The Los Angeles Clippers look to extend winning streak against the struggling Sacramento Kings. Can Sacramento's bigs overcome short-handed Los Angeles and a surging Kawhi Leonard?
Saturday nights in 2025 have been extraordinarily kind to the Sacramento Kings. Playing basketball on Tuesdays has been just decent.
That's because the 8-23 Kings, 14th in the Western Conference and just a game ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans with 2026 right around the corner despite coming off a 113-107 win over the Dallas Mavericks, are 1-2 when lacing their sneakers up on Tuesdays.
It's also why the Kings, 3-7 in their previous 10 games and 3-14 on the road this season, are +10.5-point underdogs (-118) vs. the Los Angeles Clippers (10-21) at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Tuesday night.
Sacramento is +345 on the money line, while the Clippers, 6-8 at home and shooting for a fifth straight win, are -102 (-10.5) on the betting line and -425 to cash all money line bets.
The over/under total is 221.5 (o, -110, u -110) for the 11:00 p.m. (ET) tipoff.
Despite the Kings recent struggles, the Clippers, who continue to be short-handed inside without center Ivica Zubac (ankle), will likely have to deal with Sacramento big men Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell, who combined for 23 points and 17 rebounds vs. the Lakers on Sunday night.
Raynaud, averaging 15.5 points and 8.4 rebounds over his last 13 games, has provided a big lift in the absence of forward Domantas Sabonis, who continues to be sidelined with a partial meniscus knee tear.
The Clippers, 4-2 against the spread and 5-1 overall when scoring more than 122.1 points, swept the Kings 4-0 last season.
Leonard, coming off a career-high 55 points in the Clippers 112-99 win over the Detroit Pistons earlier this week, is averaging 27.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, while shooting 49.5% from the field and 37.5% from 3-point range with 2.4 threes made per game.
Star guard James Harden is contributing 26.3 points, 8.0 assists, and 5.0 rebounds per game.
For the Kings, forward Keegan Murray (calf) is questionable and forward Domantas Sabonis (knee) is out.
Guard Bradley Beal (hip), forward Bogdan Bogdanovic (hamstring) and Zubac are out for the Clippers. Forward John Collins (illness) is questionable.
If not now then when for the Kings, who start the New Year by playing three games in four days, including hosting the Boston Celtics on Jan. 1 ?
The Kings, 4-5-1 against the spread in their last 10 games and still without leading scorer Zach LaVine (20.2 points per game), are a mess defensively, so if they don't find a way to keep pace on the offensive side are usually in a lot of trouble.
Oddly, Leonard, who reportedly was told by Clippers head coach Ty Lue that he was approaching a franchise-record for points in a single game, opted to play just six minutes in the fourth quarter of Los Angeles' 112-99 win over the Detroit Pistons - after scoring a career-high 55 points in 36 minutes.
Sacramento, while just 2-3 on rest of three days or more since defeating the Heat in Miami over three weeks ago, has been competitive, for the most part, in December.
And the Clippers just took down the Eastern Conference's best team (by record).
The bottom line is that the Clippers are hot and the Kings are not.
Fernie Ruano is a sports analyst and content creator in Miami, Florida. He contributed to the production of this article.