NBA, the rise in the rankings starts here: Kings-Pacers at midnight on Sky Sport Uno

Indiana has come off three consecutive victories, while Sacramento has three defeats in a row, but both teams are struggling with a first part of the season that is decidedly below expectations. Now, to climb positions in the rankings in the East as in the West, we need to change gear, also because there is no shortage of talent available. The appointment with the traditional NBA Sundays is at midnight on Sky Sport Uno, with live coverage of Kings-Pacers and commentary in Italian by Flavio Tranquillo and Davide Pessina

When you have them on the team De'Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Saboinsor Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Myles Turneraiming for a season with some satisfaction is a must. Yet, at the moment the regular season lived by Kings e Pacers can only be retained disappointing. The two teams have virtually identical recordseven if the competitiveness is more accentuated West makes that of Sacramento (13-16) good for one only 12th place which at the moment would not be valid not even play-inwhile with his 13-15 Indiana it's right now 8° a East. The summer conditions, however, were very different, because on the one hand i Kings they reinforced themselves with a veteran like DeRozan and were aiming for a prompt relaunch after the disappointment of last season, while i Pacers they were even veterans of the finals of the Eastern Conference and they seemed capable of growing further. This is why now, after two months of matches characterized by too many ups and downs, the boys of Mike Brown like those of Rick Carlisle they have to search a turning point.

Between novelty and continuity, attacks and defenses

Sacramento in the summer it seemed to have left the market with the idea of ​​betting everything on a roster with remarkable offensive talentwho in addition to the three stars already mentioned can also boast a scorer with pure instincts such as Malik Monk and a streak shooter like Keegan Murray. And, in fact, to date i Kingsthey would have the 7th most effective attack in the leaguejust that from a defensive point of view their ranking position drops to 14th place. All in all, these are discreet data, but they had a significant influence on them the inability to manage the final stages of the raceas happened in recent losses to the Nuggets and Lakers. Speaking of effective attacks, last season only the Celtics who later became NBA champions had done better than Indiana in the attacking half of the field, but this year the Pacers' offensive performance fell dramatically until 13th position. The improvements in defensewhere Indiana is went from 24th to 22nd positionwere minimal and the general performance of the team could only suffer as a result. One thing, in view of the traditional appointment with theNBA Sundaysit's certain: there will be two teams on the pitch that don't have too many problems scoring a basket. The live broadcast of Kings-Pacers starts midnight on Sky Sports One with commentary in Italian by Flavio Tranquillo and Davide Pessina.