Donovan Mitchell fuels Cavaliers while Kings run out of gas to end 7,000-mile road trip
Kings center Domantas Sabonis already had a triple-double when he pulled down his 17th rebound of the night during the third quarter of Monday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Kings were looking to close the gap after cutting a 21-point deficit to 13, but before Sabonis could make a move to initiate the offense, Cavaliers forward Max Strus snuck up from behind and picked Sabonis’ pocket.
Strus ran to the corner and calmly knocked down an uncontested 3-pointer to stop Sacramento’s surge. This was that kind of night for the Kings, who looked like they were on their last legs on the last leg of a seven-game, 7,000-mile road trip.
Donovan Mitchell scored 29 points to lead the Cavaliers to a 136-110 victory over the Kings on Monday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mitchell led seven players in double figures for Cleveland, which has been the hottest team in the NBA since early January.
Strus scored 22 points for the Cavaliers (32-16), who have won 14 of their last 15 games. Jarrett Allen had 19 points. Caris LeVert came off the bench to produce 17 points, six rebounds and seven assists. The Cavaliers shot 58% from the field and made 23 of 41 (.561) from 3-point range with 36 assists and only eight turnovers.
“They were really good tonight,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “They shot the ball. We didn’t do a great job getting to shooters and they shot the mess out of the ball. We identify ‘hot’ players, and they have a handful of them, and their hot players, we didn’t do a good job of getting to them. Their hot players hit 18 of their 23 3s.”
Harrison Barnes scored 22 points for the Kings (29-20), who wrapped up the road trip with a 5-2 record. De’Aaron Fox scored 19 points. Malik Monk came off the bench to score 18.
Domantas Sabonis finished with 12 points, 19 rebounds and 15 assists, recording his 32nd consecutive double-double and his 15th triple-double of the season. He had eight points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the opening half, joining Luka Doncic as the only players in the NBA this season to post 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the first half.
“Good road trip overall to finish 5-2, but tonight was disappointing,” Brown said. “We only had 12 turnovers for 17 points, but it seemed like they got their hands on maybe five to eight of our passes that weren’t turnovers, so they were really, really active defensively with their hands and causing a lot of deflections and stuff like that.
“We couldn’t sustain anything on the defensive end of the floor. I thought, offensively, we were fine. In the fourth quarter, we kind of fell off the wagon a little bit because they were just so good offensively that it took the wind out of us and we only scored 18 points, but I tell you what. You give those guys a lot of credit. They’re a really, really good team and they’re playing at a high level.”
Sabonis said he was pleased with the way his team played during the trip.
“We’re playing great basketball,” he said. “It’s good. We went 5-2. It could have gone the other way, so we maintained our position in the standings and we’ve got to take advantage of that.”
The Kings were playing their third game in four nights and the final game of a 13-day road trip. The Kings made stops in seven states to face the Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls and, finally, the Cavaliers.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily physical fatigue, but mentally we could have obviously been a lot better tonight,” Barnes said. “When you look at their shooters all down the line — Donovan, Caris, Darius (Garland), Dean (Wade), Max — all their guys were able to get clean looks, consistent looks, all night. I think we just have to do a better job these last few games going into the All-Star break just staying focused and making sure we continue to do the little things defensively.”
The Cavaliers came in ranked second in the NBA in defensive rating (110.5). The Kings were fifth in defensive rating (110.0) over their previous five games.
This game started as a defensive struggle with the Kings going 3 of 11 from the field while the Cavaliers went 4 of 12, but eventually the shots started to fall as the teams combined to make 18 of their next 22 field-goal attempts. Cleveland led 39-34 at the end of the first period after making 15 of 25 (.600) from the field and 8 of 12 (.667) from 3-point range.
The Cavaliers carried their hot shooting into the second quarter while the Kings cooled off. The Kings were only down by four following a three-point play by Trey Lyles with 6:21 to play in the half, but the Cavaliers staged a 17-4 run to go up 65-50 on a 3-pointer by Mitchell. Cleveland led by as many as 17 and carried a 74-59 lead into the halftime break.
The Cavaliers went up by 21 points on a basket by Allen with 7:11 remaining in the third quarter, but Fox and Barnes hit 3-pointers to fuel an 8-0 run as the Kings came back to cut the deficit to 13. Sacramento got within 10 on a pullup jumper by Fox early in the fourth, but the Kings couldn’t get any closer before the Cavaliers pulled away over the last eight minutes.
Record keeping
Sabonis’ double-double streak was thought to be a single-season franchise record, but the team issued a correction over the weekend.
Sabonis has indeed surpassed Oscar Robertson’s single-season mark of 29 consecutive double-doubles in 1961-62, but somehow Jerry Lucas was overlooked in the team’s research. Lucas had single-season streaks of 30 and 46 games in 1967-68. Lucas also holds the overall franchise record with a 55-game streak over two seasons from Jan. 2, 1968 to Nov. 6, 1968.
Flashback
Cleveland is always a special stop for Brown, who coached the Cavaliers from 2005-10 and 2013-14.
The Kings returned to Cleveland for the first time since rallying for a 106-95 victory over the Cavaliers last season. Cleveland led 95-87 with 4:50 remaining, but Sacramento ended the game with a 19-0 run.
When asked if there were any takeaways from that game that could help his team in this one, Brown sent out a call to former Kings guard Matthew Dellavedova. Dellavedova, who played for Cleveland from 2014-16 and 2018-21, had three points, four assists and three steals in 16 minutes.
“Delly, we need you tonight. Come back from Australia,” Brown said. “He was big for us. He was huge for us. The people here know. They’re just like Delly, so he got it done for us. He sparked us when we needed it and that physicality that he brought to the game, man, it was unbelievable.”
Up next
The Kings will return to Sacramento for a short two-game homestand. They will face the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday and the Denver Nuggets on Friday at Golden 1 Center before going back on the road for three more games leading up to the All-Star break.
The Pistons (6-43) will be well rested. They are coming off a 111-99 loss to the Orlando Magic on Sunday. They have lost three in a row and four of their last five.
Cade Cunningham is averaging 22.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 7.5 assists. Bojan Bogdanovic averages 20.2 points per game. Jaden Ivey is averaging 14.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
