Sacramento @ San Antonio preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 31, 2019 ) Sacramento 113, San Antonio 106

The San Antonio Spurs sandwiched big wins over Western Conference powers around an embarrassing loss to one of the East's lesser squads. They'll continue their pursuit of some sort of consistency and aim for a rare winning streak when they host the Sacramento Kings on Friday.

After defeating the Los Angeles Clippers and then losing at Detroit by 34 points, the Spurs survived a double-overtime affair with Houston on Tuesday to win 135-133, leaving them 3-3 since an eight-game losing streak. "This is a team that we think we have, we've just got to play like this consistently and we haven't really done that," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich told reporters. "So, hopefully, we're starting to figure that out." The Kings looked like they had figured some things out with a recent 7-3 stretch, but they've dropped four of their last five, including Wednesday's 127-116 setback in Portland. Richaun Holmes notched a career-high 28 points to go along with 10 rebounds for Sacramento, which fell to 3-8 on the road -- 0-4 against the West.

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, NBCS California (Sacramento), FS Southwest (San Antonio)

ABOUT THE KINGS (8-12): Sacramento continues to operate without point guard De'Aaron Fox (ankle) and forward Marvin Bagley III (thumb), and it played Wednesday without sharpshooter Bogdan Bogdanovic (knee), leaving the team without 47 points of production. "You don't want any of your guys to get hurt, but a lot of what we built we built around having certain guys, and they haven't been with us," coach Luke Walton told reporters Wednesday. "That's why I go back to giving our guys credit. They've adjusted, they've adapted, continued to work." Fox remains at least a couple of weeks away, Bagley is nearing a return and Bogdanovic is considered day-to-day.

ABOUT THE SPURS (8-14): Lonnie Walker IV broke out for a career-high 28 points in the win over the Rockets while making 10-of-18 shots -- 4-of-7 behind the arc. "It was confidence," Walker told the media. "My teammates kept me going, and once I started feeling it, I'm just going to let it go and play my game. I know what I can and cannot do. I'm just happy that we played team ball and we got this win." The second-year pro has scored in double figures in three of his last four contests after doing so just once in his first 28 career games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Kings SG Buddy Hield is 12-for-50 from 3-point range over his last four games after going 11-for-21 at Boston on Nov. 25.

2. Spurs PF LaMarcus Aldridge (thigh) missed the last two games and is day-to-day.

3. Sacramento took all three meetings last season.

PREDICTION: Spurs 115, Kings 109