Kings center Domantas Sabonis ties DeMarcus Cousins’ team record in tough loss to Hawks
Domantas Sabonis tied a franchise record with his 15th consecutive double-double, but the Kings came up short in another last-minute thriller Wednesday against the Atlanta Hawks.
John Collins had 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Hawks to a 120-117 victory over the Kings before a sellout crowd of 17,611 at Golden 1 Center.
De’Andre Hunter added 22 points and eight rebounds for the Hawks (19-20). Trae Young and Dejounte Murray scored 21 points apiece. Bogdan Bogdanovic, who began his career in Sacramento, had 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
De’Aaron Fox had 25 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Kings (20-17). Kevin Huerter scored 24 points against his former team and Harrison Barnes had 22.
Sabonis finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists, posting his league leading 28th double-double of the season. Sabonis matched a franchise record held by DeMarcus Cousins, who recorded 15 consecutive double-doubles from Dec. 31, 2013-Jan. 21, 2014.
Four of Sacramento’s last five games have been decided by three points or less, including a 127-126 victory over the Denver Nuggets, a 126-125 victory over the Utah Jazz and a 117-115 victory over the Jazz. This time, the Kings couldn’t close out the Hawks after staging a 13-2 run to go up 116-113 with 1:16 to play.
“One thing you do like is we were down most of the game and our guys found a way to make a run, and not only made a run, but to take a two-possession lead with about a minute to go,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “So, knowing that we’re never going to be counted out was good to see tonight, just the resiliency of the group, because you’re going to need that from time to time throughout the course of the year.”
The Kings faced the Hawks on the second night of a back-to-back after pulling off a dramatic victory over the Jazz on Tuesday in Salt Lake City. The victory over Utah gave the Kings their 20th win of the season on or before Jan. 3 for the first time since 2003-04. A win over Atlanta would have moved them five games over .500 for the first time since April 2006.
“We’ve won a lot of those close games,” Huerter said. “It feels like this is the first one in a while we’ve lost that came down to the wire. For the most part, we’ve done a good job down the stretch.”
Pregame warmups looked like a reunion of sorts with players from both sides meeting at midcourt to greet former teammates. Bogdanovic spent his first three NBA seasons in Sacramento. Huerter spent his first four seasons with Atlanta. Backup center Alex Len spent two seasons with the Hawks before coming to Sacramento for the first of two stints with the Kings.
Huerter exchanged handshakes and hugs with several former teammates while Fox and Bogdanovic shared a hearty embrace and a few laughs.
“Happy to be back,” Bogdanovic said in the visitor’s locker room before the game. “Good times here only is what I remember, really, and it’s good to be back.”
Bogdanovic said Fox is having an “amazing year” and the Kings are playing good basketball.
“I’m happy for them,” Bogdanovic said. “I know I was part of that first, like, almost-successful run. We were ninth and then 10th, I think, the next year, but it was good experience. First team in NBA for me. They gave me opportunity to play in the league, so I’m always blessed for them, and I’m happy for them this year. They finally find that chemistry. Everybody’s playing well.”
The Hawks took an early seven-point lead before the Kings came back to tie the game on a 3-pointer by Huerter. The score was tied at the end of the first quarter and remained close throughout the second.
Atlanta led 61-58 at the halftime break. The Kings evened the score early in the third quarter before the Hawks staged a 9-0 run to go up 73-64 on a basket by Collins.
The Kings cut the deficit to three at the end of the third quarter and tied the game on a breakaway dunk by Barnes with 6:41 to play in the fourth, but they found themselves trailing by seven with 3:50 remaining.
That’s when Huerter made a 3-pointer and Fox threw down a vicious dunk over Onyeka Okongwu as part of a 13-2 run that put the Kings up by three with just over a minute remaining.
The Kings were still up by one when Sabonis went to the line for two free throws with 50.1 seconds to play. At that point, the Kings were 25 of 25 at the free-throw line, but Sabonis missed them both.
Murray made two free throws to give Atlanta a 118-117 lead with 31 seconds to go and then picked Fox’s pocket for a steal that led to a breakaway layup, putting the Hawks up 120-117 with 16.1 seconds remaining.
Sacramento still had a chance, but Okongwu blocked a floater by Fox and Sabonis missed a putback attempt in the final seconds.
Brown was asked if the missed free throws by Sabonis were the turning point. Brown pointed to late defensive lapses that resulted in easy layups, including a three-point play by Young.
“Things like that are going to happen,” Brown said of the missed free throws by Sabonis. “Like Fox’s turnover, things like that are going to happen. You can’t give up two stone cold layups and one of them being an and-one in the final three possessions or something like that.
“You just have to do a better job guarding the basketball collectively in a situation like that because, I say this all the time — people say, ‘Hey, guys, you’re doing great playing fast and the offense is this, the offense is that.’ At the end of the day, the offense is fun to watch and all that, and you can probably win some regular-season games, but we have to be able to sit down and guard if we expect to be a really good team and make some noise come playoff time.”
