Thomas and Patrick Patterson played the two-man game to perfection in that final minute and a half, spurring an 10-2 run in that final minute and half. It was capped off when Thomas got into the lane and found Patterson open from downtown. This run gave Sacramento all the momentum going into halftime and meant a lot less work needed to be done to make this a ballgame once more.

The third quarter saw a bit of back and forth between both teams, but Sacramento finally retook the lead late in the third on the back of Isaiah Thomas. Thomas has been on a scoring tear as of late and he ended up finishing the game as the leading scorer with 24 points, to go with 6 assists and 3 rebounds. Thomas made a few buckets at the end of the third to give Sacramento the 79-77 lead entering the final period.

But this is the Sacramento Kings we're talking about. There's no such thing as cruising to victory.

Ricky Rubio finished with a near triple-double for Minnesota, scoring 12 points to go with 9 assists and 7 rebounds. Nikola Pekovic had a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds, but did most of his damage early on. Cunningham had a good night off of Minnesota's bench despite the miss at the buzzer, scoring 12 points on 6-11 shooting.

The Timberwolves dominated Sacramento on the glass, particularly offensively. The Wolves had 17 offensive rebounds compared to just 4 for Sacramento. Minnesota had 21 second chance points off those offensive rebounds while the Kings had none.

Tyreke Evans was the star of the night for the Kings with 21 points on 8-11 shooting with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. DeMarcus Cousins had a rough night dealing with Pekovic, but still managed 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. No other King had more than 5 rebounds. Patrick Patterson was the sole King to score in double-digits off the bench with 11 on 5-10 shooting.

Patterson, along with Douglas and Aldrich, continue to make a good impact on this Kings team despite only being here for a short time. All three players have very good defensive fundamentals. Both Patterson and Aldrich saw time on Pekovic and helped slow down the Pick and Roll game that Minnesota was using to pick apart Sacramento's defense early. With Aldrich in particular, I really love how hard he goes out on the ball handler in the Pick and Roll. That prevents easy passes, although Rubio is such a good passer that he was able to find a seam a few times anyway. I also like each player's team first attitude. One tiny example I noticed was late in the game when Toney Douglas was substituted out for Isaiah Thomas. Normally when a player checks out they immediately head to the bench and maybe high-five the player replacing them. Douglas made a point to go up to a few of his teammates before exiting to share a few words of encouragement.

Sacramento is now 19-15 at home and 25-44 overall with just 13 games remaining. A week or so ago I said that I'd love to see the Kings be able to reach 30 wins before the season is out, lottery positioning be damned. That goal seems to be in reach, with just a 5-8 record needed for the rest of the year.

For the opponent's perspective, visit Canis Hoopus.