By Charlie O. Mallonee
After being blown out by the Oklahoma City Thunder on their homecourt in Sacramento on Wednesday night, the Sacramento Kings traveled to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers in the back end of a back-to-back on Thursday night. The Kings chances of winning were just 37.3 percent.
Sacramento has not been a team that has found their homecourt to be a huge advantage this season. In fact, they seem to be very comfortable in big games on the road. That was the case again on Thursday night.
No Kawhi
The Kings did draw the good luck card because Kawhi Leonard was held out of the game due to lower back tightness. That may have really translated to the “load management” card because the Kings have not been playing great basketball lately. If the Clippers took that chance, they played the right percentages.
The Clippers started strong
The Clippers came out of the gate strong scoring 33 points in the opening 12 minutes. They held the Kings to 28 points.
‘Sacramento held the Clippers to just 14 points in the second period. LA shot just 6-for-24 overall in the quarter and did not go to the free throw line once.
The Kings hit 13 of 22 attempts from the field and nine of those baskets were 3-pointers.
The Second Half
The Kings outscored the Clippers 60-56 in final 24 minutes.
Top scorers
- De’Aaron Fox was the leading scorer in the game with 34 points to go with eight assists and three rebounds.
- Lou Williams led the Clippers scoring attack with 22 points and he added six assists.
The Glass cleaners
- Dewayne Dedmon was the top rebounder with 11 grabs. He made it a double-double game by scoring 11 points.
- Ivica Zubac hauled in 10 rebounds to lead the Clippers.
Dropping dimes
- De’Aaron Fox dropped a game-high eight dimes in the contest.
- Lou Williams dished out six assists to lead the Clippers.
Up next
The Kings will host the Lakers on Saturday night.
The Clippers will welcome the Timberwolves on Saturday afternoon.
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