Kings
The early season narrative around Sacramento took another hit.
The Bulls beat the Kings 126-113 on Wednesday. Chicago is undefeated. Sacramento is winless. And as Sam Quinn of CBS Sports wrote, that old “Kings turning into the Bulls” joke no longer applies. The Bulls have improved. The Kings have gone backward.
Chicago is younger, faster and modern. Third in passes. Seventh in pace. A young rotation outside of Nikola Vucevic. Everything Sacramento is not.
Sacramento is stuck in mid-range land. The numbers show it. Twenty-second in shots at the rim. Twenty-seventh in threes. Twenty-ninth in free throws. Fifth worst on offense overall.
That is not a winning recipe.
The Kings loaded up on names. DeMar DeRozan. Zach LaVine. Russell Westbrook. Dennis Schroder. All in their 30s. It looks more like an All-Star nostalgia team than a cutting edge NBA offense.
And Quinn noted that teams are not exactly lining up for LaVine. Sam Amick of The Athletic said on The Carmichael Dave Show he cannot “name one team” monitoring LaVine right now with any certainty.
Keegan Murray returning will help. But Sacramento needs much more than a bump.
The reality is the Kings tasted success and panicked. They kept trying to hold onto it with older names. Now it looks like they lost their identity in the process.
Mavericks
Daniel Gafford plans to make his season debut Saturday in Mexico City vs. Detroit, he told reporters, including Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News and Christian Clark of The Athletic.
The big man has been out since spraining his ankle on day one of training camp. D’Angelo Russell is also questionable. Dereck Lively II is out. Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Dante Exum remain sidelined.
Pacers
Indiana has officially signed Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to a 10-day hardship deal, per the team, and as we relayed here.
The Pacers have six rotation players out, including Tyrese Haliburton. Obi Toppin is out three months after a foot procedure.
Robinson-Earl played 66 games with the Pelicans last season. Jason Kidd praised him during camp with the Mavericks. He will now get another NBA look.
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