The Sacramento Kings start their four game road trip off with a solid 113-101 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. DeMarcus Cousins drops 31 points and 18 rebounds on the short-handed T-Wolves and Ben McLemore adds 22 points as the Kings improve to 8-5 on the season.
Join James Ham and Rui Thomas for the Road Reaction Postgame Show on Google+ after the game. The show can be watched on the video player embedded below. You can also join the discussion of tonight’s game by leaving a comment at the bottom of the page.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFKOpJ6Dzf4]Music Credit: Ronald Jenkees – Guitar Sound
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What to watch
1. Playing down to the opponent
Kings fans know too well how their talented team steps up to play elite clubs, while overlooking others. Earlier in the season Sacramento lost to the severely short-handed Oklahoma City Thunder to snap a five-game winning streak, and the Timberwolves as of today are equally battered, if not worse. For the Kings to be seriously considered as a contender, they will need to take care of business against a soft road opponent.
2. Rudy Gay’s health
Achilles tendinitis hasn’t forced Gay to miss any games this season, but he needed ice and the training staff’s attention as he sat the beginning of the fourth quarter versus the Chicago Bulls Thursday. The Kings face a dilemma of allowing the issue to persist, or resting the forward at the risk of losing games that may cost Sacramento in April. Facing a bottom-dweller like Minnesota would seem like a good opportunity to reduce his workload.
3. Derrick Williams’ minutes
Williams is averaging a career-low 7.6 minutes per game this season after being replaced in the rotation by Omri Casspi. After scoring 10 points in 22 minutes on Thursday, by far his best showing of the season, Malone will have to decide whether to stick with the hot hand playing the team that drafted Williams second overall back in 2011.
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