Denver @ Sacramento preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 13, 2019 ) Sacramento 118, Denver 120

The Sacramento Kings came into the season believing this would be the year they snapped their postseason drought, but so far the results aren't matching the expectations. The Kings will try to avoid a four-game losing streak to begin the season when they host the undefeated Denver Nuggets on Monday.

Sacramento was in the race for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference until the final few weeks of 2018-19 and brought back its young core along with a new coach in Luke Walton, who is having trouble getting his team to transfer its intensity from practice to games. "We've got a good group," Walton told reporters. "Our group works really hard. It's part of the reason it's frustrating, because it's not transferring over from the practice court right now. And I'm in there every day and I see the type of work they put in. I want the group to start succeeding with some of the stuff." The Nuggets have high expectations for themselves as well and pulled out wins in the first two games despite struggling on the offensive end. "I told our guys that until our shots start falling, defense will have to be our anchor to get us through this tough time on offense," Denver coach Michael Malone told reporters after a 108-107 overtime victory over Phoenix on Friday. "We didn't shoot it well for the whole game, but our defense was phenomenal."

TV: 10 p.m. ET, Altitude (Denver), NBCS California (Sacramento)

ABOUT THE NUGGETS (2-0): Torrey Craig provided the key defensive stop in overtime against the Suns and finished with four blocks and five rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench to make up for a scoreless effort on offense. "We could have had a lot of opportunities to win earlier than we did, but sometimes you need games like that," Craig told the Denver Post. "You learn from it and even though we didn't play great basketball, we still have another win. It just shows you how good we are that we can play that way and still pull out a close win at home." Helping to carry the Nuggets offensively is star center Nikola Jokic, who recorded 23 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists on Friday for his first triple-double of the season.

ABOUT THE KINGS (0-3): Sacramento dropped the first three games by an average of 23.7 points, capped by a 113-81 setback at Utah on Saturday in which it fell behind by 25 points at halftime and never recovered. "The biggest thing is ownership," veteran forward Harrison Barnes told the Sacramento Bee. "You have to just own responsibility that we're all in this. As a leader of the team, I take a lot of ownership on that, just making sure guys are ready to go. That's on me, so I have to be better at that and we all have to be better." The Kings placed two scorers in double figures in the latest loss, with center Dewayne Dedmon's 11 points marking the team high, and allowed the Jazz to shoot 56.4 percent from the floor - the third time in as many games that the opposition shot at least 50 percent from the floor.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Kings PF Harry Giles III (knee) sat out the first three games but could make his season debut Monday.

2. Nuggets SG Will Barton is 4-of-14 from the floor.

3. Denver took all three meetings last season and eight of the last nine in the series.

PREDICTION: Nuggets 112, Kings 96