The Sacramento Kings will look to hit their 30th win of the season as soon as this Saturday when they play the Indiana Pacers on the road. The Pacers, on the other hand, have no plans of making life easy for Sacramento, as they aim to avenge a loss to the King last December.

Catch this game live on Saturday, February 4, at 8 AM, Manila time

Away: Sacramento Kings (29-21/13-10 Away)

Projected Starting Five:

• PG: Davion Mitchell
• SG: Kevin Huerter
• SF: Harrison Barnes
• PF: Keegan Murray
• C: Domantas Sabonis

Powered by the double-doubles of De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, the Kings were able to come up with a 119-109 road win against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday. Fox scored 31 points to g with 10 assists, while Sabonis mustered 34 points and 11 rebounds. 

However, Fox won’t be available to play against the Pacers this weekend due to personal reasons. Davion Mitchell is likely to get a spot start, but it’s the likes of Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray, Harrison Barnes, and Sabonis who are going to share the most in covering the temporary void that will be left by Fox. In any case, Sacramento can still come up with a high-scoring game versus Indiana, which is among the worst defending teams in the league this season. Sacramento knows all about it because it’s experienced already the Pacers’ defense firsthand in a 137-114 home win over Indiana. 

The Kings are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 road games.

Home: Indiana Pacers (24-29/16-11 Home)

Projected Starting Five:

• PG: Tyrese Haliburton
• SG: Chris Duarte
• SF: Buddy Hield
• PF: Aaron Nesmith
• C: Myles Turner

The Pacers played so flat in the first meeting with Sacramento, hence the blowout loss. But while Indiana isn’t exactly a serious contender in the East, it still is very much capable of playing much better than the performance it showed in the loss to the Kings. Poor defense is what’s been weighing down Indiana this season, as highlighted earlier. It’s going to be a problem versus the high-scoring Kings, but the Pacers already got a bonus with Fox not available this Saturday. 

That means Indiana is expecting a much less efficient Kings offense. On the flip side, Indiana has gotten back Tyrese Haliburton from injury. Apart from the revenge part factor, Haliburton would love to have a big game against his former team after failing in his last try, as he scored just nine points on 4 of 13 shooting in the December loss to Sacramento. The Kings are among the 10 worst in the league this season in terms of adjusted defensive rating 

The Pacers are 3-2 ATS in their last five home games versus the Kings.

PREDICTIONS:

Spread: The Kings (-3) cover the spread.
Over/Under: The total (241.5) hits the Over.