The much-improved Kings are back in action tonight as they head to San Antonio to take on the defending champs. But Sacramento won’t be at full-strength tonight since big man DeMarcus Cousins will be sitting out the game due to a virus. The Kings will certainly miss Cousins’ services, especially since the 24-year-old is playing at an All-Star level, averaging 23.5 points and 12.6 rebounds through the team’s first 15 contests.
Here’s more from Sacramento:
- The Kings have assigned Eric Moreland to their D-League affiliate, the Reno Bighorns, the team announced. This will be Moreland’s third assignment of the season to Reno, and he is averaging 13.3 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in three D-League games this season.
- Two years after he’d been traded by the Kings, Omri Casspi returned to Sacramento as a free agent and found the atmosphere around the team had changed for the better, Bryan Horowitz of Dime Magazine writes. With the Kings no longer in danger of being moved from Sacramento and a new arena on tap for 2016, the energy around the team is the best since the halcyon days of Chris Webber and Jason Williams notes Horowitz. “Right now, it just felt like the right energy and the right atmosphere for me to be in,” Casspi said. “Sacramento always had a different vibe — it has my first NBA game, my first preseason and all of that. I was fortunate enough to come back.”
- Casspi has also changed his game this season, and is attacking the basket much more so than in the past when he was content to fire away from the outside, Horowitz adds. Casspi sees the return to his old stomping grounds of Sacramento as what has motivated him this season. “More than anything, it’s just being comfortable — comfortable in the role, comfortable in the system, comfortable in the city,” Casspi said, “I like to be able to not just be a three-point shooter, to penetrate and get into the lane and create. It’s just fun, you know? It’s pretty simple.”