As the Sacramento Kings continue to try to put their season back together, following the firing of former Coach of the Year Mike Brown and rumors surrounding star point guard De’Aaron Fox, they’ve found themselves on a five-game win streak. To start off the weekend, they’ll face as tough of a test as there is in the NBA.
That will come on Friday night in the form of a trip to the East Coast to face the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics. For its part, Boston is fresh off a brutal road trip that saw it face a Wolves team that always plays it tough, as well as the red-hot Thunder and Nikola Jokic’s Nuggets.
The Kings and a return to TD Garden give the Celtics a great chance to start the weekend off strong ahead of a Sunday matinée against the lowly Pelicans.
With a cross-conference battle on the slate this Friday in Boston, check out our Sacramento Kings vs. Boston Celtics predictions, including our NBA expert picks, with tip set for January 10 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Matchup Sacramento Kings vs Boston Celtics Overview
Teams: Sacramento Kings vs. Boston Celtics
Date: Friday, January 10, 2025
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Venue: TD Garden
Win Probabilities
The prediction tip for the winner in the game between the Sacramento Kings and the Boston Celtics is the Boston Celtics.
Expert Prediction: Who Wins?
It was just a little over a week ago when the Sacramento Kings’ season appeared to be teetering in the balance, threatening not only to fall over the edge but also to see star point guard De’Aaron Fox move on in the process. The Kings had stunningly, and in a messy fashion, fired head coach Mike Brown.
They proceeded to lay an egg in Los Angeles, losing to the rival Lakers by double digits to extend their losing skid to six games—three of them at the hands of the Lake Show. With an interim head coach and an unhappy star, it was as tough as it could get. And yet, since then, the Kings have turned the ship around.
Under interim head coach Doug Christie, Sacramento has ripped off five straight wins against tough opposition, with the stretch featuring wins over the Dallas Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers, Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, and a double-overtime thriller against the Miami Heat.
An offense that appeared clunky as they worked to integrate DeMar DeRozan has played well. The Kings have averaged 122.6 points per game over their current five-game win streak, and a 110-point effort against the Mavs was the lowest output. That offensive growth is hugely encouraging, as it will be an offense that will enable the Kings to stabilize.
With DeRozan, Fox, and Domantas Sabonis making up the spine of the team, defense simply cannot and will not be the Kings’ calling card. However, while an offense hovering around the top 10 in efficiency hasn’t lived up to expectations, their defensive rating—currently 17th, adjusted for opponent—is nearing the sweet spot of being good enough.
Yet, while a push for good enough could see the Kings vault themselves back into the play-in mix in a competitive Western Conference, it would be unlikely to be sufficient against these Boston Celtics.
The relative anonymity of their stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and the tremendous success of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder this year have allowed the Celtics’ title defense to remain under the radar. Despite the lack of chatter surrounding its great play, Boston has been doing just that and is behind just the Cavs and Thunder at 26-10.
With complete and utter mastery of spacing and total buy-in on the drive-and-kick game from Tatum and Brown, the Celtics’ offense has continued to cruise along as an elite unit. Despite dealing with injuries this year, the Celtics remain among the league’s best in offensive efficiency—even as teams like the Thunder grab the headlines.
Boston enters Friday’s matchup with the Kings ranked second in the league in offensive efficiency, adjusted for opponent. And, despite taking a league-high 55.2% of its shots from three—a ridiculous mark nearly eight percentage points higher than the team shooting the second most—volume has not made efficiency suffer.
Boston boasts a true shooting percentage of .592, which is good for fourth in the league. That it is doing that despite down shooting seasons from Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jaylen Brown from a distance, is a tremendously promising sign as the season moves forward.
Another promising sign is the performance of the Celtics’ defense, despite Porzingis—the team’s best rim protector by a wide margin—being limited to just 13 games. With downright dominant perimeter defenders in Holiday and Derrick White, long, switchable wings in Brown and Tatum and the beautiful mind of Easy Al Horford, the Celtics have sustained defensive success.
Adjusted for opponent, the Celtics sit eighth in defensive rating and will absolutely see improvement when Porzingis returns and begins altering opponents’ play and shots as he is wont to do.
After a 13-game stretch in December in which the Celtics went just 7-6, they appear to have rediscovered their footing. A three-game win streak preceded the tough fight against the Thunder. That game saw Boston have to dig deep and scrap after so frequently getting to coast against Eastern Conference opponents.
With a matchup in Denver against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets ahead of Friday, I like the Celtics to be completely dialed in going into the weekend. With Boston at full flight, even an improved Kings team won’t be able to hold off the defending champion Celtics.
How to Make Sacramento Kings vs. Boston Celtics Picks
Ready to make picks on the Sacramento Kings vs. Boston Celtics matchup on Friday, January 10? Make sure to head over to Sportzino, where you can find every NBA game on the slate this weekend and so much more!
