SACRAMENTO AT DENVER, 7 p.m. Monday, ALT; 950 AM
Spotlight on Buddy Hield: Being traded as a rookie can be jarring, but Hield seems to be taking his big move in stride. The No. 6 pick in the 2016 draft has played well since joining Sacramento in the trade, completed minutes after the All-Star Game, that sent franchise cornerstone DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans. Hield, college basketball’s player of the year last season at Oklahoma, entered Sunday’s game against Utah averaging 13.8 points and shooting 51.3 percent in four games with the Kings, big bumps from his season averages. That included his first game in Sacramento, against the Nuggets on Feb. 23, when he scored 16 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Nuggets: They shot 9-of-30 (30 percent) from 3-point range in their loss to the Hornets on Saturday, snapping a franchise-record streak of 12 consecutive games with at least 10 3-pointers made. … ‘s 31-point performance Saturday was his fourth 30-point game this season. … has scored at least 20 points in each of his last five games, the second-longest such stretch of his career. Gallinari scored 20-plus points in six consecutive games in January 2016. … The Nuggets are 0-2 against the Kings this season.
Kings: They have defeated Denver five consecutive times, including the last three meetings at the . … Willie Cauley-Stein scored a career-high 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds off the bench during Sacramento’s win over the Nuggets on Feb. 23. The Kings had a total of 72 bench points in that game, their most this season. … Sacramento, which hosted Utah on Sunday, is 4-9 in the second game of back-to-back sets this season. … Former Nuggets guard Ty Lawson entered Sunday averaging 11 points and 6.2 assists in his last 10 games. His season averages were 9.0 points and 4.6 assists.
