{"id":512726,"date":"2026-01-02T23:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/512726\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:23:16","slug":"game-preview-suns-start-the-new-year-against-sputtering-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/512726\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: Suns start the New Year against sputtering Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who: Phoenix Suns (19-14) vs. Sacramento Kings (8-26)<\/p>\n

When: 7:00pm Arizona Time<\/p>\n

Where: Mortgage Matchup Center \u2014 Phoenix, Arizona<\/p>\n

Watch: Arizona\u2019s Family 3TV, Arizona\u2019s Family Sports, NBATV<\/p>\n

The Phoenix Suns are returning home after a successful 4-1 road trip. After getting diced up by a Cleveland team on New Year\u2019s Eve, the Suns will be hungry to get back into the win column against the Sacramento Kings. The Kings are missing multiple star players, Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine, and are on the second night of a back-to-back. It is not a must-win game for the Suns, but it is a game on the schedule that the Suns should win, and these are the games the Suns have to win in a competitive Western Conference.<\/p>\n

But if you are expecting an easy win, the Kings are not going to roll over and let the Suns cruise to victory. That is not in the DNA of Sacramento\u2019s guards DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook, Malik Monk, or Dennis Schroder, who all can go off on any given night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Grayson Allen \u2014 QUESTIONABLE (Knee Injury Management)Jalen Green \u2014 OUT (Right Hamstring Strain)Jordan Goodwin \u2014 IN (Jaw sprain)Domantas Sabonis \u2014 OUT (Partial Meniscus Tear)Zach LaVine \u2014 OUT (Ankle Sprain)Dylan Cardwell \u2014 OUT (G-League-Two-Way)Daeqwon Plowden OUT (G-League-Two-Way)<\/p>\n

Mark Williams has been a dominant physical presence against the Sacramento Kings this season. In two games against Sacramento, the Phoenix Suns\u2019 big man is averaging 13.5 points and 13.5 rebounds. Williams can feast on Sacramento\u2019s front line of Precious Achiuwa, rookie center Maxime Reynaud, and Drew Eubanks because of his physical size and strength. His teammates just have to find him consistently and reward him for his high-effort plays. Williams will \u2018bring the boom\u2019 this game.<\/p>\n

This season, the Suns are 28th in the NBA in shots attempted within five feet from the basket. However, the Kings have the second-worst defensive field goal percentage within six feet from the basket, at 67.7%. Will the Suns continue to shoot a lot of threes and midrange twos, or will they take advantage of the lack of rim protection and dominate points in the paint?<\/p>\n

Defensively, the Kings\u2019 guards present a difficult challenge, even though the Kings have only eight games this season. DeRozan, Monk, Westbrook, Shroder, and Keegan Murray are all players who can and have beaten the Suns in the past. The Suns\u2019 guards have to force DeRozan and Monk to take difficult shots. Jordan Goodwin, Collin Gillespie, and of course every Suns\u2019 fans\u2019 favorite villain, Dillon Brooks defending Sacramento\u2019s guard-heavy rotation, which will be exciting to watch. Expect to see some fireworks between Brooks and DeRozan, who have already gone at it multiple times already this season.<\/p>\n

Two Keys to a Suns Win + a bonus prediction<\/p>\n

The Suns in their last five games have rebounded a staggering 40.7% of their missed shots, and Williams will the way in that regard. If the Suns continue to attack the glass with that same level of success, the Kings do not have the horses to compete for a full 48 minutes if the Suns are rebounding at that clip.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

This season, the Phoenix Suns have managed to not just survive minutes with Devin Booker off the floor but thrive in them. Jordan Goodwin, Ryan Dunn, and Jamaree Bouyea have played well on both ends of the floor, and the Suns will need them to play well against Monk and Schroder, the Kings\u2019 two key bench rotation players. If the Suns\u2019 bench can keep pace with the Kings\u2019 microwave scorers, the Suns will win convincingly. If Schroder or Monk go on a heater, the Suns will be in another dog fight, and the clutch play of Booker and Brooks will be needed again.<\/p>\n

The bonus prediction is about Devin Booker, who has yet to score 40 or more points in a game this season.<\/p>\n

Typically, Booker has at least a month every season where he goes on a lethal scoring barrage. The Suns do not need a vintage 40-point game from Booker to beat the Kings, but the Kings\u2019 lackluster defense and personnel are the perfect opportunity for Booker. My prediction is that Booker will score 40 for the first time this year and that this game could potentially be the starting point for one of his ballistic scoring stretches.<\/p>\n

The Suns improve to 3-0 vs the Kings this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who: Phoenix Suns (19-14) vs. Sacramento Kings (8-26) When: 7:00pm Arizona Time Where: Mortgage Matchup Center \u2014 Phoenix,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792],"tags":[7,4056,6,986,477,4055,30667],"class_list":{"0":"post-512726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento-kings","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kings","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sacramento","12":"tag-sacramento-kings","13":"tag-sacramentokings","14":"tag-suns-game-previews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115828084886995869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}