Kings vs. Wizards Preview – By the Numbers

December 18, 2023

The Washington Wizards stink, and the Kings need to win tonight. I don’t say games are a must win often this early in the season, but at 4-21, losing tonight would send Kings socials into a tailspin that I would very much like to avoid.

The Wizards come into the game with the 24th ranked offense and 29th ranked defense in the league, struggling on both sides of the ball. They give up 126.2 Points per game, the most in the league, and are allowing opponents to shoot 50.1% from the field, 3rd highest in the league.

Washington only grabs 39.3 Rebounds per game, fewest in the league, and gives up 49.4, most in the league. Opponents are averaging 30.1 Assists per game, most in the league, leaving yet another clear advantage for the Kings, who are averaging 28.3 Assists per game, 5th most in the league. The Wizards allow opponents to score 59.2 Points in the Paint, 2nd most in the NBA. Essentially, you could close your eyes and throw a dart at a dart board and hit a bad stat for the Wizards.

Opponents are shooting 70.2% in the Restricted-Area this season against Washington, 2nd highest in the league. The Kings should take advantage of the soft spot in their defense and get inside as much as possible tonight, especially if the 3-point shot isn’t falling.

Individually, Kyle Kuzma is having a nice season from a stats perspective, averaging 23.1 Points, 6.0 Rebounds, 4.3 Assists on 47.0/36.0/75.9% shooting splits. The problem for the Wizards is that it has 0 impact on winning. I would love nothing more than the Kings to completely shut Kuzma down tonight and make him regret his decisions this offseason.

The other player to watch, for better or worse, on the Wizards is Jordan Poole. If you’re the Kings, let him shoot as much as he wants. This year he has been the epitome of a high volume shooter with terrible shooting percentages. He’s averaging 16.9 Points, nice when you look at just that number, but doing it on 40.9% from the field on 14.9 attempts and 29.9% from beyond the arc on 6.1 attempts.

Even if Kuzma and Poole are both going off tonight, the Kings should be able to win this game, especially if Keegan Murray does anything close to his 47 Point performance against the Jazz.

Keegan has had big performances, but Saturday was a career game for the young star. He showed just how good he could be when he gets going and revealed the Kings ceiling with this roster. If he turns into even a fraction of that type of player? Who knows how far this Kings team can go.