The future is bright for the Sacramento Kings, but the present isn’t so bad either. Led by their duo of rising stars, De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton, the Kings managed to hold off the Boston Celtics 116-111 for their second consecutive win and their fifth win in six games.

There was little that separated the two teams through the first three quarters, but the Celtics had to feel good about the position they were in. Midway through the third quarter, they led by 11 points — the largest lead of the game — and they won the first and third quarters. Additionally, they had two more established stars in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

However. the Kings made it clear they weren’t going to go down easy in that very same quarter, and Haliburton was at the center of the run they went on. Coming out of the timeout that Luke Walton called after the Celtics took their 11-point lead, Haliburton drained back-to-back 3-pointers to quickly reduce the deficit to just five points. Haliburton scored 10 of his 21 points in the third quarter, and 16 of his 21 points in the second half.

The fourth quarter is when things got really interesting for the Kings. While the Celtics got into early foul trouble, putting Sacramento in the bonus, Walton’s decision to play Cory Joseph in those early minutes hindered the Kings greatly. Fortunately, when Fox checked in, he more than made up for lost time, scoring 14 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. He scored 17 points in the fourth quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday.

The Kings should obviously still have their eyes on the future, but the collection of talent they have right now seem like they’re ready and willing to compete. Don’t believe it? The Kings are a game back of the No. 8 seed.

The Kings will have the next two days off before hosting another tough opponent in the Denver Nuggets at the Golden 1 Center on Saturday. We’ll see you then.