The Sacramento Kings dominated the Portland Trail Blazers for the majority of the game, and though things briefly got dicey toward the end, the Kings still ended up with a 115-108 victory to improve their season record to 17-8 with four contests to go.
Six Kings scored in double-figures, led by Peja Stojakovic’s 17 points. Doug Christie reached double-figures for the first time this season and scored 16 to go with a season-high four steals. Mike Bibby posted his first double-double with 13 points and a season-high 10 assists.
Clyde Drexler scored a game-high 27 points. Damian Lillard scored 20 but was lost in the fourth quarter due to injury. Portland made 15 three-pointers, the most by a Sacramento opponent in the gauntlet. But the Trail Blazers shot 45.2% from the field, while the Kings were at 52.4%.
The father outplayed the son as the Trail Blazers’ Arvydas Sabonis had 10 points and 10 rebounds, while the Kings’ Domantas Sabonis missed all five of his shots and finished with four points and six rebounds.
Powered by nine early points by Drexler, Portland got off to a good start and led 16-10 midway through the first quarter. But the Kings immediately went on a 21-2 run, with seven points from Stojakovic and six by Bibby, to put Sacramento up 31-18 early in the second quarter.
An 8-0 Portland run got the Trail Blazers within five at 36-31 with nine minutes to go in the second quarter. But, the Kings later had a 10-0 run, which began with a three-pointer by Stojakovic and ended with a three-pointer by DeMarcus Cousins, to put the Kings up by 17 at 57-40. Cousins scored just before the halftime buzzer to make it a 20-point lead, 64-44, at the break.
Cousins also scored the first five points of the third quarter to make it 69-44, and a three-pointer by Mitch Richmond made it a 26-point game at 72-46. The Kings took their biggest lead of the game at 27 points at 92-65 after a Bibby three-pointer. It was 97-73 heading into the final quarter.
The Kings largely went to the end of their bench for the fourth quarter, and it almost came back to bite them, as they scored just 18 points, while giving up 35. It was 108-89 with seven minutes left, but the Trail Blazers ran off a 16-3 run to make it a six-point game at 111-105 with two minutes to go. That prompted a Sacramento timeout, and they put the starters back in. That paid off, as Richmond hit a basket out of the timeout, and the Kings held on from there.
ROGER SPORTS & GAMES 