Sacramento Kings shoot down Cleveland Cavaliers in most impressive performance of season
The Kings went into Wednesday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers feeling like they were trending in the right direction despite their 3-6 record.
They recently had competitive games against playoff-tested teams, but came away with close losses to the Miami Heat and defending champion Golden State Warriors amid controversial calls the NBA later deemed incorrect.
“We think we’re better than our record has shown,” Kings guard Kevin Huerter said at shootaround Wednesday. “We just got to keep proving it, stay together, stay with it. It’s a long season.”
Huerter’s team took a step toward validating that thought hours later. In one of their most impressive performances of the season, the Kings picked up a hard-earned 127-120 victory over the Cavaliers, owners of the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and No. 2 defensive rating in the NBA.
“For us to go down the stretch versus a good team and find a way to win, it continues to help the guys believe,” Kings coach Mike Brown said.
It was a complete offensive performance from the Kings (4-6). They shot 52.6% from the floor, their third-best clip of the year, and made 17 of 39 from 3-point range (43.6%). Notably, the Kings scored 30 points from the free-throw line against the Cavaliers (8-3) after not getting the benefit of the doubt from referees who missed calls in losses to Miami and Golden State.
There were seven Kings in double figures Wednesday, including all five starters, which was needed for the team to overcome a 38-point performance from Cavaliers shooting guard Donovan Mitchell. He caught fire in the second half to help Cleveland get its first lead midway through the fourth quarter with a barrage of 3-pointers and drives to the lane. Mitchell hit 16 of 28 shots, including 6 of 14 from long distance, but he didn’t shoot a free throw.
Forward Harrison Barnes, who struggled the last three games while scoring 12, 9 and then zero points Monday against Golden State, had a strong performance that got started early. He finished with 20 points on just eight shots, adding nine rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“I think a big thing with us is you have to really nail down on the process and kind of release the result,” Barnes said. “We put some good things together (in previous games), and although we didn’t get the wins, it wasn’t like, ‘Okay, let’s abandon that process and go somewhere else. Let’s just continue to stick to it,’ and I think when you have a night like tonight, where it it all comes together, kind of validates the process.”
Reserve guard Malik Monk continued his strong start to the season, scoring 14 points with five assists while coming off the bench but remaining in the game in crunch time. He had an acrobatic reverse layup after an awkward sequence in which Brown tried to challenge a foul called on Barnes, arguing there was continuation and it was a shooting foul.
Referees determined there was no continuation, the play wasn’t reviewable and Brown wouldn’t get back the timeout he used to make the initial challenge. It led to Monk hitting his wild layup that got the Kings to within 105-103 after the Cavs took their first lead minutes earlier.
There ended up being six lead changes, all coming in the fourth quarter. The game was tied at 115 with three minutes left before Sacramento went on a 12-5 run to finish the game.
“That team is a really good team from top to bottom,” Kings guard Davion Mitchell said. “They got scorers, they got bigs, they got defenders. They’re a really good team. That just definitely helps us build up confidence knowing that we can really beat those teams that have all the pieces, and, yeah, that makes us a really good team.”
There was a notable stretch in the fourth quarter that included Mitchell but no De’Aaron Fox, the team’s leading scorer and highest-paid player. Fox, who came into the game with the best shooting percentage of any player in the NBA averaging at least 25 points per game, finished with 15 points. He was taken out of the game at the 8:44 mark and brought back in with 2:42 remaining.
The Kings outscored Cleveland 18-13 over that 6:02 stretch before Fox returned, and then went on a 10-5 run to close out the Cavaliers.
Brown said he wanted to give the Cavs a different look on both sides of the court, where Davion Mitchell, the team’s best perimeter defender, would have a shot to slow down the red-hot Donovan Mitchell, who was scoring at will in the second half. Monk and Huerter were also playing well in tandem off the ball offensively.
Brown reiterated what he’s said all season about Fox. Brown believes Fox can be an All-Star, but he said Fox still has to progress defensively to validate that claim.
“He also has to show that he’s a two-way player,” Brown said. “And so, for me, (I tell him), ‘Hey, Fox, step up, run the team. If you can score, score for us, but you also gotta guard. This is the time to show people that you can do it.’ ... But Fox took on a challenge the last two, three minutes of the ballgame and helped us get the win.”
The Kings will play again Friday when they visit the Los Angeles Lakers before returning to Sacramento to host the Warriors on Sunday.
This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 11:57 PM.
