Kings vs. Raptors Preview: Moving on to Canada

The Sacramento Kings have returned home from a 3-1 road trip and, with their Election Day break behind them, face the opponent responsible for their only loss while away – the young and hungry Raptors. Will the “start Doug McDermott” strategy be in play tonight? Will Chris Boucher once again transform into the best Kevin Durant? Are we specific that there’s no party for Vince Carter tonight?

Let’s talk Kings basketball.

When: Wednesday 6 November at 19:00 PST
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBCSCA – Mark Jones (play-by-play)
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM

For your consideration

40 years with Ror: We’ll get to the game in a second here, I promise, but I won’t mention that longtime commentator on Sactown Royalty, The Kings Herald, and Kings Twitter, Rory Cornell (also going by the hand RORDOG, @BigRorDawg on Twitter) died last month, just before the start of the season. I can’t tell you how he passed or why, but I just want to talk for a moment about him. Rory moved to the Philippines for work last year, and he immediately set about turning his part of Dumaguete City into Kingsland, sometimes bragging about how he was teaching various people in his life over there about the Kings, or installing purple lights in his koi pond , or yelling at people on the street about their choice of NBA jerseys as they passed. The Rory thing – he was an obsessive. If the Kings took money back when they traded away another pick, best believe Rory would talk about it, in the comments or on the timeline, until he had his fill. Rory famously bet the entire Kings fandom a billion dollars on his head that Kessler Edwards would never touch the floor for the Kings, and somehow he ate that shot for all 76 games Edwards played over two seasons. Early in our tenure at The Kings Herald I had to lightly mention to Rory that he could scroll past my tweet without commenting or unfollow me if I annoyed him so much after he got a little passionate about me praised Rico Hines, and the guy that he is—he unfollowed, then blocked, then pulled his monthly Patreon subscription in protest, making me the pariah of The Kings Herald ownership group for a brief period with the last action. Sure, he unblocked and we followed each other again a few months later and there were no hard feelings, but I can never say the guy didn’t stick to his guns. I have always appreciated that. Rory was who he was and he completely owned it, something that is rare for anyone these days, especially sports fans. Rory was the fan who never took a break or a moment to catch his breath and calm the hell down. He was passionate: his love for the team clouded his judgement, led him into arguments and places where I wouldn’t have gone with a gun to my head – and all the while he never lost his sense of humour, irony or the moral high ground, he knew what he was standing on. The tender mixture of insanity that sits in the corners of the knowledgeable and overzealous – he was a model King’s fan, that way. Rory was the typical Jerry Reynolds “shitbird” but know when I call him that when I say he was a pain in the ass I mean he was our shitbird, he was our pain in the ass and I can think of no higher honor to bestow on the guy. RIP Rory. You are greatly missed.

The little things

Raptor Rematch: It’s the night after the election, so please forgive this section for being short. We all saw the Raptors game, we all know what needs to be done. Don’t start Doug McDermott. Don’t allow Chris Boucher to score a point a minute and let him get hot enough to play 25 minutes. Don’t record sixteen steals and then turn the ball over eighteen times. Don’t play Fox and DeRozan 43 minutes apiece and then wonder why the former goes 0-11 from deep. The Raptors are a young team, but they play hard for Darko up there in the great white north. Don’t underestimate them and find a bench that works and the Kings can win this one on the road.

Forecast

The old world is dying. The new world is struggling to be born. Sabonis with a triple double.

Kings: 119, Raptors: 111