‘We blew it’: Kings suffer largest fourth-quarter collapse after leading Nets by 28
D’Angelo Russell howled into the rafters, flexed for the crowd and then scurried away like a thief in the night after the Brooklyn Nets overcame a 28-point deficit to stun the Kings 123-121 on Tuesday night at Golden 1 Center.
“I’m built for this s---,” Russell screamed.
And then he was gone.
Russell scored 27 of his career-high 44 points in the fourth quarter as the Nets (37-36) stormed back to snap a three-game losing streak. Rookie Marvin Bagley III scored 28 points for the Kings (34-36), who have lost 10 of 14 to fall seven games out of the eighth spot in the Western Conference playoff race.
The Kings will try to bounce back when they play host to the Dallas Mavericks (28-42) on Thursday night. They Mavericks have endured their own struggles, losing 13 of their last 15 games, but they haven’t encountered anything like the meltdown the Kings experienced Tuesday against the Nets.
The Kings led 102-76 late in the third quarter and carried a 25-point lead into the fourth, but the Nets outscored Sacramento 45-18 over the final 12 minutes to complete the biggest comeback victory in team history. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson made a layup with his back to the basket with 0.8 seconds remaining for the win.
“I’m speechless, really,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. “The locker room wasn’t speechless. That’s a jubilant locker room.”
This was just the second time in franchise history that the Kings have blown a 28-point lead. It was also the largest fourth-quarter collapse in franchise history, surpassing the 17 point leads they let slip away against the Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 23, 2015, and the Golden State Warriors on March 12, 1978.
Teams that led by 25 or more entering the fourth quarter were 3,028-3 all-time in the NBA. The Kings became the fourth team to squander a lead that big.
“We blew it,” Bagley said. “I hate losing, especially like that.”
The Kings were hoping to avenge a 123-94 loss to the Nets on Jan. 21 in Brooklyn. Coach Dave Joerger felt the Kings settled for too many jump shots in that contest. They shot just 41.1 percent from the field.
De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Iman Shumpert all struggled offensively in that game, combining to make just 9 of 34 from the field and 4 of 11 from 3-point range. Russell outscored all three of them, pouring in 31 points.
Before Tuesday’s game, Joerger said he wanted Fox to go at Russell more aggressively.
“I always feel like if you have a scorer playing you, you’ve got to make him play you at the other end of the floor and try to be aggressive,” Joerger said. “We’re trying to have De’Aaron be as aggressive as possible.”
The Kings answered Joerger’s call early, pushing the pace in the opening period to open up a 13-point lead. They shot 56 percent from the field in the opening half and went up by as many as 16 before Brooklyn battled back, cutting the deficit to eight at the break.
Bagley finished the half with 17 points on 8-of-8 shooting. Fox had 13 points and seven assists.
The Kings seemingly blew the game open with a massive 20-0 run to start the third quarter. They went up by 28 points when Fox made a 3-pointer from the top of the arc, but the Nets staged a 19-4 run in a frantic fourth quarter to cut the deficit to single digits.
“We kind of relaxed in the moment and the basketball gods punished us,” Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic said.
Brooklyn got within five on two free throws by Russell with 4:43 to play, cut Sacramento’s lead to two on a 3-pointer by Russell with 2:08 remaining and went up 121-119 on a 3-pointer by Jared Dudley with 1:11 to go.
“I told you it’s time,” Russell said to Hield during a dead-ball situation. “I told you we was coming back.”
Fox made two free throws to tie the game, but Hollis-Jefferson answered with a circus layup and Hield’s 60-foot heave at the buzzer was way off the mark.
“They just pinned their ears back and just kind of get to the lane over and over and over,” Joerger said. “It was a good experience for us. I don’t like to have to take a loss to learn that, but I’ve got to think we’ll be better for having gone through this. You’re going to have opportunities to put teams away. You’ve got to do that.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2019 at 10:37 PM with the headline "‘We blew it’: Kings suffer largest fourth-quarter collapse after leading Nets by 28."
