Kings Collapse In Phoenix
Jan 9, 2019, 12:00 AM
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
by Franklin Cartoscelli – Sports 1140 KHTK
The Sacramento Kings suffered their worst loss of the season on Tuesday night as they fell to the lowly Phoenix Suns 115-111 at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
Coming off of a reassuring win against Orlando on Monday night, the Kings were in a good position to climb back above .500 against a 9-32 Suns team. Missing their franchise player in Devin Booker, newly acquired Kelly Oubre Jr. stepped up big with 26 points off the bench to lead the Suns to their 10th win of the season. Oubre’s put-back slam to give the Suns a 114-111 lead with 11 seconds left sealed the win for Phoenix, who snapped a six-game losing streak.
Fox. HUSTLE. pic.twitter.com/EMan0omwIZ
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 9, 2019
Sacramento had their worst game of the season, as they turned the ball over a whopping 25 times, including a career-high eight turnovers from De’Aaron Fox.
With the loss, the Kings fell to 20-21 on the season, and are now 3-6 on the second game of a back-to-back.
If it wasn’t for a surprising outburst from Ben McLemore, this game may of gotten out of hand a lot faster. McLemore, who only is averaging 3 points per game on the season, scored 20 points over 18 minutes off of the bench. His 7-for-10 shooting helped pick up the slack for Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic, who combined to shoot 8-for-22 from the field.
De’Aaron Fox led the offense with 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-4 from the three-point line. Willie Cauley-Stein scored 13 points and grabbed 7 rebounds to go along with his game-high three blocked shots.
After trailing the Suns 35-32 going into the second quarter, Sacramento looked to have shaken off the rust as they outscored Phoenix 40-18 in the period to take a 72-53 lead into the half. That lead was short-lived, as Phoenix erased a 21 point deficit en route to a 33-14 third quarter advantage.
TJ Warren scored 21 points, and top pick Deandre Ayton had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds in the Suns victory.
Coming Up
The Kings will look to bounce back on Thursday night at Golden 1 Center when they face Blake Griffin and the Detroit Pistons.
Detroit will be playing the second game of a back-to-back, as they face the Los Angeles Lakers in L.A. on Wednesday night. The Kings are looking for their first win against Detroit since January of 2017.
Kings rookie Marvin Bagley III, who recently returned from a knee injury and was rested against Phoenix, will return to face the Pistons on Thursday.
Catch all the action right here on KHTK Sports 1140, starting with pregame coverage at 6:30pm.
