Sacramento Kings win third in a row at against the Charolette Hornets and third out of four overall.
Sacramento dished out 27 assists for the game as they have had 28 games with 25-plus assists, the sixth most this season. The Kings are 20-8 in games when they have 25 or more dimes, tied for the fourth most wins with 25-plus assists
Charlotte Hornets 97 (19-23) vs. Sacramento Kings 104 (22-21)
“Good win for us. That’s a team when you talk about competitive spirit and they have a lot of veterans that I respect very much and they played very hard. I thought we played very hard. I don’t think we shot very well. We kind of ran them down there in the second half and in the first half we gave up a lot of blow by’s, lay ups defensively and a lot of lapses.” said Kings Head Coach Dave Jeorger.
The Sacramento Kings win their second straight contest as they beat the Charlotte Hornets 104-97 in front of a sold out Golden 1 Center as the victory marks their third straight at home tying their longest winning streak at home this season.
Sacramento was down by two at the halftime break as they trailed 57-59 to the Hornets, who shot .479 percent from the field in the first half, going 23-for-48. Charlotte would come out of the break and go up by as many as six with 9:34 to go in the third quarter with the score at 60-66. The Kings would hit a 14-8 run to go up 76-74 with 2:59 remaining in the third as they gave up just 17 points to the Hornets. Sacramento has now had five quarters this season where they have given up 17 points or less, including just three games ago against Orlando.
The Kings led 82-76 going into the final frame before they allowed Charlotte to score the first four points of the fourth quarter. Sacramento would then go on a 10-0 run holding the Hornets scoreless from 9:46 until 6:50 as the Kings would hold their largest lead at 92-80. Charlotte would then roll off nine straight points to bring the Kings lead to within three at 92-89 with 5:37 in the game. Buddy Hield hit a three to stop the bleeding as Sacramento would hold off the Hornets come and lead for the entirety of the fourth quarter.
Sacramento forced 20 turnovers and converted those into 18 points as Kings opponents have had 20-plus turnovers over the last three outings, tying the longest streak in the NBA this season with Toronto and Oklahoma City.
Willie Cauley-Stein totaled 12 points and 12 rebounds as he collected double-double number 17 for the season and second consecutive double-double.
Sacramento held Charlotte to 38 second half points marking just the second time this season where the Kings have held an opponent to 38 points or fewer in the second half as they held Chicago to 33 points in the second half on Dec. 10.
Marvin Bagley III added 11 points and nine boards off the bench.
Kemba Walker notched a game-high 31 points to go with four assists as he shot 11-for-24 from the field.
““He’s definitely one of the toughest players to guard in this league. He’s small, but he gets his shoulder by your hips and he’s just a difficult guy to stay in front of, but he’s definitely one of the tougher guys to
guard.””
The Kings held the Hornets to under 100 points as Sacramento is now 7-0 when their opponents total less than 100 points for the game.
Buddy Hield and De’Aaron chipped in 21 points each while Bogdan Bogdanovic recorded a team-high 22 points. This is the second time this season where all three have scored 20 or more points as they did so on Dec. 30 at Los Angeles.