Welcome to the land of the living.
After starting the season 0-2, the Sacramento Kings stunned the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday with a 131-120 victory at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
The trip doesn’t get any easier Tuesday night when the Kings battle the 3-0 Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center. It’s a battle of two high-powered offenses with some mile-high elevation thrown in the mix.
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Following the game, the Kings will return home to Golden 1 Center to play the Memphis Grizzlies on the second night of a back-to-back Wednesday. It’s a short respite for the Kings, who host the Washington Wizards on Friday before heading back out on the road for another four-game road trip.
Line
Nuggets by 11
NBA
Projected Starting Lineups
Kings
PG De’Aaron Fox
SG Buddy Hield
SF Iman Shumpert
PF Nemanja Bjelica
C Willie Cauley-Stein
Nuggets
PG Jamal Murray
SG Gary Harris
SF Torrey Craig
PF Paul Millsap
C Nikola Jokic
Injury Report
Kings
SG Bogdan Bogdanovic (left knee) OUT, C Kosta Koufos (hamstring) OUT.
Nuggets
SF Will Barton (adductor) OUT, PG Isaiah Thomas (hip) OUT, SF Michael Porter Jr. (back) OUT, F Jarred Vanderbilt (foot) OUT.
Rotation Outlook
Kings
Coach Dave Joerger continues to focus on a 10-man rotation. Against the Thunder, eight of them scored in double-figures and Yogi Ferrell (9 points) and Harry Giles (8 points) just missed. Joerger took a gamble starting Shumpert on Sunday and it paid off bigtime.
Expect the veteran to get a longer look as the Kings search for consistent production at the wing position. De’Aaron Fox played 42 minutes in OKC. It’s the second time in three games that Fox has played over 37 minutes in a game. He’s averaging 20.3 points, 7.7 assists and 5.0 rebounds early in the season.
Marvin Bagley and Harry Giles have had their minutes fluctuate greatly, depending on production. That trend will likely continue as they adjust to the NBA game.
Nuggets
Fresh off a two-year contract extension, Michael Malone has his Nuggets rolling early in the season at 3-0. He’s using a 10-man rotation like Joerger, but he has a star big man in Jokic that does a lot of heavy lifting for the club.
With Will Barton out long-term, Malone has turned to undrafted small forward, Torrey Craig out of the University of South Carolina Upstate as his starter. Gary Harris is the someone to keep an eye on. The 24-year-old shooting guard is averaging 22 points per game, despite shooting just 18.8 percent from long range this season.