The Sacramento Kings bounced back from a bad loss to post one of their most impressive wins yet, going wire-to-wire to beat the future NBA champion Denver Nuggets 128-105 at home.
This was the first of a back-to-back matchup between the two teams in Sacramento (the teams split in real life). The Kings won this one despite the fact that Domantas Sabonis missed his first game of the season.
Nikoka Jokic couldn’t take advantage. Although he finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, the Kings’ backup centers played him to a near-standstill. Richaun Holmes had a season-high 15 points to go with six rebounds, while Alex Len made his first start and had three points and seven rebounds in limited minutes.
Harrison Barnes has been on fire of late and scored a team-high 28 points, including 11-for-11 from the foul line. De’Aaron Fox contributed 25 points. Keegan Murray and Trey Lyles both made four three-pointers.
Jamal Murray led the Nuggets with 26 points.
The Kings improved to 19-13 in the replay, two games better than real life.
2022-23 Sacramento Kings Replay Home Page
The Kings jumped out to a 9-0 lead with Fox scoring seven of those points. Another Fox basket gave Sacramento its first double-digit lead at 14-3. The Kings led by as many as 15 in the first quarter, and it was 31-19 at the break.
Barnes scored twice in another 9-0 run that put Sacramento up 42-21 with under nine minutes to play in the second quarter, and the Kings went up by 22 on three occasions. It was 70-52 at halftime.
The Kings held a 77-58 lead lead in the third quarter when Denver put together its only true run of the game to get back into it. Murray had 11 points in a 16-4 run that cut the deficit to seven points at 81-74. But Sacramento turned things around quickly, and Fox had the final seven points of a 12-0 run that pushed the lead back up to 20 at 96-76. It was 101-78 heading into the final period.
Denver got no closer than 17 points in the final period. The Kings’ biggest lead of the game was 26 points and it came at 120-94 after two straight Fox baskets.
This game was played with Bank Shot Basketball.
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