Trail Blazers Cruise Past Kings 110-98 as DarkHorse Under Cashes Easy

The Trail Blazers handled Sacramento 110-98 in a preseason affair that played out exactly as advertised—sluggish, rotation-heavy, and mercifully low-scoring. DarkHorse's under 227.5 sailed home with room to spare, finishing 18.5 points clear as both squads leaned hard into their deep benches and treated this like the glorified scrimmage it was.

Portland controlled tempo from the jump, never letting Sacramento establish any offensive rhythm. The Kings looked disjointed without their usual flow, shooting cold from distance and struggling to generate clean looks against Portland's length. The Blazers weren't exactly lighting it up either, but they didn't need to—methodical offense and competent defense were enough against a Kings squad clearly saving energy for games that matter.

This was textbook preseason basketball: starters logged their 20 minutes and checked out, third-stringers ate up the fourth quarter, and neither coaching staff showed a single card. The 208-point total vindicated everything in DarkHorse's original thesis—camp bodies can't shoot, pace drags without competitive fire, and books still haven't learned to properly shade these exhibitions. Sacramento and Portland combined to shoot under 42 percent, and the game never threatened to go over even in garbage time. Easy money for anyone who trusted the preseason fundamentals over inflated totals.