How absurd was this game? The Kings shot poorly for the majority of the game, were being out-rebounded by nine, kept giving the ball away and were allowing easy basket after easy basket. They ended up winning this game against Miami, giving them the season sweep. This was also Dwyane Wade’s last possible game in Sacramento. We thank Wade for countless years of phenomenal basketball. Kings move to 29-26 on the season!

Quarter-by-Quarter Recap

A really disappointing first quarter by the Kings. They went down by double-digits early at 17-7 and failed to hit shots. They were 2-12 from the floor at one point and ended the quarter a horrid 6-26. Buddy Hield (3-5) and Alec Burks (1-2) were the only ones who had decent field goal percentages. Sacramento also had five turnovers. The Heat on the other hand dominated the paint 18-6 with Hassan Whiteside up to eight points and seven rebounds. The Kings trailed 28-17 after one.

Sacramento was able to outscore Miami 33-31 and cut the deficit to six multiple times, but after returning from a scary fall, Dwyane Wade caught absolute fire. He scored the last 11 points for Miami going 3-3 from three and also making an and-1 shot (missed the free throw). It kept the deficit at nine at 59-50 at the end of the half. Josh Richardson scored 12 for the Heat while Whiteside had a 12 point, 11 rebound double-double. For the Kings, Hield led the way with 11 while Harrison Barnes and Harry Giles chipped in eight a piece. Sacramento shot 18-45 which is 41%.

The quarter didn’t start well for the Kings as they trailed 79-62 in one blink. However, a 13-4 run to end the quarter with two three’s by Bogdan Bogdanovic made the lead 83-75. Sacramento ended up outscoring the Heat 25-24. Hield went up to 16 points, Bogdanovic had 13 and De’Aaron Fox had 10. Sacramento’s shooting dropped to 28-70 which is 39%. Whiteside had 17 points and 18 rebounds, completely dominating Willie Cauley-Stein’s production of four points and six rebounds.

Sacramento, or should I say the Cardiac Kings, finally woke up late in the fourth quarter and were able to come up with a victory. They outscored Miami 27-13 with Hield, Barnes and Cauley-Stein all making plays on both ends of the floor. Barnes had a ridiculous layup after a rebound to make it 94-91, Cauley-Stein was blocking shots and Hield is well…Hield. He made a free throw which gave the Kings their first lead of the game and also had a putback following a missed layup by Fox that gave the Kings a 99-96 lead. Kings closed it out to win 102-96.

Best Players

Buddy Hield. Are you surprised? The answer is no. Buddy finished with 23 points on 8-16 shooting and 4-9 from three. He also had seven rebounds, one assist and two blocks in 34 minutes.

Bogdan Bogdanovic was playing really awful basketball to start, but as the game went along, we saw the Bogi we’ve come to love make plays. He finished with 16 points on 6-14 shooting and 2-6 from three. He was 0-4 from three prior to making two three’s in a row in the third quarter. He also added five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Harrison Barnes shot a rough 3-9, but was 2-4 from three and finished with 12 points. He was also 4-4 from the charity stripe. Barnes also came down with some crucial rebounds late in the game, making his rebounding total seven and he also had two assists. You could definitely see how the team is adjusting with Barnes now, as they were telling him where to be on the court on plays and he did his job nicely. The Kings have a true small forward.

Alec Burks also did a really good job off the bench in 15 minutes. He scored nine points on 4-5 shooting, only missing a three. He added four rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Willie Money Watch

Willie did not have a good first half at all. He was easily being dominated by Whiteside. However, he did have a much better fourth quarter when he started to protect the rim, ending the game with three blocks. He also made a free throw to make the game 100-96 late. Willie finished with seven points, seven rebounds, one assist and one steal.

Notable Stats

De’Aaron Fox came away with four steals. Yogi Ferrell dished out five assists, leading all Kings players.

Harry Giles had 10 points off the bench. Marvin Bagley only shot 1-6 today in 20 minutes, but did grab seven rebounds.

Sacramento was 19-25 from the line today compared to Miami’s 9-19.

Sacramento was out-rebounded 49-46 and out-assisted 26-18.

Miami ended with 20 turnovers, resulting in 22 points for the Kings. Kings had 14 turnovers and Miami scored 11 off of them.

Miami was winning the paint battle 18-6 early on, but finished the game with a 50-48 advantage. Sacramento won the fast break battle 19-8.

Corey Brewer did not play today and Caleb Swanigan wasn’t dressed for today’s game.

The Game in One Sentence

Not perfect, but the Kings get a win as Barnes and Burks made their debut!

Next Game

The Kings host the Phoenix Suns on Sunday at 3:00 PM PST. The Suns will be coming off a loss to the Golden State Warriors by 117-107, despite having a 17-point lead in the first half. We all know what happened the last time the Kings played the Suns.