The Sacramento Kings hope to turn a single success into a much-needed home winning streak when they host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
The Kings (34-33) fell to .500 and into ninth place in the Western Conference over the weekend following a four-game losing streak that included 29-, 26- and 16-point defeats, the latter two on the road.
Comforted by two days off, Sacramento headed back in a position direction when it returned home to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 132-122 on Monday. They now jump into the teeth of their seven-game homestand that also features visits from the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Kings begin play Wednesday four games out of eighth place in the West, with far greater competition pursuing them from behind. The Dallas Mavericks currently reside two games back in 10th, the last play-in spot, while the Phoenix Suns are another game behind in 11th.
Even the end of their losing streak Monday couldn’t be celebrated, as the Kings watched Domantas Sabonis leave the game with a sprained right ankle.
Further examination Tuesday revealed the star big man likely will miss the rest of the homestand. Sabonis was officially ruled out for Wednesday.
Teammate Malik Monk tried to take a positive approach after the win.
“Domas (is) strong,” he said. “He’ll probably be back sooner than we think.”
With Sabonis limited to 12 minutes, Monk (28 points), Zach LaVine (23) and DeMar DeRozan (22) led the way against the Grizzlies.
Sixty-eight games into the season, the Kings will be seeing the Cavaliers for the first time. The clubs will meet in a rematch in Cleveland in Game 78 on April 6.
While Sacramento is just settling into a homestand, Cleveland opened a five-game Western swing with a 132-119 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday.
After completing the back-to-back, the Cavaliers will also see the Suns, Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers before heading home.
Cleveland (56-12), the runaway leader in the Eastern Conference, began the Tuesday contest in impressive fashion, running up 45 first-quarter points against the Clippers.
However, the Cavaliers added only 28 and 29 in the middle two periods, and when they got outscored 26-17 in the fourth quarter, they had just their third losing streak of the year.
Cleveland has dropped two games in a row, one game short of its season-worst skid, which occurred in late January.
Playing in California for the first time since they represented the franchise at the All-Star Game in San Francisco, Donovan Mitchell (18 points), Darius Garland (17) and Evan Mobley (17) combined for 52 points in the loss to the Clippers. Max Strus put up a season-high 24 points.
Los Angeles made 54.8 percent of its shots from the floor, including 16 of 35 (45.7 percent) from 3-point range.
“Elite shot-making performance by them,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Poor defensive performance by us. … Sure, they shot the ball great, maybe a little over their head, but our lack of discipline, fouling them, putting them on the line and then giving them second-chance points, so even though they did have an elite shot-making game, we didn’t do the little things.
“We weren’t disciplined on the margins, and that’s why you give up 132 points.
“Just gotta be better. That kind of defensive performance, you’re not going to survive in a playoff atmosphere.”
