Portland Trail Blazers vs. Sacramento Kings preview, injuries, view

After digesting their Thanksgiving festivities, the Portland Trail Blazers host a Sacramento Kings team that has followed their franchise’s generations-long MO and been disappointing again this season.

Portland Trail Blazers (7-12) vs. Sacramento Kings (9-10) – Fri. November 29 – 7:00 PM Pacific

How to watch via antenna or cable: See yours opportunities on the Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else

Trail Blazers Injuries: Robert Williams III, Jerami Grant, Kris Murray (day-to-day); Donovan Clingan, Matisse Thybulle (out)

King’s injuries: DeMar DeRozan, Isaiah Crawford, Trey Lyles, Mason Jones (Out)

Sacramento has gone 2-5 in their last seven games, completely blowing a 12-point first-half lead to the Timberwolves with 12 total points in the third quarter and falling by as many as eight before rallying for the win. To put it bluntly: This is not the season they expected or hoped to have.

In contrast, the Blazers may be winning a little TOO much for the franchise’s liking, but a recent injury to Donovan Clingan (and re-injury to Matisse Thybulle) and Anfernee Simon’s continued checkered play could put a dent in their ability to exceed expectations. To Simons’ credit, he has had flashes in the last few games… and as Mike Richman from Locked On Blazers podcast recently, whether you want Simons to stay or be traded, you’re hoping for him to play better.

Whether he and other Blazers players can take advantage of the Kings’ middle-of-the-road defense remains to be seen (see the “What to Look for” section for more on why that won’t happen).

Reader question

Before most games, we ask you all to make our previews better by asking questions for us to answer! Keep your eyes peeled for posts like this to add your questions and (possibly) get them answered right here in these very previews! Full disclosure: I also reached out to my own circle of friends to help make the question count a bit.

From Grady W:

What do you think Toumani Camara’s ceiling is?

Solid starter, but if he adds more off the dribble stuff, he could be sub all-star or better. While his usage has increased slightly in his second season, his true shooting has decreased. yes, he passes a bit more, but he still doesn’t have enough offensive juice or respect from the defense to open up more for his teammates. Someone much smarter than me, our own Adrian Bernecich, did a profile on Camara last month that suggested his three-point shooting needed to improve in order for him to reach his ceiling. Bernecich also warned that “given his age, the gap between Camara’s current game and his ceiling is not too far away.” That said, I’m a bit higher on Camara and have seen enough NBA players blossom later to hope the same might be true for him, despite Camara being cripplingly old (my own age minus 16 ).

From Ryan W:

What is the direction of the team? Why are vets playing so much if it’s a youth movement, or why are the young guys seeing time if the team thinks they can compete?

Because the Vets need to play well to get trade value around the league. Neither Anfernee Simons (who has been noticeably bad this year), Jerami Grant (who has been sneakily bad), or Deandre Ayton (who is Deandre Ayton) is playing well enough to have neutral trade value, let alone positive value. You could argue that Robert Williams III is, but he still has a long way to go to prove to other GMs that he can stay on the field (while likely not being allowed to play back-to -back at some point this season). And besides, young players need SOME structure to develop, so it’s not the absolute worst thing in the world. Unfortunately, it feels more and more like Cronin will be forced to cut his losses and accept less for most of these players than he might have hoped, or hang onto them and let the team do whatever it does with those on the list.

From James G:

My question is: Where will Chauncey Billups coach next?

…JAMES!

From James G (as a follow up):

If the Blazers surprised everyone and made a trade to become a contender, what player would they need to add to enter that discussion?

As much as the delusional Blazers fan in me seriously wants to entertain this… the Blazers are more than one player away from contending. The all-breaking-right-and-the-stars trade that would bring them the closest would be, if everyone got healthy and every young player took a step forward, that you traded Deandre Ayton and his contract for a player who fits Blazers. better, but the other team doesn’t want more. How much closer would e.g. Brandon Ingram bring the Blazers on to be a scary team? Not much. And running through the list of players with similar salaries (CJ McCollum, Julius Randle, Khris Middleton, the Kings’ own De’Aaron Fox) is far from “unrealistic” to “uninspiring.” Maybe if Joe Cronin wanted to be fired immediately and mortgage their future, the Blazers could trade Shaedon Sharpe, Donovan Clingan and future picks for more immediate help, but the chances of that happening are the same as the chances of Portland being chosen to host the All-Star game for the next decade: slim-to-none.

From RipCity47:

What’s a “good for both teams” trade we could make with the Kings to help them contend this year while helping us capture Flagg?

I’ll let someone else from the comments section get to this one. From Bfan40: “When I watched their games against us, I thought their big men were lacking. They could use a healthy RW3 or maybe Ayton (but his high salary is hard to match). We could use one of their shooters (Huerter, McDermott), maybe even Trey Lyles or Keegan.”

The problem is that the Kings seem to be going for it as much as possible for them, and I don’t think losing valuable depth pieces is something they’d be super interested in unless it was for a bonafide difference maker.

From jtkerr791:

Kris Murray has looked like a more competent player this year. It seems his brother, Keegan, has gone back. Is this a picture of the Dorian Gray situation where one brother improves by absorbing energy from the other? At what point does Kris possess the power and quality of two NBA players and does it result in his brother’s death or only ongoing convalescence?

The most likely outcome is that at some point both brothers begin to flicker like a dying light bulb, both playing equally well and equally poorly at the same time, so both Sacramento and Portland will enjoy aggressively mediocre wings over the course of each’s career.

From conspirator5:

Did you know that the Kalua Pork Nachos at Kamaaina in the Moda Center are a much better value than the Pulled Pork Nachos at Courtside BBQ?

I didn’t! Good looking.

From Tiparillo:

Are you more surprised by the Kings or Blazers record?

Honestly, Blazers! The kings always disappoint.

From zigzags:

When do we start Scoot over Ant?

Maybe never… as mentioned above, Ant needs to play better and it seems unlikely that he would be okay or play his best in a bench role, although it would be worth a shot.

What to look for:

The ball goes through the hoop… or not. Where Sacramento is 6th in the NBA in field goal percentage, Portland is dead last. Where the Kings are 2nd in two-point effective field goal percentage, the Blazers are dead last. There’s the team in California number 10 in offensive rating, the team from Oregon is… oh! 29th of 30! Well, would you look at it. The Blazers’ offense has been pretty woeful, and while the Kings aren’t a defensive juggernaut, there’s a pretty healthy margin between these two teams’ scoring ability, even if their records aren’t all that different.

About the opponent:

Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee writes about how Sacramento survived an up-and-down game to earn a victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves:

But the game turned in the third quarter and the lead was gone just as quickly. Sabonis picked up his fourth foul midway through the third and stayed in the game, then picked up his fifth foul 35 seconds later. It came as the Wolves went on a game-changing run, outscoring the Kings 29-12 in the frame and 14-4 after Sabonis left. Their 12 points matched their lowest in a quarter this season; they scored 12 in the first quarter of the loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday. But the Kings came back in the fourth after trailing by as many as 10. Monk tied the game at 102 after hitting back-to-back 3s, then found Fox for a 3 to give Sacramento the lead back, and Fox hit another triple after that off the dribble against Jaden McDaniels. Afterward, Fox had some words for a fan sitting near the Timberwolves bench on his way back down the court.

Mark Medina of Athlon Sports shares on how Kings guard De’Aaron Fox is enjoying a banner year:

Fox has already made record-setting milestones in the 2024-25 season en route to a possible second NBA All-Star appearance. It has coincided with the Kings showing uncertainty about their postseason cap, let alone candidacy. Fox has ranked among the NBA’s best in points per game. game (28.1, seventh), deformations (65, second) and scored points in the last five minutes of the game (50, first). With prolific scoring performances against Minnesota Timberwolves (60) and Utah Jazz (49), Fox joined Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant as the only players in NBA history to score at least 109 points combined in consecutive games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In his eighth NBA season, Fox has shown where he is among the league’s best point guards. “Right at the top,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “I don’t see how you can stop him with his speed.”