It’s pretty simple, really. The Sacramento Kings are at the bottom of the standings in the Western Conference, and the Detroit Pistons are at the top of the Eastern Conference. The Pistons field the second-best defense in the NBA, and the Kings have the second-worst defense. Detroit is in the top five in net rating, while Sacramento is second from last. The Pistons are better than the Kings and should win the game. Of course, so were the Houston Rockets, and they just fell to the Kings in overtime on Sunday night.

Game Vitals

When: 10 p.m. ET
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California
Watch: FanDuel Sports Network Detroit
Odds: Pistons -9

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Analysis

The Kings bested the Rockets courtesy of our old friend, Dennis Schröder, who hit a game-wining 3-pointer in overtime. He scored 24 points in total, matching his high for the season in his first year in Sacramento. The lineups are getting weird for Doug Christie over in Sactown as he looks for anything that makes his mishmashed roster actually make sense.

Keegan Murray played nearly 47 minutes, DeMar DeRozan played 40, and Russell Westbrook played 29 (scoring 21 points on 24 shots). Meanwhile, Schröder played 31 minutes off the bench while Malik Monk and Keon Ellis played a combined 13, and only had one basket and four shots between them.

Still, a win is a win, and Sacramento will take them in any way they can get them. The Pistons will be looking to stave off disappointment — the kind that can come when you’re traveling on the road on the second night of a back-to-back.

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It probably does not shock you that I have not made time for many Sacramento games this season, so I did a bit of a dive into what they are uniquely bad at that the Pistons will attempt to exploit. The number screams off the page.

The Pistons must own the paint, and the Kings are often happy to oblige in that. They surrender 55.2 points per game inside and are a bottom-four team in rebounding on both ends of the floor. Considering the kind of damage both Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson were able to inflict on another terrible interior opponent in the Blazers, the young Detroit duo could be in for another huge night.

Projected LineupsDetroit Pistons (23-6)

Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

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Sacramento Kings (7-22)

Russell Westbrook, DeMar DeRozan, Keegan Murray, Precious Achiuwa, Maxime Raynaud

Question of the Game

When Cade Cunningham sits, what is the ideal five-man lineup for the Detroit Pistons?