The Sacramento Kings have been scoring a lot recently, averaging 140.5 points in their last two games and 127.2 points in their past five games.
The New Orleans Pelicans, on the other hand, have been allowing an average of 122 points in their last four games.
There’s a high chance for a high-scoring game when the Kings play the Pelicans on Thursday night. The Kings had an easy 141-97 win over the Utah Jazz on Sunday, following a 140-113 victory at San Antonio two days earlier.
Sacramento coach Mike Brown commented on the Sunday game, saying, “The ball was touching the paint and getting sprayed. We were spacing correctly. We were getting off the glass and running, and we didn’t get bored with it. And that’s why the game resulted in what it did.”
One of the standout stats was that the Kings made 22 of 44 3-point attempts, with Doug McDermott and Kevin Huerter both making six 3-pointers off the bench.
Brown didn’t want the focus to be just on the 3-point shooting. “I hope the story is about how we played defensively,” he said. “Our guys did a hell of a job defensively for 48 minutes, and whether you make threes or miss threes, if you bring an effort like that, especially on the defensive end of the floor, and you try to get out and run, you’re going to find a way to win.”
Brown added that the Kings didn’t change anything in terms of making 3-pointers. “We’re telling them the same thing. Touch the paint and spray it … and if somebody closes out to you, then drive, kick, swing … and if you’re open, shoot it.”
The Pelicans have been scoring an average of 115.8 points in their last four games, but they’ve lost three of those games because their defense has been weak. They’ve also lost 11 of their last 12 games.
Coach Willie Green acknowledged, “We’ve got to guard the ball better. We’ve got to keep teams out of our paint. We’ve got to do better in transition. We haven’t been good in those areas.”
With the NBA Cup giving them some time off, Green has been using the extra practice time to focus on improving weaknesses. “It’s almost like a training camp for us,” he said.
Both teams will have had three days off before their Thursday matchup. After that, they will both play only once more before December 19.
Green mentioned, “It’s great for us in the sense that we got a day off to fill our cup, rest, recover. We had two high-level, detailed practices. It allows you to take a step back and look at some of our concepts that we’re doing well and areas that we can improve in and try to pick some of those to go work on the floor and work on.”
While Brown is downplaying the Kings’ success with 3-point shooting, Green is encouraging the Pelicans to focus more on long-range shooting. He said the team’s 13-of-38 performance from behind the arc in a 121-116 loss at San Antonio on Sunday was “closer” to his goal of taking 40 “quality threes.”
Trey Murphy III led the Pelicans with four 3-pointers and 25 points in the game.
Last season, the Pelicans won all five matchups against the Kings. The teams will play each other three more times in February.
