The Sacramento Kings desperately needed a win against the Phoenix Suns for both their position in the standings and for playoff tiebreaker scenarios. Unfortunately, despite a thrilling back and forth fourth quarter, the Kings fell short in the closing minute and lost 130-125. The final minutes sealed Sacramento\u2019s fate through an all-too-familiar combo of turnovers and bad fouls. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise very entertaining game.<\/p>\n
The Kings were led by their stars De\u2019Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, as well as big time bench minutes from Malik Monk. Fox finished with 40 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. Sabonis had 35 points, 18 rebounds, and 12 assists, notching the 50th triple double of his career. Monk had 22 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds, despite being 0-5 from 3.<\/p>\n
The Suns were led by Kevin Durant\u2019s 28 points, and Devin Booker added 25. A long stretch of the fourth quarter consisted of the Kings hitting a shot only for KD or Booker to answer on the other end of the floor.<\/p>\n
The Kings were shorthanded this game, missing both Sasha Vezenkov (ankle injury) and Trey Lyles (illness). Even among the players who did play, Sacramento\u2019s supporting cast was pretty quiet in this game. Keegan Murray had just 6 points, and although he played solid defense throughout the game he also was called for a costly dead-ball foul that gave Phoenix a free throw plus the ball with under a minute left. I have no idea if the foul call was legit, as TNT didn\u2019t think it warranted a replay.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m trying to come up with some additional analysis for this game, but really I\u2019m just tired and frustrated. The Kings could have won that one, and I\u2019m tired of watching the Kings barely lose winnable games this season. In the brutal Western Conference, every win and loss matters. Hopefully the upcoming All-Star break will recharge the Kings for the home stretch.<\/p>\n
But before that break, the Kings have a back to back. Sacramento is back in action Wednesday night for a road game against the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sacramento Kings desperately needed a win against the Phoenix Suns for both their position in the standings and for playoff tiebreaker scenarios. Unfortunately, despite a thrilling back and forth fourth quarter, the Kings fell short in the closing minute and lost 130-125. The final minutes sealed Sacramento\u2019s fate through an all-too-familiar combo of turnovers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":37582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24],"tags":[32,767,777,4749,4717,5177,255],"coauthors":[280],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n