New Orleans @ Sacramento preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 7, 2019 ) New Orleans 133, Sacramento 129

The Sacramento Kings halted a season-worst eight-game slide in their last outing and look to post their first consecutive wins in more than three weeks when they host the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday. The Kings broke their lengthy skid in style by rallying from a 20-point deficit to post a 128-123 home victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.

Sacramento had lost nine of 10 contests after winning three straight games from Dec. 8-11 before impressing coach Luke Walton with Thursday's show of resiliency. "You go down 20 in the (second) quarter, it's easy to give in," Walton told reporters. "That's the easier thing to do, and our guys kept scrapping and fighting, scrapping and fighting. They pulled out a hard-fought, gritty win. That's kind of who our group is." New Orleans suffered a 123-113 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday for only its second loss in the past seven games and now it concludes a road back-to-back. "We just got to play," Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said afterward. "We have a bunch of young guys. We don't have old men ... and we have a good bench and we will use our bench (against Sacramento)."

TIME: 10 p.m. ET. TV: FS New Orleans, NBCS California

ABOUT THE PELICANS (11-24): Point guard Lonzo Ball scored 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting against his former teammates and has topped 20 in consecutive games for the first time in his three-year career. "He has been playing well," Gentry said. "He has been doing a good job with the pace of the game and pushing it. He has done a good job of getting the ball into the paint and if not finding somebody, then finishing himself. I think he's done a good job." Small forward Brandon Ingram, also a former Laker, scored 22 points for his 28th 20-point outing of the season but was 10-of-27 shooting.

ABOUT THE KINGS (13-22): Point guard De'Aaron Fox fueled Sacramento's highest-scoring game of the season by recording 27 points, nine assists and a season-best five steals. "The way we pushed the pace definitely helped me a lot," Fox told reporters after the win. "We know we have to be able to get stops to win games, and to piece together as many minutes in a 48-minute game as possible. ... We're not happy with one win." Keeping the 22-year-old Fox healthy has been an issue as he missed 17 games with an ankle injury and one with a back injury this season.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The Pelicans have won four of the past five meetings.

2. Sacramento reserve SG Bogdan Bogdanovic (ankle) is expected to miss the contest.

3. New Orleans C Derrick Favors had 15 points and 14 rebounds against the Lakers, and has a streak of seven straight double-digit efforts on the boards.

PREDICTION: Kings 114, Pelicans 109