The Kings 93-80 triumph over Mike Dunleavy's squad November 28 at Arco Arena was their 14th consecutive victory over the Clippers. The last time L.A. dumped the Kings was January 18, 2003!

The Clippers enter tonight's match-up last in the Pacific at 12-16 but feeling a bit better about the quality of their play lately having won two of their last three including Wednesday's 100-77 demolition of Boston. Sacramento has won it's last two, sits 12-14 a game in front of Los Angeles in the Pacific standings, and is coming off of a 101-76 rout of Philly Wednesday.

It doesn't appear that the Ron Artest for Corey Maggette trade rumored to be imminent earlier in the week is in the offing anytime soon, but that won't stop some from comparing the two head to head tonight. Artest, after sitting out two games with sore knees, returned against the 76ers and contributed 10 points in 34 minutes of playing time. Maggette, seemingly at the ready to be traded, continues to handle himself professionally on the court as he delivered a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds versus Boston.

As Sam Cassell continues idle resting a sore left heel racked with plantar fasciatis, the Clippers will look to somehow manufacture enough offense to crown the Kings tonight. They fell woefully short in that category in the earlier encounter with Sacramento, shooting a season-low 30% from the field in falling by 13 points. L.A. was outscored 23-13 in the fourth quarter of that game, getting 20 points from Shaun Livingston but very little from anyone else. Tim Thomas hit just 4-18 shots, Elton Brand 4-15, Cuttino Mobley 6-15, and Corey Maggette 0-9.

That was a game in which Chris Kaman was unable to play due to a sprained left ankle. His interior presence was missed big time as Ron Artest bullied the Clippers for 28 points. Last season Kaman averaged 17ppg, 12.2rpg and knocked down 62% from the field versus the smaller Kings.

In the big picture the Clippers feel that a sweep of this three game home stand is all that will do. They'll be favored to handle Sacramento but in order to do that must find a way to curtail the effectiveness of the Kings trio of Mike Bibby, Kevin Martin and Ron Artest.

:: Kings third year shooting guard Kevin Martin to be far more effective than he was in the earlier encounter with the Clippers. November 28 Martin, who's averaging 21.7ppg on 50% shooting, scored just 2 points on 1-8 shooting. L.A. started Quinton Ross against him defensively and took Martin out of his comfort zone right away. He never recovered. It will be interesting to see it Mike Dunleavy opts to start Ross tonight to keep Martin quiet from the outset or attaches Cuttino Mobley to him continuing to start Tim Thomas at the small forward spot to combat the size and physicality of Artest at that same position.
:: Chris Kaman to continue his recent productive surge of offense against the smaller Kings inside. Kaman is averaging nearly 13ppg over the past ten contests and should be able to post-up effectively against Brad Miller, Shareef Adbur-Rahim and company inside tonight. Kaman's energy's been up lately as he's finally healthy. Wednesday he swatted four shots. He'll need to continue contesting everything around the rim to put a seal on Sacramento's ability to generate points in the paint.
:: The Mike Bibby-Shaun Livingston match-up at the point guard spot to be fascinating to watch. Bibby continues to put forth up and down efforts hitting just 36% of his shots from the field this season, but is coming off of a solid showing Wednesday against Philly in which he tossed in a game high 21 points. Livingston's continually feeling more and more comfortable in running L.A.'s offense, has a good 5 inches on Bibby and came through with one of his best efforts in the NBA head to head with Mike November 28 hitting 10-16 shots for 20 points. Both guys figure to have their share of success in what figures to be a most entertaining individual clash.
:: The Clippers to dominate the boards, but struggle to protect the ball. While the Kings are weak on the glass and figure to yield many second chance opportunities to Los Angeles (the Clips had 20 offensive rebounds and took 18 more shots than the Kings in the first meeting), Sacramento may well make up for the discrepancy by forcing turnovers and cashing those in in transition. Kings' opponents are coughing it up more than 17 times a game and the Clippers have been suspect in this area throughout the course of this season. The contrast in respective strengths and weaknesses of the two teams should make for a fun night of NBA basketball.

14 games since tasting victory head to head against Sacramento is a mighty long time. It won't be easy to end the skid tonight.

While the Kings are a far cry from contender status in the West, the Clippers are as well. And Sacramento's Mike Bibby just seems to find a way to deliver big shot after big shot at critical moments against L.A. Bibby's clutch shot-making combined with Artest's defensive prowess will a tough combination for Los Angeles to handle tonight.

That said, the Clippers are playing better team basketball lately especially defensively. If the Clips can find a way to keep Kevin Martin from a break-out offensive game they figure to have enough fire power to get the job done.

L.A. must do the job on the boards to generate a sizable rebounding edge, keep turnovers to a number no higher than 15 and get the Elton Brand-Chris Kaman combo involved heavily offensively from the outset to get that break through triumph against this division rival.

Five Things to Know About the Sacramento Kings

1. Mike Bibby is the son of former NBA and UCLA player Henry Bibby. He is also the nephew of former Major League Baseball player Jim Bibby.

2. Mike Bibby is one of only seven NBA players to be selected as an endorsee for Nike’s Brand Jordan product line.

3. Brad Miller is one of the only three players ever to be in an NBA All-Star Game without having been drafted (John Starks and Ben Wallace are the others).

4. Brad Miller spends the summertime hunting and fishing on 900 acres of land he owns near Kendallville, Indiana, where he also holds an annual charity golf tournament benefiting Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana.

5. Ron Artest teamed up with Elton Brand and Lamar Odom on the same AAU team as a teenager.