The Suns need to stop beating themselves before they can beat the Kings.
Who: Phoenix Suns (30-36) vs. Sacramento Kings (33-32)
When: 7:00pm Arizona Time
Where: PHX Arena — Phoenix, Arizona
Watch: Arizona’s Family 3TV / Arizona’s Family Sports
Listen: KMVP 98.7
The Suns return home after a rough 1-3 road trip, set to face a reeling Kings squad on the second night of a back-to-back. Sac Town lost to the Warriors on Thursday. Like Phoenix, Sacramento is grasping for stability in a turbulent Western Conference, desperately clinging to Play-In hopes.
Gone is De’Aaron Fox, now with the Spurs, but sidelined for the season. The Kings are in flux, still searching for an identity after shaking up their core. They shipped out Fox in a three-team deal that brought in Zach LaVine and draft capital while sending Kevin Huerter to Chicago. Since then, they’ve stumbled to a middling 8-8 record, stuck between reinvention and irrelevance.
Since that trade, the Kings have been adrift on the waters of Lake NBA, bobbing and floating, but far from making waves. They sit ninth in offensive rating, 17th in defensive rating, and 10th in net rating, a statistical snapshot of mediocrity that has them clinging to the ninth seed in the West.
And yet, even in this state of perpetual middling, Sacramento still stands above Phoenix in both the standings and statistical output. That’s where the Suns are. Looking up at the Kings. A team with a $46 million lighter payroll. A team that just overhauled its core. A team that isn’t even good. Yet still better than them.
Probable Starters
Injury Report
Suns
- Grayson Allen — DOUBTFUL (Low Back; Injury Management)
- Cody Martin — QUESTIONABLE (Sports Hernia)
- Monte Morris — DOUBTFUL (Left Foot; Soreness)
- Nick Richards — QUESTIONABLE (Right Ankle; Sprain)
Kings
- Domantas Sabonis — OUT (Hamstring)
Uniform Matchup
What to Watch For
When you look at a team like the Kings, season-long numbers only tell part of the story. They did something the Suns didn’t — or couldn’t — do at the trade deadline: they shook the snow globe of their roster. Sure, Phoenix moved Jusuf Nurkic, but that was a transaction fueled by necessity and pettiness. Sacramento, on the other hand, made their moves with purpose, restructuring their roster to improve long-term viability and financial flexibility. One team acted with vision. The other, with desperation.
So who are the .500 Kings since trading away Fox? A team that doesn’t bomb threes — ranking 26th in three-point rate since February 3rd — but makes them count, sitting 8th in accuracy. They feast on second-chance opportunities, ranking 5th in that category, and crash the boards well enough to be 10th in total rebounds. Cool. Not like the Suns have struggled in those areas or anything.
So what’s been dragging Sacramento down? Why are they just 8-8 since adding Zach LaVine? Like the Suns, they’re turnover-prone. They cough it up 14.5 times per game since February 3rd—9th-most in the league. And Phoenix? Just one spot behind at 14.3. The Kings also surrender 18.4 points off turnovers per game. (Psst… the Suns allow 20.2 in that span. Only the Jazz and Wizards bleed more.)
So that is what we should watch for tonight. Sloppy, shitty ball security.
Since February 3, here are the bottom four teams in the NBA in allowing points off of turnovers:
2⃣7⃣ Charlotte Hornets (19.2)
2⃣8⃣ Phoenix Suns (20.2)
2⃣9⃣ Washington Wizards (20.6)
3⃣0⃣ Utah Jazz (21.6) pic.twitter.com/oxvjVuON7c— John Voita (@DarthVoita) March 14, 2025
Key to a Suns Win
I truly have no idea. When a team is this reckless with the ball, predicting outcomes feels pointless.
You could argue that the Suns’ best chance to win is to let their talent take over. But we’ve been saying that all year. And part of that talent is supposed to be ball security. Yet turnovers have been their undoing. That, and their absolute inability to function as a cohesive defensive unit.
So who knows?
Prediction
Uh, the Suns turn the ball over just slightly less than the Kings.
Suns 120, Kings, 116
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