Watch Portland Trail Blazers vs Sacramento Kings: Preview, Food & Drink Specials

January 23, 2012 — PDXPIPELINE

The Blazers lost to a terrible Detroit Pistons team on Saturday, and ended up 2-4 on their road trip. Luckily, they take on another terrible team in the Sacramento Kings tonight that they beat by 20 less than a month ago. They are back home at the Rose Garden, where they’ve only lost one game this season.

It was little more than a couple weeks ago the Blazers had the best record in the West Division. Now, a quarter way through the season, they are a 10th seed and currently out of playoff contention. So it goes in this compact season. The Blazers play three straight (winnable) games this week. Tonight’s game starts at 7PM on Comcast Sports Network. If you do not have cable or want a good Portland establishment to enjoy with friends, here are several suggestions from our sponsors.

Watch Trailblazers Games in Portland:

Tanker Bar (Se Hawthorne & 48th) | (503) 445-4635 | More info: tankerbar.com
Tanker Bar will be playing all games on their 6 large LCD TVs. $1 Pabst during all Blazers & Football games, and $1 off Nachos during all games. 15 beers on tap, Buckhunter, free popcorn.

Blitz (Ladd, Pearl, Tigard, NW 21) | More info: blitzbarpdx.webs.com
Blitz's FOUR locations will be happening as always with tons of televisions, drinks specials, and games (ping pong, shuffleboard, buckhunters, horseshoes in Tigard, and more).

East Burn (East Burnside & 18th) | (503) 236-2876 | More info: www.theeastburn.com
East Burn will have the game on a large projection screen on their heated patio and also downstairs. Recess discount menu from 3-6PM. They have daily drink specials (pdf of specials here).

NE 15th Avenue & Hawthorne Hophouses | More info: oregonhophouse.com
15th Avenue: 1517 NE Brazee | Hawthorne: 4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
The Blazers are back and we are ready to make up for lost time. While they dunk, we'll drink. Come watch the Blazers take on the Cavaliers at 6pm at the Hophouse! Dress in Blazer gear and get your first beer for $2.00.

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Preview - Portland Trail Blazers vs Sacramento Kings:

By Cain Stoneking

Portland Trailblazers (9-7) vs Sacramento Kings (6-11)
Monday, January 23rd, 7:00pm CSN
Schedule: Portland Trail Blazers 2011-12 Schedule + Win Tickets

Game Notes: The Trail Blazers lost again Saturday in frustrating fashion as they took too long to turn on the heat and missed too many shots down the stretch. This humiliating loss handed the Pistons their fourth win of the year, leaving the Blazers with a 2-4 road trip, a 9-7 record over all and out of the top eight playoff seeds, at least for now. Now, the Blazers play three games over the next three nights, and as we've seen all year, they don't perform well in back-to-backs.

A positive to this schedule is most of the games are at home and most of them are against teams with worse records than the Blazers. The first one will be against the Kings, a team the Blazers beat by twenty earlier this season in their most dominant win. That game was in doubt as they were trailing at half, but an exceptional third quarter put the game away.

The Kings:

Starting Lineup: Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton, DeMarcus Cousins, Jason Thompson, Fransisco Garcia
Bench: Jimmer Fredette, Travis Outlaw, JJ Hickson, Tyler Honeycutt, Isiah Thomas, Donte Green

X’s and O’s:

The Kings have a lot of young talent and a chance to rebuild in the future. As of now, however, they can’t generate enough consistency to win games. Their bench isn’t very deep and no one really plays defense. The upside is they have some guards that can score in buckets. Evans, Thornton, Fredette, and Thomas are all capable of giving the Kings a huge quarter or half. If someone else steps up then they can easily take this game away from the Blazers. The X-Factor for the Kings will be Cousins. He is capable of 20/10 on a given night and that would be a huge left for them. The Blazer guards will have to step up and match the King’s guards. The Blazer forwards will be able to have their way against the Kings. As long as the guards keep up, the Blazers should win this game by a huge amount.

Advantage Blazers:

The Blazers' forwards should win this game. Wallace has had inconsistent play on the road, but at home he shines and no one should be able to stop LaMarcus from getting anywhere he wants on the court. Batum off the bench will have a huge advantage over any forward off the bench for the Kings. If any or all of them get off to a great start and play consistent basketball, this should be an easy game for the Blazers.

Last Words:

It will be three games in three nights for the Blazers, with the last one at Golden State. They need some wins and a gut check because currently they are the 10th seed in the standings. Even with this compressed schedule, there are a lot of games left. But with the season a quarter over, the Blazers need to step on the gas.

Games this week:
Memphis – 24th
@ Golden State - 25
Phoenix - 27th
@Utah – 30th

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Blazers coverage by Cain Stoneking, a life-long Oregonian who breathes Blazers basketball. During the offseason he enjoys backpacking and playing music in his local band Foxtrot. Follow him on twitter at Letsgoblazers, or write to him at lightcain@gmail.com.

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