"You shouldn't accept in victory what you wouldn't accept in defeat" – Michael Malone

2:53 – Isaiah Thomas pushes off of J.J. Barea and commits an offensive foul.  For as good a game as Thomas had been having (26 points, 10-16 from field, 7 asissts), he was awful down the stretch.  This was his 7th turnover of the game, setting a career-high.  He and Cousins combined for 12 of the Kings 19 turnovers.

2:23 – DeMarcus Cousins makes a bad pass and Shved steals the ball.

1:53 – Derrick Williams misses a short jumper, Pekovic boards and Barea races down the court.

1:42 – Barea finds Pekovic for the easy layup. 102-95 Kings.

1:29 – Cousins catches the ball in tough coverage and tries to go up with it despite nearly 11 seconds left on the shot clock.  Pekovic swats it away and Wolves recover.

1:23 – Barea gets to the rim and Gay is forced to foul to prevent the layup. Barea hits both Free Throws. 102-97 Kings.

1:05 – Isaiah misses a contested mid-range jumper, Barea grabs rebound.

1:01 – The Wolves get the ball up the court in no time at all and Shved scores an easy layup.  Malone calls a timeout. 102-99 Kings.

0:49 – Out of the timeout, the Kings regain some composure.  They go to Cousins on the low block.  Cousins uses his patience in the post to get around Pek and score a shot off the glass. 104-99 Kings.

0:19 – Gay brings the ball up the court and begins to dribble out as much of the clock as he can at the top of the three point arc.  Cousins comes to set a screen, and Gay's man decides to go under the screen.  Gay, now with space, doesn't hesitate and drills the long three. Wolves call a quick 20 second timeout. 107-102 Kings.

0:17 – Out of the timeout, the Wolves run the exact same play to get Love a look at three from the same spot he just hit.  He hits again. 107-105 Kings.

0:09 – The Wolves are forced to foul Isaiah Thomas, but have a foul to give.

0:08 – The Kings get the ball to DeMarcus Cousins, who asides from Jason Thompson, is the worst FT shooter on the floor for the Kings (72.6% on the season).  Cousins calmly nails both. 109-105 Kings.

0:04 – The Wolves have no timeouts remaining.  The last thing the Kings want to do is give up a three.  They let Barea speed up the court and go right to the rim, where Isaiah bafflingly decides to contest the shot and gets whistled for the foul as Barea makes it.  Grant and Jerry think Barea might miss on purpose.  Barea opts to hit the free throw instead. 109-108 Kings.

0:04 – The Wolves fouls Isaiah Thomas immediately on the inbounds.  Thomas makes both.  With no timeouts, Barea races the ball down the court.  The Kings can only be hurt by a three, but decide not to foul.  Barea gets to about 30 feet and throws up a three that is short as the buzzer goes off. 111-108 Kings Win.

Despite those mistakes in the final few minutes, the Kings played like the better team for most of the night and deserved this victory.  We've talked a lot in the past about how the Kings need to learn from their defeats in order to win.  This game against the Wolves shows us that they'll also have to learn from their wins in order to keep winning.

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