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Knicks-Kings Preview

Nov 25, 2009 - 7:41 AM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

New York (3-11) at Sacramento (5-8), 10:00 p.m. EDT

The Sacramento Kings have continued to struggle on the road this season, but returning home has always seemed to give them a boost.

The Kings will try to snap their four-game slide Wednesday night when they host the woeful New York Knicks.

Once again, Sacramento (5-8) had problems stopping opponents and taking care of the ball while getting swept in a three-game southern road trip.

The Kings allowed an opponent to reach 100 points in a fifth straight contest Monday night, a 116-105 defeat to Memphis. They also committed 21 turnovers for the third time in their four losses.

"If we can't throw the ball to our team, it's going to be a long year," coach Paul Westphal said. "We started out the game turning the ball over and kept it up for most of the first three quarters. ... We just couldn't get anything going because our ballhandling was so atrocious."

Westphal's club dropped to 1-6 away from home, but is 4-2 at Arco Arena and has won its two previous games there following a road trip.

The Kings lost three straight road games to open this season but won 127-116 in overtime over the Grizzlies on Nov. 2. They won at Utah on Nov. 7 and added three consecutive home wins before a 101-87 loss to visiting Chicago on Nov. 17 started the current skid.

Despite his team's recent struggles, rookie guard Tyreke Evans has scored 20 points in each of his last seven games. After missing Saturday night's loss in Houston with an injured middle finger, Evans had 28 points on 10 of 18 shooting and increased his scoring average since Nov. 7 to 24.6 points.

The Kings are 8-3 against the Knicks (3-11) since Feb. 24, 2004. They have also won 10 of 12 home meetings dating back to the start of the 1997-98 season, but suffered a 114-90 defeat on Dec. 13.

They will face a Knicks team off to its worst start since dropping 12 of 15 to open the 1985-86 season.

New York had shown signs of emergence with back-to-back road wins last week, but enters Wednesday's game trying to avoid a third straight loss.

After a 107-105 overtime defeat against visiting Boston, the Knicks opened a three-game western trip with a 100-90 loss to the Lakers on Tuesday night.

New York trailed by 25 in the fourth quarter but finished the game on a 24-9 run to make the final score more respectable. The Knicks struggled against Los Angeles' frontcourt with 7-foot center Eddy Curry missing the second half with a knee injury.

Curry's status is unknown for Wednesday's game.

Sacramento's only 7-footer is Spencer Hawes, who had 18 points and 13 rebounds in a 121-94 win at New York on March 20. The Knicks' Al Harrington missed that loss with a sore left Achilles but scored 33 points in the previous victory over the Kings.

The game will feature two of the league's worst defenses. New York has allowed 107.4 points and 48.6 percent shooting per game, while opponents have averaged 106.1 points and 48.2 percent shooting against Sacramento.