Kings recap: Buddy Hield’s buzzer beater gives Sacramento OT win over Denver Nuggets
Buddy Hield made a putback basket at the buzzer to give the Kings a wild 124-122 overtime victory over the Denver Nuggets in their season opener Wednesday night at Ball Arena in Denver.
Hield scored 22 points for the Kings (1-0), who raced off the floor in jubilation after Hield scored as time expired to give them the win. Hield made 7 of 15 from the field and 5 of 11 from 3-point range.
Harrison Barnes had 21 points, nine rebounds and five assists for Sacramento. He came up with a huge steal in the final seconds, leading to the game-winning basket by Hield.
De’Aaron Fox had 21 points, seven assists and four rebounds for Sacramento. He kept the Kings in the game with a big blocked shot with 10.6 seconds remaining in overtime. Kings coach Luke Walton said it was nice to see his team come up with two big defensive plays to win the game.
“When guys can see it and feel it, to me it carries a lot more weight than us just constantly preaching and showing film on it,” Walton said. “To get a block and a steal to come down and beat one of the best teams in the league on their home court, I sure hope reinforces that idea that we have to be able to get stops down the stretch to win games.”
Marvin Bagley III, who got the start at power forward, posted 13 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Bagley was originally credited with nine rebounds, but, according to the Kings, the NBA issued a stat correction that gave him an additional rebound at the 9:19 mark of the fourth quarter.
Cory Joseph came off the bench to score 15 points. Rookie Tyrese Haliburton, who played most of the fourth quarter, had 12 points and four assists in his NBA debut.
Nikola Jokic recorded a triple-double for the Nuggets (0-1), posting 29 points, 15 rebounds and 14 assists and three blocked shots. Michael Porter Jr. had 24 points.
The Kings kept the game close but never led in the first half. They cut the deficit to one late in the first quarter and again early in the second quarter, but the Nuggets carried a 60-53 advantage into the halftime break.
The Kings got within one again early in the third quarter following a three-point play by Barnes and a 3-pointer by Hield. They tied the game on three free throws by Hield, went up 72-70 on a basket by Bagley with 6:55 to play in the third and took an 89-84 lead into the fourth quarter.
“We relaxed,” Jokic said. “We played really good the first half, then we thought it was going to be easy. But they came out in the second half and played really impressive. They had a lot of energy. They were running on misses and makes. They picked up the tempo of the game and we didn’t match it.”
Hield knocked down a couple of 3-pointers early in the fourth to help the Kings extend their lead to eight. The Nuggets battled back to take a 110-109 lead on two free throws by Jokic with 2:36 to play, but Fox answered with a pull-up jumper at the other end, reclaiming the lead for Sacramento.
Jokic made two more free throws to tie the game with 29.4 seconds remaining. On the ensuing possession, Haliburton had an open look at a corner 3-pointer and Hassan Whiteside had a chance for a putback, but the Kings couldn’t get a basket.
The Kings got the ball back with 2.6 seconds to play following an offensive foul by Jokic, but Hield lost the handle on an inbounds pass by Haliburton and couldn’t get a shot off at the buzzer.
The Kings appeared to be headed for defeat in overtime when Fox made a spectacular defensive play to block a shot by Will Barton, leading to a game-tying layup by Barnes.
“The game’s over if De’Aaron Fox doesn’t make that block,” Walton said. “That’s your best player going out and doing something that lets you have a chance to win a game.”
Barnes then poked the ball away from Jokic and came up with a steal on Denver’s final possession. Barnes was blocked on a dunk attempt, Hield was right behind him for the tip as time expired.
The win was Sacramento’s first in Denver since the Kings beat the Nuggets 116-110 on Jan. 3, 2017, snapping a six-game losing streak in the Mile High City. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first season-opening game to go into overtime in the Sacramento era and the second in franchise history.
The Kings took 101 shots and attempted 31 free throws against the Nuggets. They averaged 88.4 field-goal attempts and 20.3 free-throw attempts in 2019-20 with season-highs of 107 and 36.
The Kings had not won their season opener since beating the Phoenix Suns 113-94 on Oct. 26, 2016.
“I think since I’ve been here, first of all, we’ve never won in Denver and we’ve never got the first game of the season,” Hield said. “To get that first game of the season, I think it’s a great lift for us, especially into the next game where we can come back home and play a good Phoenix team. Just gives us good momentum and try to move in the right direction.”
Rockets game postponed
The NBA postponed Wednesday’s game between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder because the Rockets didn’t have the minimum eight players required to start the game. There could be implications for the Kings if the situation in Houston isn’t resolved over the next few days.
The league announced Rockets star James Harden was unavailable due to a violation of health and safety protocols after video surfaced Tuesday showing him at a party. In addition, the league explained three Rockets have returned positive or inconclusive COVID-19 tests, four others are in quarantine and one is unavailable due to injury.
The Rockets are not scheduled to play again until they visit the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday. They will visit the Nuggets on Monday before returning to Houston to face the Kings on Dec. 31 and Jan. 2. ESPN reported the Rockets were awaiting word from NBA medical staff on how long Harden will have to quarantine before he is cleared to return. Sources told ESPN that Harden had COVID-19 over the summer before the NBA restart.
Up next
The Kings will return to Sacramento to play the Phoenix Suns in their regular-season home opener Saturday night at Golden 1 Center. The teams will face each other again the following night in the first back-to-back set of the season.
Phoenix opened the season against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday. The Suns fell short of the playoffs last season despite an incredible 8-0 run in the bubble, but they could break through after adding Chris Paul to a young core featuring Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.
Booker averaged 26.6 points, 6.5 assists and 4.2 rebounds last season. Ayton averaged 18.2 points and 11.5 rebounds.
King sign Metu to two-way deal
League sources said the Kings are signing Chimezie Metu to a one-year, two-way contract. The Kings released the 23-year-old power forward earlier this week after signing him to a training camp deal in November.
Metu spent the past two seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. He appeared in 47 games, averaging 3.2 points and 1.8 rebounds.
Injury report
Kings: OUT — Jabari Parker (back); DaQuan Jeffries (back).
Nuggets: OUT — JaMychal Green (calf); Greg Whittington (knee).
Upcoming Kings schedule
Dec. 26 vs. Phoenix Suns, 7 p.m.
Dec. 27 vs. Phoenix Suns, 6 p.m.
Dec. 29 vs. Denver Nuggets, 7 p.m.
Dec. 31 at Houston Rockets, 4 p.m.
Jan. 2 at Houston Rockets, 2 p.m.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 9:04 PM.
