Point guard stars De’Aaron Fox and Ja Morant go head-to-head for the first time in almost exactly a year when the Sacramento Kings visit the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday night.
In the opener of a three-game season series between the Western Conference playoff hopefuls, the Kings and Grizzlies meet for the first time since last Jan. 23, when Sacramento took advantage of Morant’s absence to thump the visitors 133-100.
Morant sat out that game with a sore left ankle, after having been the driving force 22 days earlier – on New Year’s Day – with 35 points in a 118-108 home victory over the Kings.
Fox went for 19 points in the loss, the third consecutive time he was outscored by Morant when both played.
Fox got the better of Morant in each of the first five career duels with the Memphis standout.
Sacramento enters the contest on the heels of a 117-110 win at Atlanta on Friday, with Fox (31 points, eight assists, four steals) and Domantas Sabonis (25 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) leading the way.
The Kings had opened a three-game trip three days earlier with a 130-113 loss at Portland despite Fox going for 43 and Sabonis 34.
Even with the win over the Hawks, which required a rally from an 18-point halftime deficit, Sacramento coach Mike Brown wouldn’t commit to continuing with Harrison Barnes, benched for the fourth quarter at Atlanta, or Kevin Huerter, who injured his left hand in the win, in the starting lineup for the trip finale.
The Grizzlies have responded well to a lineup change of their own, with Morant having been immediately reinserted among the starters upon his return from a 25-game suspension.
Memphis, just 6-19 after 25 games, has gone 4-2 since Morant’s return. One of the two losses occurred Thursday when Morant sat out at Denver.
Morant has averaged 26.8 points in his five games. But equally important, new sidekick Marcus Smart noted, have been his 8.8 assists per game.
Smart and Jaren Jackson Jr. had 22 points apiece and Desmond Bane 18 in Memphis’ most recent action, a 117-106 road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday.
Bane has averaged 26.2 points, Jackson 20.0 and Smart 17.3 since Morant’s return. The Grizzlies have scored 105 or more points in all six of those games, after having been held to 104 or fewer 11 times in their first 25 contests.
