Kings vs. Pelicans Play-In Preview & Predictions: It all comes down to this

Kings fans are riding high after Tuesday’s Play-In victory against the Golden State Warriors.  Sacramento not only won that must-win game against a hated rival, they did so in dominant fashion.  With that victory, the Kings earned one final shot at making the playoffs, with the winner of tonight’s game moving on to face Oklahoma City in the first round.  But in order to do so, they’ll have to topple a team that has beaten them five times this season in the New Orleans Pelicans. Zion Williamson-less or not, this is going to be a tough battle.

Let’s talk Kings basketball!

When: Friday, April 19th, 6:30 PM PT
Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
TV: TNT, truTV
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140

Three Things

Sixth times the charm?

Thanks to the inaugural in-season tournament, the Kings and Pelicans faced off five times this season.  New Orleans came out on top each time, and in convincing fashion too: the average margin of victory was 19.2 points.  If the Kings had managed to take even two of those games, they might not even be in this predicament right now, but alas here we are.

The Pelicans are a tough matchup for the Kings, sporting multiple long wings, good shooters across the board and a starting center who matches up well with Domantas Sabonis.  Now, the Kings do have one thing going for them tonight in that Zion Williamson, an absolute matchup nightmare for the Kings, will not be playing.  But even that’s no guarantee, as Sacramento lost by 33 in the lone game Zion missed in the season series.  Still, Zion being out means one less problem for the Kings to have to deal with, and this Pelicans team already presents the Kings with a lot of problems.

This game is going to come down to if the Kings can finally figure out how to get stops against the Pelicans.  New Orleans’ offense was pretty good for the season, ranking 11th overall.  But against the Kings this year, they might as well have been the ’92 Dream Team.  The Pelicans shot an absolutely ridiculous 54.6% from the field and 45.1% from three over five games against Sacramento.  That’s hard for a lone player to do over five games, let alone an entire team!  The Pelicans did play most of their games against the Kings before the new and improved defense had shown up, but even in their last matchup against the Kings a little over a week ago, they were able to drop 135 points, the most the Kings have allowed since the All-Star break.

No player has enjoyed playing the Kings…