Kings @ Cavaliers

Who will WIN this matchup?

Sacramento Kings (12-11)

@ Cleveland Cavaliers (5-19)

Current odds:

Sacramento Kings: (-150)

Cleveland Cavaliers: (+130)

• The line for this game is Sacramento by 3 points.

• The surprising Sacramento Kings continue to rack up wins and have a chance to make it three in a row when they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. The Kings began their four-game road trip with a 122-105 triumph at Phoenix on Tuesday before switching time zones and will play the next three against Central Division foes. Sacramento is excelling in part because of its roster depth and watched five reserves score in double figures at Phoenix while no starter logged more than 27 minutes. “I think it was good for us,” Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox told reporters. “We’re on this road trip for about a week and (it’s good to) get the first game out of the way. Our guys were able to rest, everybody’s playing, and the energy is up, so (we’re about) to go to Cleveland in good spirits.”

• The Cavaliers’ spirits aren’t quite as high after the team was crushed 129-105 by the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday in a rematch of the last four NBA Finals. “They’ve got so, so many weapons and so much firepower and you have to really just sustain as much as you can against them because they keep coming and keep coming and keep coming,” Cleveland coach Larry Drew told reporters of the Warriors. “They actually wore us down. It’s the reason why they are the defending NBA champs.”

• Sacramento is above .500 23 games into the season for the first time since the 2004-05 campaign and set the tone in Phoenix by racing out to a 36-9 lead after the first quarter. Center Willie Cauley-Stein led the way with four steals in the first eight minutes as the Kings put on a show defensively. “(Cauley-Stein) was just aggressive defensively,” Fox told reporters. “He was up denying, he was able to push catches out, and when he’s denying, as a guard, you don’t want to have an easy pass, so as soon as he did that our guards started pressuring and he was able to get his hands on a lot of balls, and we were able to get steals and get out in transition early.

• No longer the juggernaut that battled Golden State in the last four NBA Finals, Cleveland is trying to rebuild while looking for positive signs from its young players. Rookie point guard Collin Sexton scored 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting on Wednesday – his 14th straight game scoring in double figures. “One thing about Collin is that he’s not going to back down,” Drew told reporters. “He’s a fierce competitor and he’ll accept any challenge. Tonight, I thought he did a good job against a pretty good guard in (Stephen) Curry. Curry scored 42, but Collin kept competing. The message that I was hearing from him in the huddles was, ‘Hey guys, come on, let’s keep playing hard, let’s keep going at it, and that’s a sign of growth.”

• Kings rookie PF Harry Giles scored a season-high 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting in 10 minutes on Tuesday.

• Cavaliers C Tristan Thompson is averaging 16 points and 16 rebounds over the last four games.

• The teams split the two-game series in each of the last two seasons.