The Kings survived a twilight zone matchup in a double-overtime thriller against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night, winning 138-135 thanks to the magnificence of Malik Monk and Domantas Sabonis. Monk scored 37 points and 9 assists, 17 of those points in the 4th quarter and OT, and gave the Kings their most consistent scoring punch and energy across the 58-minute contest. Sabonis finished with 22 points, 12 assists, and 23 rebounds for his 7th triple double of the season, and held his own against the post presences of one of the taller squads in the association.
Paolo Banchero had a career game for the Magic, scoring a personal best 43 points on 13 of 25 shooting. The Kings showcased their amazing ability to bring out the best three-point shooting in their opponents; Orlando came into the contest last in the league for three-point makes and second-to-last in three-point percentage, but shot 25 of 44 from three (a franchise record for them) across the game and used a barrage of heartbreaking deep makes throughout the second half and overtime periods to keep victory within reach. The Kings meanwhile, shot just 15 of 40 from deep, but were just as happy to take the quick deep looks as the Magic were, even when they weren’t falling.
Banchero roasted the Kings all game long and hit 6 threes, including a pull-up triple with 15 seconds left in the 4th quarter that gave Orlando a 118-116 advantage. But out of the following timeout, Monk drove to the basket and scored a gorgeous left-handed layup over Banchero that knotted the score back up at 118-118. Jalen Suggs missed Orlando’s last three-point attempt in regulation.
In the closing minute of the first overtime period, Monk found Sabonis off a pick-and-roll for a thunderous dunk that put Sacramento back up 126-125, and on the next possession, Monk hit 1 of 2 free throws to extend the lead to 127-125. But in the closing seconds of OT and with the Magic down two, Banchero drove to the bucket and lost the ball out of bounds – a call that was quickly and erroneously overturned by the officiating crew, which resulted in a quick bang-bang layup by Banchero that tied the score again at 127-127. Monk missed a corner three pointer at the buzzer that brought up the second overtime period.
Both teams were on the second night of a back-to-back, and were fully gassed by the second overtime. But the Kings finally got the last gasp when Keegan Murray rebounded a missed Monk three, handed the ball to De’Aaron Fox, and relocated for his own three that knotted the score at 135-135. After a missed three on the other end, Fox hit his patented turnaround mid-range jumper, and hit 1 of 2 free throws on the following play to put Sacramento up 138-135. Banchero couldn’t hit his final deep shot, and Sacramento survived.
Murray finished with 28 points and 11 boards, and was magnificent in the first half, scoring on 5 straight plays including a gorgeous drive and layup on Franz Wagner. Fox had one of his worst contest of the season, scoring 15 points and 7 assists but shooting just 6 of 22 from the field and was seemingly exhausted for much of the second half and overtime periods. But Harrison Barnes had 17 points and Trey Lyles added 10 points and 3 huge charge calls against Banchero and the Magic. Monk’s 37 points included a 15-point 2nd quarter where Malik scored 5 triples in four minutes. A day removed from a listless loss to the Charlotte Hornets where only Fox and Sabonis played up to their pay grade, it was good to see Sacramento’s other contributors show up to secure the win against the Magic.
Jalen Suggs had 24 points and 6 threes for Orlando, and Caleb Houstan added 15 off the bench. Magic star Franz Wagner missed most of the contest after spraining his ankle in the first quarter.
While Orlando’s three point success was the highlight of a crazy statistical night, the Kings won the battle in the paint 66 to 24 against one of the leagues most post-hungry and tallest squads. Sacramento also out-rebounded the Magic 69 to 48. The Kings can celebrate their first victory on the second night of a back-to-back this season, but also have to note that if they’d hit their free throws – and they were just 21 of 31 on the evening – this contest would have been over long before it did.
The Kings remain in Sacramento for a Friday matchup against the Toronto Raptors.
. . . And in other news, Sacramento reported an inexplicable spike in heart attacks Wednesday night.
That was insane.
Malik, Domas and Keegan balled out.
We broke the curse of losing Segababa’s this season.
And broke the curse of losing when the opponent misses key players?
Got that monkey off our backs!
pic.twitter.com/Db4cwXNYsK
great win. Hope soon AI replace human refs.
How about robots that all look like Agent Smith from the Matrix?
Finally saw Ford vs Ferrari. Monk is Ken Miles:
Jesus, so many times I thought they were going to blow it. The missed free throws, turnovers, and letting the Magic shoot 66% at one point from three drove me absolutely nuts. I had like 20 heart attacks watching that, but in the end, glad we were able to get the win, especially in 2OT. Take the wins at this point, especially considering I predicted they would lose tonight.
I thought they were going to lose because of the way they were playing they didn’t deserve to win. I had actually stopped watching until my son texted me and said …..Dad you gotta watch this. I had no belief in the Kings ability to pull this one out. They got the dub, they did what they had to do but it could have gone either way.
My Goodness! what a contest!
Orlando breaks their franchise record for 3 pointers with 25!! tonight.
I was at the previous record game of 23 because it was played at Sleep Train Arena on 13 January 2009. Kings lost big to their 9-30 record, with Kevin Martin having a 30 point night.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/game/1-13-2009-orl-at-sac-54832
Exhausting hard won win !
That game was insane. Sabonis, Keegan and Monk were fantastic. That’s the worst Fox has played in 2 years. Man he looked like he could barely make it up the court. Made me wonder if he’s sick or something. Some of threes by Orlando were NUTS. Falling about of bounds with a hand in the face? No problem for Suggs apparently. Just wild stuff.
Such a physical game. Suggs, Banchero and their center could barely walk off the court at the end. They were beat. Kings were determined to win. They never quit. Huge win and good for the team’s approach after last night.
I saw it mentioned elsewhere that Fox was blowing his nose and coughing on the bench so he might have a cold. If so, hopefully it’s a quick recovery and not the 3 weeks and counting of low grade symptoms my wife has been going through.
Not sure if anyone noticed this, but it looked like one of the Magic players may have punched the ball to another player that made a clutch 3 pointer (I think it was an important possession close to the end of regulation). That’s supposed to be called like a kicked ball & Fox was complaining bitterly to the ref, but no call was made. Regardless, great win for the Kings. Let’s go get that home court (top four) playoff seed!
Kings W
Lakers L
Refs L
Glorious!
L*kers and Duds both below 0.500. Love it!
Well I asked for a competitive game in the game thread and I certainly got that. Happy for the win but honestly when your opponent’s 3-pt shooting percentage and your free throw percentage are both around 60%, you don’t really deserve to win. We were saved by Monkster and Sabonis tonight.
If my math is correct, at the end of regulation their 3pt% was higher than our FT%.
Update: My math was not correct, but still… it was close.
what a game! Both teams put on a show.
orlando is a fun young team. Good defenders – caused a lot of turnovers.
Suggs is really good at the point of attack on defense. 6’4, like 205lbs. Just tenacious and physical without fouling much. Once his offense becomes more consistent, look out.
Not the prettiest win, considering Orlando was without several rotation players. But take ’em any way we can.
This game highlighted the overall weakness of the SG position (not Monk, idk what position he plays). 2 points in 27 minutes from Duarte and Huerter. If you add in Mitchell, it’s 4 points in 40 minutes from guards not named Monk and Fox. That won’t get it done in the long term.
Monk plays guard. That might change your calculations.
So they have 2 good guards on the roster
I feel somewhat vindicated: Lyles drew three charges on Banchero, all huge. As I said before, taking a charge should be part of our defensive arsenal. It becomes more important because other elements of our defense are weak.
“If you don’t make your free throws you can’t complain about the calls! How can you complain about the calls if you won’t make your free throws?!?”
“Grim-is-grim, it’s just another brick at the rim.”
“By the way, which one’s Monk?”
I don’t understand why the Refs didn’t/couldn’t review the play where Paulo lost the ball out of bounds. They obviously had a disagreement since they changed their call and it was in the last few seconds of the game. Take a minute and get the call right.
Their egos won’t allow them to think of the possibility that they just might be wrong.
We just cannot afford to lose more games like this…..felt relieved and happy that we stole this game, and got the win..
3 pts defense need to improve now….
But I wonder why Mike Brown opted to play JTA than Edwards….
I mean, to my eyes, JTA looks slow….JTA maybe a bit stronger…but Edwards plays tougher defense….
This team has become a joke from the FT Line, and there are times when some of their players need to forget the 3pt shot. Huerter is a very good shooter from inside the line, so if he can hit 55+ inside the line, just have him shoot inside the line for awhile until his 3pt shot comes around. The coaching staff can only draw up plays for 3pt shots? As far as the FT problem goes, Henry Turner made a good point in the pre-game when he said: When he was playing the guards had to shoot 80%, or they’d have to stay after games to shoot at least 100 extra ft’s, and I think they should make them shoot them right on the floor, as soon as the game is done. As far as the 3pt shots in today’s games goes, look up Doug Moe and his Denver Nuggets back in the day, his points a game w/o 3pt shots were phenominal. The Kings would be a lot better off shooting less 3’s, more 2’s.
I don’t doubt that the players are putting the work in at the line, but the results are the results. The Kings score 2.4 fewer points per game from the line than their opponents, and a large portion of that (1.7) is the difference in the 73% that the team shoots vs. the 80% that their opponents shoot. That is a very significant difference. And it is an absolute head scratcher.
I was attributing this to
Opponent Free Throw Defense
Those Nuggets teams (and really, the entire league in that era) were hideously inefficient by modern standards, they just ran at an absolutely blazing pace so the PPG seemed normal (or, in the Nuggets case, high). Playing that way will get you blown out in today’s NBA – shooting 3s and shooting them well is a fundamental part of having the efficiency required to be successful.
The Magic showed the Kings (and Kayte Christensen and Kyle Draper) what can happen when you give an NBA team wide-open three after wide-open three.
Luckily the Kings didn’t give up and managed to squeeze out an ugly win.
I wasn’t the least bit surprised that we allowed the Magic to have a career night at the three when they are at the bottom in three pointers this season.
I blame Akis for this “The Kings can’t just give up open threes all night, but they might need to give Orlando a bit more space to make life more difficult in the paint.” in his preview.
That’s like telling a kid they can have some candy before dinner, just don’t spoil your dinner.
I know it’s not necessarily a Mike Brown thing, but this team desperately needs a little load management for Fox and Domas. Between December 29 and January 18, they don’t have more than one day off between games.
I hope that MB takes a look at the back to back games at Detroit and Charlotte January 9/10 and can figure out how to get one or both of Fox / Ox a rest day. Between December 29 and February 14, they only have a single break of more than one day. Just a brutal stretch for this team right now.
Nets got fined 100k for sitting players that could have otherwise played
I was not in attendance — I wish I was as that was a fun game to watch (vs. the night before which was one of those NBA games where you wonder why people pay hundreds of dollars to sit there). One bad play was Toscano-Anderson allowing Banchero to get an inbounds pass in OT and make a layup. T-A had his feet and body in the wrong place. Plus Lyles should have been defending the key, not a long inbounds pass towards the midcourt line which is what he did. Plus, the replay shows that Banchero was fouled on that play. We are lucky the refs did not whistle that one. On the other hand, giving the Magic that ball to allow that inbounds play was just an awful miss. by the refs.
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