebounds to go along with 14 points. For the season, Drummond is averaging 16.7 ppg and 15.1 rpg.

Prediction

In general, the Sacramento Kings are playing better basketball than the Detroit Pistons. However, the Pistons are coming off of a win against Orlando and the Kings lost their last contest to Charlotte.

This will be the second game of a six-game road trip for the Sacramento Kings. The Pistons play Friday night against the Miami Heat so the game against the Kings will be on the back end of a back to back set of games. The Kings should win this game with the final score about 110-101.