The Sacramento Kings Harrison Barnes (40) goes high above the Houston Rockets Kevin Porter Jr (3) but is grabbed by Porter on the arm for a foul in first half action at the Toyota Center in Houston on Fri Apr 1, 2022 (AP News photo)
By Jerry Feitelberg
The Sacramento Kings (29-49) continue to roll with their second straight win over the Houston Rockets (20-58) completing the two game series at the Toyota Center on Friday night 122-117. The Kings also defeated the Rockets on Wednesday night by four points 121-118. The loss on Friday was the Rockets third straight defeat and the Kings have now won four of their last five games.
Onto Friday, the Kings Harrison Barnes led with 25 points. It’s rare to have on the schedule but the two teams met for the second time in three days in Houston. The Kings Damion Jones had himself a good game with 17 points, 17 rebounds, and six blocks, Donte DiVincenzo played 30 minutes got 19 points, nine assists and nine rebounds.
The Kings Chimezie Metu scored 18 in 27 minutes, but it was Barnes who had the hot hand with ten out of 16 shooting from the field and hitting four three pointers. All around Kings head coach Alvin Gentry was satisfied with the Kings play, “I thought everybody contributed, and when we needed a stop or a basket, different guys did it for us,” Gentry said. “We had guys stepping up, and I think that’s the main thing. It was a really good team win.”
The Kings will try to keep it going at the Golden One Center in Sacramento when they return to play the Golden State Warriors (48-29) on Sunday for a 6:00 pm PDT tip. Like the Miami Heat who were in a slump when the Kings came into Miami the Kings got trounced 123-100 on Mon Mar 28th.
The Warriors are not in the best of moods and have lost four straight games before defeating the Utah Jazz on Saturday night. The Warriors had lost to the powerful Phoenix Suns 107-103 last Wednesday. The Suns Mikal Bridges and Devon Booker both led with 22 points. The Warriors also have lost their star player Stephen Curry for the next five games meaning the rest of the regular season and have shown they’ve been badly handicapped by his absence.