Preview: Suns Host Kings for Final Time

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns (31-22) are back for two games at home prior to the All-Star break, the first of which comes tonight against the Sacramento Kings (30-22) at Footprint Center.

Both teams are coming off of losses - the Suns in a heartbreaker to the Golden State Warriors, and the Kings in blowout fashion to the Oklahoma City Thunder over the weekend.

The Kings lead the season series two games to one, but Phoenix completed a massive 22-point comeback victory over Sacramento the last time both squads squared off nearly a month ago.

Three storylines to watch going into tonight:

Kings' Performance Since Suns Loss

The Kings continue to play an up-and-down brand of basketball, with many lopsided losses mixed into enough big wins to stay in the playoff picture.

Sacramento is 7-5 since the historic collapse to the Suns - all but one of the losses were by double digits, however.

The Kings remain a talented squad that can win on any given night. They also remain a squad with several inconsistent players that can fall flat any given night, which is what leaves the squad prone to lopsided losses.

Kings star De'Aaron Fox has also cooled down significantly since the blazing hot start to the new season - to the point that the former Kentucky guard was omitted from a second-straight All-Star selection two weeks ago.

At the end of the day Sacramento is a good team that can be prone to off nights on the offensive side of the ball, and the Suns' rapidly improving defense could pose a legitimate challenge to the Mike Brown-lead team tonight.

Matchup to Watch: Kings vs Suns Bench

The Kings came into the season with high hopes that bench players such as Davion Mitchell could finally see breakouts, as did the Suns with new additions such as Yuta Watanabe.

The outcome hasn't necessarily been what either team had hoped - but it's not the end of the world for either squad.

Sacramento still has the services of Malik Monk - one of the front runners for the sixth man of the year award, as well as Trey Lyles - who is a high-impact and versatile four.

The Suns on the other hand have largely struck out on the bench acquisitions.

Much of the bench production has been marred by inconsistency - even sixth man Eric Gordon has had his fair share of struggles since the turn of the new year.

The encouraging side of things include the recent resurgence of players such as Josh Okogie and Drew Eubanks, along with the recent acquisitions of reinforcements.

Royce O'Neale only played 11 minutes in the Suns' loss to Golden State on Saturday night, but it's certainly reasonable to believe there will be more minutes available to the impact wing tonight. David Roddy also brings a physicality to the game that could be welcome tonight.

The bench battle might not dictate the winner of tonight's game, but it's certainly going to be interesting to watch.

Prediction: Suns Win by 6

The Suns and Kings are almost always locked into back-and-forth battles, even when one or both teams are down.

Now that both teams are up, it seems as if the generally competitive games have become even more enticing with the raised stakes.

The Suns are ultimately going to steal this game late.

The Kings might be a more consistently balanced team, but the truth is the Suns' top three is much better than the Kings' is - Devin Booker and Kevin Durant have both been playing top-five caliber basketball since the turn of the new year.

Phoenix wins a game behind the heroics of the high-level star power.

Kings-Suns is set to tip off shortly after 8:00 PM tonight and the game will be broadcast nationally on TNT.