The Los Angeles Clippers host the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night, but the matchup is not as star-studded as many would imagine.
ESPN's Shams Charania reports that Clippers star forward Kawhi Leonard will be out for an "indefinite" period of time to start the regular season as he deals with his knee injury, which is not the news that many Clippers fans wanted to hear.
With Leonard already out, the Clippers are not expected to rest all of their starters in their preseason finale against the Kings on Thursday, but co-star guard James Harden will be sidelined, per The Athletic's Law Murray.
In a preseason finale, it would not be out of the ordinary for teams to rest their starters, but there has been no indication of the Kings doing so. Murray has confirmed that six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan will be active for Sacramento.
The Clippers starting lineup without Leonard and Harden against Sacramento will likely be Bones Hyland or Kevin Porter Jr., Norman Powell, Terance Mann, Derrick Jones Jr., and Ivica Zubac.
If the Kings play their starters regular minutes like they did in Tuesday's loss against the Utah Jazz, there would be no excuse to lose in Los Angeles.
Sacramento has already dropped to 0-4 in the preseason, and while the results of the exhibition matches do not mean anything, it is the holes in the Kings' system that have not been fixed through these four games that are a problem.
The Kings have one final chance to fix some of their mistakes before the regular season kicks off in a week. The Kings and Clippers tip off on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. PT.