After digesting their Thanksgiving feasts, the Portland Trail Blazers play host to a Sacramento Kings team that has followed their franchise’s multi-generational MO and has been disappointing once again this season.

Portland Trail Blazers (7-12) vs. Sacramento Kings (9-10) – Fri. November 29 – 7:00 PM Pacific

Watching via antenna or cable: Check out your options on the Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else

Injuries at Trail Blazers: Robert Williams III, Jerami Grant, Kris Murray (daily); Donovan Clingan Matisse Thybulle (out)

Kings injuries: DeMar DeRozan, Isaiah Crawford, Trey Lyles, Mason Jones (Out)

Sacramento has opened up a 2-5 lead in its last seven games, with the Timberwolves completely blowing a 12-point lead in the first half with 12 total points in the third quarter before falling by as many as 8 points before retreated for victory. Bottom line: This is not the season they expected or hoped to have.

In contrast, the Blazers may be winning a little TOO much for the franchise’s liking, but a recent injury to Donovan Clingan (and a renewed injury to Matisse Thybulle) and the continued blocky play of Anfernee Simons could put a dent in their ability to play well. cause performance. expectations. To Simons’ credit, he’s had flashes the last few games… and as Mike Richman of the Locked On Blazers podcast recently joked, whether you want Simons to stay or be traded, you hope he’ll play better.

Whether he and other Blazers players can take advantage of the Kings’ mediocre defense remains to be seen (see the “What to Look For” section for more on why that might not happen).

Questions from readers

Before most games, we ask all of you to improve our previews by asking questions for us to answer! Keep your eyes peeled for posts like this to add your questions and (possibly) have them answered here in these previews! Full disclosure: I also went to my own circle of friends to help the question count a bit.

From Grady W:

What do you think Toumani Camara’s ceiling is?

Solid starter, but if he adds more dribbles he could be a sub-all-star or better. While his usage has increased slightly in his second season, his actual shooting ability has declined. Yes, he passes a little more, but he still doesn’t have enough offensive ability or respect from the defense to open up more to his teammates. Someone much smarter than me, our own Adrian Bernecich, created a profile on Camara last month suggesting that his three-point shooting needed to be improved before he could reach his ceiling. Bernecich also warned that “given his age, the gap between Camara’s current play and his ceiling isn’t too far off.” That said, I’m a little higher on Camara and have seen enough NBA players blossom later on to hold out hope that the same goes for him, despite Camara being cripplingly old (my own age minus 16).

From Ryan W:

What is the direction of the team? Why do vets play so much when it’s a youth movement, or why do the young guys see the time when the team thinks they can compete?

Because the Vets need to play well to gain trade value in the league. None of Anfernee Simons (who has been noticeably bad this year), Jerami Grant (who has been secretly bad) or Deandre Ayton (who is Deandre Ayton) are playing well enough to get a neutral trade value, let alone a positive one value. You could say Robert Williams III is, but he still has a long way to go to prove to other GMs that he can stay on the field (in the meantime, he probably won’t be cleared to play back-to-backs at any point to play). season). Plus, young players need SOME structure to develop, so it’s not the worst thing in the world. Unfortunately, it increasingly feels like Cronin will be forced to cut his losses and accept less for most of these players than he might have hoped, or keep them and let the team do what it does with them on the roster.

From James G:

My question is, where will Chauncey coach Billups next?

…James!

From James G (as a sequel):

If the Blazers were to surprise everyone and make a trade to become a contender, which player should they add to join that discussion?

As much as the delusional Blazers fan in me wants to seriously entertain this… the Blazers are more than one player away from contention. The closest everything-breaks-well-and-the-stars-align trade would be if everyone got healthy and every young player took a step forward would be Deandre Ayton and his contract trade for a player who suits the Blazers. better, but the other team doesn’t want it anymore. For example, how much closer would Brandon Ingram make the Blazers a scary team? Not bad. And going through the list of players with similar salaries (CJ McCollum, Julius Randle, Khris Middleton, the Kings’ De’Aaron Fox) are far on opposite sides of the spectrum, from “unrealistic” to “uninspiring.” If Joe Cronin wanted to be fired immediately and mortgage their future, the Blazers might be able to trade Shaedon Sharpe, Donovan Clingan and future picks for more immediate help, but the odds of that happening are the same as the odds of Portland being chosen to host. the All-Star game in the next decade: smart-to-none.

From RipCity47:

What is a “good for both teams” trade we could make with the Kings to help them compete this year and help us take the Flagg?

I’ll let someone else from the comments section grab this one. From Bfan40: “When I watched their games against us, I thought their backup big men were missing. They could use a healthy RW3, or maybe Ayton (but his high salary is hard to match). We could use one of their shooters (Huerter, McDermott), maybe even Trey Lyles or Keegan.

The problem is that the Kings seem to be going for it as much as possible, and I don’t think losing valuable depth pieces is something they would be super interested in unless it was for a bona fide difference maker.

From jtkerr791:

Kris Murray seemed like a more competent player this year. It appears his brother, Keegan, has deteriorated. Is this a Dorian Gray situation where one brother becomes better by sapping energy from the other? At what point does Kris possess the strength and quality of two NBA players, and does this lead to his brother’s death, or continued recovery?

The most likely outcome is that both brothers will flicker like a dying light bulb at some point, and both will play equally well and equally poorly at the same time, so both Sacramento and Portland will enjoy aggressively mediocre wings throughout their careers.

From conspirator5:

Did you know that the Kalua Pork Nachos at Kamaaina in the Moda Center are a much better value than the Pulled Pork Nachos at Courtside BBQ?

I didn’t! Watch out carefully.

From Tiparillo:

Are you more surprised by the Kings of Blazers record?

Honestly, horns! The Kings always disappoint.

From zigzagger:

When are we going to start talking to Scoot about Ant?

Maybe never… as mentioned above, Ant needs to play better, and it seems unlikely he’ll fare well or do his best in a bench role, even if it might be worth a try.

What to pay attention to:

The ball that goes through the hoop… or not. While Sacramento ranks sixth in the NBA in field goal percentage, Portland ranks last. While the Kings are second in effective two-point field goal percentage, the Blazers rank last. There, the California team is 10th in offensive rating, the Oregon team is… oh! 29th out of 30! Well, would you take a look at that. The Blazers’ offense has been pretty woeful, and while the Kings aren’t a defensive juggernaut, there’s a pretty healthy margin between these two teams’ ability to score, even if their records aren’t all that different.

About the opponent:

Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee writes about how Sacramento survived an up-and-down game to pull out a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves:

But in the third quarter the game turned and the lead disappeared just as quickly. Sabonis picked up his fourth foul midway through the third and stayed in the game, only to pick up his fifth foul 35 seconds later. It came as the Wolves went on a game-changing run, outscoring the Kings 29-12 in the frame and 14-4 after Sabonis left. Their twelve points corresponded to their lowest point in a quarter this season; they scored 12 in the first quarter of the loss to the Los Angeles Clippers last Friday. But the Kings came back in the fourth after trailing by as many as 10. Monk tied the game at 102 after hitting back-to-back 3s and found Fox for a 3 to put Sacramento back in front, and Fox hit then another triple. that off the dribble against Jaden McDaniels. Then Fox had a few words for a fan sitting near the Timberwolves bench on the way back across the field.

Mark Medina of Athlon Sports tells how Kings Guard De’Aaron Fox is having a great year:

Fox has already achieved record milestones during the 2024-2025 season en route to a possible second NBA All-Star appearance. That coincided with the Kings showing uncertainty about their postseason ceiling, let alone their candidacy. Fox ranks among the NBA’s best in points per game (28.1, seventh), deflections (65, second) and points scored in the final five minutes of the game (50, first). With prolific scoring performances against the Minnesota Timberwolves (60) and the Utah Jazz (49), Fox joined Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant as the only players in NBA history to score at least 109 points in consecutive games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In his eighth NBA season, Fox has shown where he ranks among the league’s best point guards. “Right at the top,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “I don’t see how you can stop him with his speed.”