NBA Matchups: April 7

SAC @ DET | PHI @ MIA

Sacramento Kings (back end) at Detroit Pistons

Team Totals: Kings 111, Pistons 119

Injury Report: Kings on a B2B, Jalen Duren (Q, foot), Tobias Harris (Q, heel)

Kings projected starters: Keon Ellis, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis

Pistons projected starters: Cade Cunningham, Tim Hardaway Jr., Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

Christie quotes: Said they have to take away the joy from other teams, said Sabonis is always willing to sacrifice his body (was Q on Friday), said LaVine was aggressive with his shot, said Trey Lyles was the DPOG and he did so much more than score, said they liked to play out of the middle with Sabonis against the Cavs.

Bickerstaff quotes: Said the Grizzlies had too much size for them, said they wanted to be “around that number” of 28 for Cade Cunningham.

Stats and Notes: 

*The Kings were finally able to snap their losing streak on Friday, but they get a really tough B2B in Cleveland and Detroit here. Their defense just hasn’t been the same over the last month, as they give it up on the perimeter while their transition defense is not there either. The Pistons play fast and have a great balance to their offense, so expect them to put up points on a tired Kings team. The Pistons didn’t miss Jalen Duren on defense during their Saturday loss to Memphis with some excellent rim defense, and they have been excellent in transition recently. Cade Cunningham will likely have another cap on him here, as well.

*Domantas Sabonis looked fine on Friday from the Q tag, and he’ll be running into some tougher assignments here. The Pistons are one of the best teams in the NBA at limiting rebounds, and they have a fantastic paint defense. This isn’t the spot for him, but it does get better if Duren can’t play.

*DeMar DeRozan’s matchup is unclear, as he might get Ausar Thompson or Tobias Harris. Regardless, he’s still going to play a boatload of minutes, and he’ll be unaffected by Detroit’s strong transition and rim defense. DeRozan continues to just count on his dribble jumper and generally will get his regardless of the defensive system against him. He’s still likely playing a ton of minutes even on a B2B.

*Zach LaVine is also a candidate to see the Ausar Thompson treatment. On Friday, he finally turned up his shooting volume with 19 FGAs in 33 minutes, and coach Doug Christie has been mentioning he needs to shoot more. The matchup isn’t great for him with the strong transition defense from Detroit, but overall he should be in an OK spot.