‘Don’t blink’: Kings race out to huge lead in most dominant quarter of Sacramento era

Here are three takeaways from the Kings’ 122-105 win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night at Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Over in the blink of an eye

The Kings took control from the jump and raced out to an insurmountable lead in the opening period.

Early in the first quarter, after Suns rookie Deandre Ayton threw down a dunk for his team’s first points of the game, the Kings quickly inbounded the ball and came flying back down the floor. A fan sitting a couple of rows behind the press table shouted “don’t blink” and, just that quickly, Willie Cauley-Stein was already at the rim, scoring off an assist from De’Aaron Fox.

The Kings outscored the Suns 13-2 over the first five minutes, went up 27-6 on a basket by Kosta Koufos and led 36-9 after Bogdan Bogdanovic made a driving layup with 1.4 seconds remaining in the first quarter. It was the Kings’ largest point differential in a quarter since the team moved to Sacramento in 1985.

It was the fewest points the Kings have allowed in the first quarter of a game since at least 1954, when the franchise started keeping records for quarters. The previous low came when the Kings, then known as the Rochester Royals, held the Philadelphia Warriors to 10 points in the first quarter of a game played Feb. 17, 1955. The Sacramento-era low for points allowed in a quarter was seven in the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets on Feb. 16, 2001.

Injuries sideline young stars

This game did not feature some of the individual matchups many fans anticipated when the schedule was announced, including what would have been the first regular-season battle between the top picks in the 2018 NBA draft.

Ayton, the No. 1 pick in the draft, and Marvin Bagley III, the No. 2 pick, met in summer league and preseason games, but not on Tuesday. Bagley missed his second consecutive game for the Kings due to back spasms. A precautionary MRI on Monday revealed nothing of concern and Bagley, who averages 13 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, will be listed as day-to-day as the team moves on to Cleveland on Friday, Indiana on Saturday and Chicago on Monday.

The Suns were missing their two leading scorers. Devin Booker (23.5 ppg) sat out after suffering a hamstring injury in Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. T.J. Warren (17.7 ppg) missed his third consecutive game with an ankle injury.

Fun with numbers

Buddy Hield led the Kings with 20 points in 18 minutes, making 7 of 13 field-goal attempts and 3 of 5 from 3-point range. Fox had 16 points and seven assists. Cauley-Stein had four steals, all in the first eight minutes.

The Kings improved to 12-11 while the Suns fell to 4-20. The Kings haven’t been above .500 at this point in a season since 2005-06, when they finished 44-38 and made their last playoff appearance.

This story was originally published December 4, 2018 at 8:46 PM.