Avoiding the Trap Game vs. Detroit
Having won five straight and with a tough three games in four nights during Thanksgiving week up ahead, Sunday’s game against the visiting Detroit Pistons presents the danger of a trap game.
It’s a welcomed change to see that the Kings—who for years were the potential trap game for others—will play their third such game in just over a week’s time. After beating the Cavaliers earlier in the month, they went down to LA to take care of business against the Lakers. Then this past Thursday, they completed the job against the Spurs coming off of an invigorating win on national TV.
Now they play the 3-14 Pistons, a younger team with the fifth worst offense and the second worst defense in the NBA.
If ever there was a potential to succumb to the trap game, Sunday would be it.
Obviously, Sacramento needs to stay present and locked in. They know that.
“Just keep doing the little things,” Davion Mitchell said after practice Saturday in response to the last game of the home stand. “Just keep playing hard, keep playing for one another, don’t let the winning get to us. We gotta keep taking it one day at a time.”
Other than that, though, here are three areas of focus for this game against the Pistons.
Try not to foul
Detroit has the fifth worst offensive rating and they score the third least points per game. As a team, they shoot 32.0% from beyond the arc and a league-worst 42.8% from the field. And they don’t even score a lot inside, averaging just 43.5 paint points.
But something they do well is getting to the free throw line. The Pistons have the highest free throw makes and attempts per game (22.6-29.1), getting over a fifth of their points from the charity stripe. They don’t exactly help themselves by converting just 77.7% of those attempts, but getting to the line is one of the strong suits of this offense.
Alec Burks, Bojan Bogdonavic, Jaden Ivey, Isaiah Stewart, and Saddiq Bey all shoot at least 4 attempts from the free throw line per game.
Sacramento started the year as one of the teams most susceptible to fouling on defense. Over their last five games, they are only fouling 18.6 times per game, which in that span is tied for the fourth least.
It will be important for the Kings to keep up their progress in terms of defending without fouling. Though any NBA team can go off on any given night, the Pistons are not playing great offense, so it will be key not to bail them out and offer free opportunities from the line.
Again, keep up the work on the glass
Similar to the emphasis on limiting free throw attempt, it’ll also be important to limit second chance points.
Another one of the few statistics Detroit is fairly high in is both offensive rebounds (11.6 a game) and second chance points (15.8 per game). Both are in the top-ten among NBA teams.
Luckily for the Kings, Mike Brown’s squad allows the least offensive rebounds to their opponents (8.3 per game) and the fewest second chance points (11.1). Sacramento is also narrowly in second among the league in defensive rebounding percentage.
Detroit is strong on the offensive glass and getting extra opportunities from it, but Sacramento is supremely better at preventing that.
And flipping it around, while the Kings don’t get a ton of offensive boards or second chance points, the Pistons do give up the fourth most offensive rebounds and the fifth most second chance points.
At the end of the day, the Kings have to win on the glass—which they should and most definitely can—and not give freebies to them.
Attack!
The Pistons defense is not all that great either, but they do hold their opponents to the tenth lowest three-point percentage.
However, they do not defend the paint well, allowing 53.4 paint points per game.
Domantas Sabonis should be able to continue his work inside while De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, and others penetrate. That will lead to paint scores, but also, with the lovely ball movement this team is playing with, it should create better outside looks as well.
The Kings offense has been so successful this year because the team has the trust and chemistry to lean into such heavy movement. It’s due to the fact, as Keegan Murray indicated Saturday, that everyone knows “that if you pass the ball, our guys can make the right play.”
They can utilize that comfort and that style of play to unleash their multifaceted offense on a defense. So don’t let up on them.
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