After a three-game losing streak, some questions rose about the NBA's surprise team of the year. By beating the defending champs, the Kings quieted those doubts.
When Tony Parker hit a layup to put the San Antonio Spurs up 88-87 with two minutes to play, you couldn't help but think, "Oh no, here we go again." The Sacramento Kings, who had led the entire second half, were about to give another game away.
But Rudy Gay hit a pair of free throws and DeMarcus Cousins won a crucial jump ball at center court. That led to a Darren Collison layup, giving the Kings a 91-88 lead. Sacramento led 94-91 on the final possession but Manu Ginobili's 3-pointer missed at the buzzer. With the win, the Kings halted their three-game skid and did so against the NBA's defending champions.
That losing streak had been excruciating, too, starting with an eight-point loss to injury-ravaged Oklahoma City. The next game, the Kings marched out to a 24-point first quarter lead before slowly and surely letting the Mavericks come back on their home floor. Thursday was by far the worst: with 0.3 seconds left on the clock, Sacramento somehow forgot to defend Courtney Lee under the basket for a game-winning lay-in.
On Saturday, the Kings got back to the 90s-style physicality that helped them to a 5-1 start and it was enough to upset the Spurs. Even after visiting the locker room before the fourth quarter for a laceration above his eye, DeMarcus Cousins was at the heart of everything the Kings did. He finished with game-highs of 25 points and 10 rebounds while navigating five fouls. Not all of his strong play showed up on a box score either, like the crucial jump ball he won or an important charge he drew against Tim Duncan late in the fourth quarter.
The Kings will run into losing streaks again. They could use more shooting (get it together, Nik Stauskas) -- very rarely will you win games going 0-for-12 from deep like they did against San Antonio. They're also relying on Collison to be their third-best player, and while he's averaging 15 points this year, it's coming with 42 percent shooting from the floor and 22 percent on 3-pointers. Both of those are problems Sacramento's front office needs to deal with eventually.
The Kings players can't worry about that, though. With their win against the Spurs, the Kings quieted any thoughts that the first five wins might have just been a fluke. As long as they've got Boogie Cousins and plenty of hard fouls to go around, no NBA team is looking forward to playing them.
3 other things we learned
Watch out, the Cavaliers are starting to get it together. On Saturday, the Cavaliers were as good on offense as everyone in the NBA feared they could be. They hit their first 11 3-pointers, a franchise record, and didn't slow down after that, finishing 19-for-31 from deep while also shooting 54 percent from the field. LeBron James led the way with 32 points on 13-of-20 shooting, while Dion Waiters came off the bench to score nine and was a plus-45. PLUS FORTY-FIVE. Even though individual plus/minus for a single game really doesn't mean anything, that one is mind blowing.
The Mavericks have scored 254 points in their last two games. That's a lot of points -- even if it was against the Sixers and Timberwolves. After head coach Rick Carlisle called out his team's effort after a flat performance in a 105-96 loss to Miami, Dallas has rattled off three straight wins and holds an NBA-leading 115.0 offensive rating for the season. On Saturday, Tyson Chandler notched a 12-point, 16-rebound double-double, the fifth in his last seven games.
The Pacers keep winning ugly. In the seven Saturday games where a team with a winning record played one with a losing one, the better team won -- with the exception of Pacers-Bulls. Despite Jimmy Butler's career night of 32 points on 17 shots, the Pacers pulled through to improve to 4-7. The Pacers clobbered Chicago on the glass 46-34. Indiana is still headed for a losing season, but the team makes basketball tough for opponents and is hardly the pushover many expected coming into the season.
Play of the Night
1. Gorgui Dieng pump faked and got Tyson Chandler to bite on a half-jump.
2. With Chandler in the air, Dieng put the ball on the floor and drove to the rim. Surely, after the successful pump fake, he'd have an easy layup, right?
3. Dieng did not have an easy layup. Chandler obliterated the basketball into the second row.
4. Unlike baseball, a basketball going into the stands in a rare, fun event. You see it maybe once a game, sometimes not at all. When it does happen, it almost always golden. As a result, those two guys in the front row were probably very excited to see the ball headed their direction.
5. Mavs assistant coach and former NBA player Darrell Armstrong, who is clearly not a fan of fun, makes a one-handed catch before it reaches them. Sorry guys.
1 fun thing
Lance Stephenson is a walking Vine. Watch him invent a totally new way to flop by slapping himself.
Final scores
Wizards 98, Magic 93 (Bullets Forever recap | Orlando Pinstriped Post recap)
Cavaliers 127, Hawks 94 (Fear the Sword recap | Peachtree Hoops recap)
Raptors 111, Jazz 93 (Raptors HQ recap | SLC Dunk recap)
Pacers 99, Bulls 90 (Indy Cornrows recap | Blog a Bull recap)
Grizzlies 95, Pistons 88 (Grizzly Bear Blues recap | Detroit Bad Boys)
Kings 94, Spurs 91 (Sactown Royalty recap | Pounding the Rock recap)
Trail Blazers 97, Nets 87 (Blazer's Edge recap | Nets Daily recap)
Warriors 112, Hornets 87 (Golden State of Mind recap | At the Hive recap)
Clippers 120, Suns 107 (Clips Nation recap | Bright Side of the Sun recap)