SACRAMENTO -- Keep it rolling.
The Sacramento Kings have strung together six straight victories on their home court, but they'll draw a tough test Monday evening at Golden 1 Center. They'll host a veteran San Antonio Spurs team that is right in the thick of the playoff chase, where they've been for the better part of four decades.
Sacramento shocked the Philadelphia 76ers Saturday evening, beating one of the beasts of the east by a final of 115-108. Buddy Hield scored 34 points on 7-of-13 shooting from behind the arc and Willie Cauley-Stein stepped up against All-Star Joel Embiid.
The victory pushed the Kings two games over the .500 mark at 27-25, which matched their win total from last season.
San Antonio is still cruising. They've made it to the playoffs 22 straight seasons under head coach Gregg Popovich, and a shocking 38 out of 42 seasons since joining the NBA for the 1976-77 season. They rely heavily on a group of 30-somethings to deliver night in and night out, including former Kings, Rudy Gay and Marco Belinelli.
Kings Pregame Live on NBC Sports California begins at 6:30 p.m., with tipoff scheduled for 7:00. All coverage can be seen on the MyTeams by NBC Sports app.
Sacramento continues their six-game homestand Wednesday with a battle with the Houston Rockets. Miami, and Phoenix will follow, before the Kings finish their pre-All-Star break schedule with a stop in Denver.
Sports
Line
Spurs by 2
Projected Lineups
Kings
PG De'Aaron Fox
SG Buddy Hield
SF Iman Shumpert
PF Nemanja Bjelica
C Willie Cauley-Stein
Spurs
PG Bryn Forbes
SG DeMar DeRozan
SF Dante Cunningham
PF Rudy Gay
C LaMarcus Aldridge
Injury Report
Kings
No injuries to report.
Spurs
PG Derrick White (heel) and PG DeJounte Murray (knee) are out.
Rotation Outlook
Kings
Dave Joerger's crew is fresh off a quality win over the Sixers. They survived Philly's big three of Embiid, Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons, who combined to score 80 points, grab 29 rebounds and dish out 13 assists.
Hield continues to shine in a scoring role for Sacramento. The third-year guard set a new career-high for 3-point makes in a season with 180. He is on pace to set an NBA record for most 3-point makes in the first three years of a player's career, which is currently held by the Blazers' Damian Lillard (599 makes).
Despite a 29-point, 17-rebound outburst from Embiid, Cauley-Stein played one of his better all-around games of the season. With the game on the line heading to the fourth quarter, the 7-footer held Embiid to just two points and three rebounds in the final frame to help the Kings come away with the win.
Spurs
Popovich is one of the greatest coaches the game has ever seen. He's amassed 1,229 regular season wins and has five championship rings in his 23 seasons leading the Spurs.
San Antonio ranks in the middle of the NBA in both points per game (112.6) and points allowed (110.1). They play at the league's 23rd-fastest pace and lead the NBA in 3-point percentage at 40.8 percent, although they are 29th in attempts per game.
Aldridge and DeRozan combine to score over 42 points per game for the Spurs, but it's a deep squad with plenty of players that can hurt you.
