Why the Kings’ and Trail Blazers’ backcourts could provide fireworks on New Year’s Day
NBA fans might be able to catch another fireworks display on New Year’s Day when two of the league’s top-scoring backcourts meet.
When the Kings host the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night to start a four-game homestand, it will match up teams led in scoring by their starting guards.
Buddy Hield and De’Aaron Fox are fifth in the NBA in that category, averaging a combined 38 points per game. They’ll face off against Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, who combine for 48 points a game.
Hield leads the Kings (19-17) at 19.7 points and Fox is second at 18.3. They’ve combined to score 50 points or more five times this season, including a 65-point effort in which Hield put up a career-high 37 in a loss to Oklahoma City on Dec. 19.
Hield has gone for at least 20 points in 20 of the Kings’ 36 games.
“He’s a scorer,” Fox recently said about his backcourt teammate. “At some point in every game, a scorer is really going to get on a roll. ... There’s a lot of guys in the league that can do that. He’s the guy on our team that really does that well.”
Fox can also put up points. The second-year guard has scored 20 or better 14 times, including two 30-plus games.
Hield credits the team’s playing style for the duo’s improved play.
“I think what (coach) Dave (Joerger) is doing is great,” Hield said Sunday after a 121-114 loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles. “The way he lets me be free and the way Fox pushes the tempo, I think it’s tough to guard. You have to pick your poison. ... Our confidence is up high.”
The Blazers (21-16) come to Sacramento confident as well. They’ve won six of their last nine, with victories over the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors.
The scoring from Lillard (26.8 points, sixth in the NBA) and McCollum (21.2) puts the guard duo third behind the Warriors’ Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and their 49.7 average, and the Houston Rockets’ James Harden (33 points) and Chris Paul (15.6), who has been out with a hamstring injury. The Washington Wizards are fourth but lost half of their duo to a season-ending injury. Bradley Beal leads Washington at 23.6 points, but heel surgery will sideline John Wall (20.7).
The Kings know how dangerous Lillard can be. The last time the three-time All-Star played at Golden 1 Center, he went off for 50 points in three quarters.
“When somebody is making shots like that, ain’t much you can do,” Fox said after the Kings’ 118-100 loss Feb. 9.
Tuesday’s meeting is the first this season against the Trail Blazers, the only Western Conference team the Kings have not faced. Portland returns to Sacramento on Jan. 14, and the teams will close the regular season April 10 at Moda Center.
The Kings hope to tip off the new year with a victory.
“We’re two games above .500 and we play on (New Year’s Day) and we have a great Portland team coming in,” Hield said. “We had our minds on going into 2019 with 20 wins, but we have more work to do.”