Sacramento Kings vs. Toronto Raptors – 11/15/15 National Basketball Association Pick, Odds, and Prediction

In response to the action of DeMarcus Cousins, Coach Karl planned to suspend him for two games.

“The game has become slower for him now that he’s a year wiser, a year older”, Casey said.

DeMarcus Cousins #15 of the Sacramento Kings reacts after teammates Rajon Rondo #9 made a three-point basket against the Los Angeles Lakers at Sleep Train Arena on October 30, 2015 in Sacramento, California.

Rajon Rondo posted his fourth triple-double in his last four games with 23 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds for the Kings (3-7). Toronto was lights out coming into the third quarter after playing a sloppy first half of basketball filled with turnovers. With bigs such as Cousins, Trilly Willie Cauley-Stein, and Kosta Koufos, Sacramento did an excellent job of packing the paint and daring the Raptors to beat them with the shot.

After Rondo missed two free throws, Bogdanovic hit a corner jumper to pull the Nets to within 111-109 with 1.8 seconds left. Jonas Valanciunas was the leading man for the Raptors as he recorded 20 points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes of action. However, it hasn’t quite worked out through the first portion of the season, with Sacramento floundering at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. Playing in their final game in Sacramento before the Kings move to Golden 1 Center next season, DeMar DeRozan led the Raptors with 24 points and Kyle Lowry chipped in 22 in a losing effort.

Even the best laid plans sometimes need readjustment, and with the Pelicans current core yet to string together a decent amount of games together for over the last several years, count me in favor. After three quarters they had combined for 16 turnovers. Led by Kyle Lowry, who briefly morphed into Steph Curry, and assisted in this regard by Patrick Patterson and DeMarre Carroll, the Raptors broke out from three in the second half. After Sunday’s game, McLemore said he feels he’s “definitely getting my groove back”, and that he believes his struggles were because he was “thinking too much”. In the 31-point third the Raptors were 7-for-9 from distance as they started to pull away. The Raptors as a team shot 15/31 from three.

A few wondered how Cory Joseph would fare in what was expected to be a larger role in Toronto after being a small cog in the San Antonio Spurs machine for four seasons. This line-up helped build a three point lead to start the fourth, into a quick 10 point lead nearly immediately. If fact, the Raptors have actually closed games out well more often than not, closing the game out on the wrong end of a 17-4 run is unusual. Last week, there was severe turmoil in the Kings’ camp.

The Kings have a way of making other team’s look good offensively, but allowing a team to shoot 15-for-31 from behind the arc is insane. Gay also had a solid night on his return to action chipping in 27 points on 10/16 shooting.

Rudy Gay didn’t dominate the ball nor did he force many shots and he was a huge part of the win simply because the Raptors forgot about him, which is about the silliest thing they could have done. He finished with 14 assists to go with seven points and seven rebounds.

And, perhaps most importantly, the front office has Karl’s back-for now. He canned three 3-pointers as Sacramento went into intermission ahead 53-51, and he now has 12 in the Kings’ first 11 games. Rondo sits at second in the National Basketball Association in assists at 9.5.

That was a crappy day for any number of reasons (keep reading past the game stuff) and if it’s a portend for the trip, it’s going to be the worst one in a very, very long time. We consider all, but I can’t talk about other players on other teams.