Kings stew over fourth-quarter collapse after blowing huge lead in stunning loss to Suns
The Kings were eight minutes away from another impressive win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, but this time they couldn’t finish the job.
Sacramento suffered a colossal fourth-quarter collapse as the Suns stormed back from a 22-point deficit to snatch away a wild 119-117 win before a frenzied sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center in Phoenix.
De’Aaron Fox hit a pullup jumper to tie the game with 19 seconds remaining, but he was whistled for a foul against Kevin Durant on the ensuing possession. Durant made both free throws with 1.6 seconds remaining and Malik Monk missed a 3-pointer as time expired, sealing Sacramento’s fate on the final night of a difficult five-game road trip.
“Tough way to lose,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “You’ve got to give (coach) Frank Vogel and the entire Phoenix Suns team credit. The reality of it is they went small and we couldn’t score. We couldn’t score inside.”
The Kings shot 51.4% with 30 assists and six turnovers over the first three quarters. They went 8 of 18 with eight turnovers and four assists in the fourth.
“We just kept turning it over,” Brown said. “We had some bad turnovers. I thought we were really lazy a couple of times with the ball instead of making sure we were passing on time, passing on target. ... The last five or six minutes of the game, when a team is coming back and the crowd is in it, you can’t be lackadaisical with the basketball.”
Grayson Allen scored 29 points for the Suns (22-18), who were at full strength against Sacramento for the first time after losing to the Kings twice earlier this season. The Big 3 of Bradley Beal, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant were all in the lineup this time, and all three found a way to hurt the Kings.
Durant scored 15 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter. Booker finished with 16 points and 11 assists. Beal had 13 points and five assists. Jusuf Nurkic added 10 points and 15 rebounds.
Nurkic did not play in the fourth quarter as Vogel went with small-ball lineups with Beal, Booker, Allen, Eric Gordon, Josh Okogie and Durant at center. That presented matchup problems for Sacramento.
“We have to figure that out because it’s happened to us in the past,” Brown said.
Fox had 33 points and six assists for the Kings (23-17), who finished a grueling five-game road trip with a 2-3 record after losing the last three games to the Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks and Suns. The Kings lost on Damian Lillard’s overtime buzzer beater in Milwaukee and then blew a 22-point lead over the final 8:09 in Phoenix.
The Kings led the Bucks by six in overtime before getting outscored 15-8 over the final 2:43. They were outscored 32-8 over the final 8:09 against the Suns.
“When you’re winning by 22, you have to try to find a way to win these games,” Kings forward Sasha Vezenkov said. “That’s the second game in a row where we are up and losing in a tough way.”
Fox seemed to be stewing over the loss. He sat alone silently in the corner of the locker room for more than 20 minutes and declined to answer questions as he left.
Domantas Sabonis recorded his 11th triple-double of the season with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. He has nine triple-doubles in the past 16 games, including five of the last eight.
Keegan Murray scored 18 points. Vezenkov came off the bench to match his career high with 14. Monk had 13 points and eight assists, but he was frustrated after committing five of the team’s 20 turnovers.
“I don’t like losing,” Monk said. “I don’t like losing, especially when I have a turnover with like 50 seconds left. I mean, that didn’t cost us the game, but s---, it might as well have, so that’s how I feel sometimes. I’m just hard on myself.”
The Kings tried to go inside to Sabonis a number of times against Phoenix’s small-ball unit in the fourth quarter, but Sabonis attempted only two shots and went 1 of 3 at the free-throw line in 9:30.
“We couldn’t score whether he tried to finish or he went inside-and-out or we shot a shot,” Brown said. “We just couldn’t score. We went to the post a handful of times in a row and it wasn’t working, so I had to try to find something else, and that was tough. I went small and we had two quick turnovers, so I put (Sabonis) back in.”
The Kings had trouble matching up because they couldn’t switch defensively and allow Sabonis to get matched up on Booker. They tried to blitz Booker, but Booker carved them up with four assists and no turnovers in the fourth quarter.
The Kings could have said they were out of gas at the end of a nine-day trip, but they wouldn’t use that as an excuse.
“I wouldn’t point to that because we had the ball in the right people’s hands at the right times down the stretch,” Brown said. “We just got real lackadaisical and/or we just couldn’t finish or we couldn’t stick with our principles.”
The Kings led 28-21 after going 12 of 21 from the field and 4 of 8 from 3-point range over the first nine minutes. They went up by 10 on a 3-pointer by Monk and led 39-27 after tallying 15 assists and one turnover in the first quarter. This marked just the third time over the past 25 seasons the Kings have had 15 assists in a quarter.
The lead swelled to 18 points when Fox made two 3-pointers to fuel a 10-0 run early in the second quarter. The Kings led 68-51 at the halftime break. They shot 51.9% while holding the Suns to 42.9%. The Kings had 23 assists on 28 made baskets with only three turnovers. They also had a 20-2 advantage in points off the bench, led by Vezenkov, who had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Phoenix got within 15 early in the third quarter before a barrage of 3-pointers from Fox, Sabonis and Murray put the Kings up 82-61. The Suns made came cack to cut the deficit to 10 late in the third quarter.
The Kings outscored the Suns 12-3 at the start of the fourth to go ahead 109-87, giving them their largest lead of the game. That’s when the Suns came alive.
Okogie scored on a reverse layup on an assist from Booker. Chimezie Metu got a layup on an assist from Booker. Allen hit a 3-pointer on an assist from Booker. That started a huge run over the final eight minutes and the Kings couldn’t stop the avalanche as the Suns went 12 of 18 from the field and 7 of 11 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter.
“They were able to hit 3s down the stretch because they had five shooters on the floor, five playmakers, and we didn’t want to switch a guy like Sabonis on to Booker or on to KD, so we couldn’t switch. ... Defensively, we just have to figure out a different gameplan if they have five shooters on the floor.”
Vogel on the comeback
Vogel urged his team to stay in the fight despite the big deficits.
“We stayed in it,” Vogel said. “We stayed in it fundamentally. There was a lot of moments where our guys were struggling and were frustrated and we were getting our butts kicked, quite frankly. Credit to the Kings. They played a great basketball game tonight. That team has a lot of firepower, and you have to match it, and we didn’t have our best offensive first three quarters. Could’ve played better there and could’ve guarded with more fight and more disposition early in the game, but we’ve seen firsthand that the modern NBA team is never out of the game.”
Vogel praised Durant for his efforts in the fourth quarter.
“KD did a great job in a lot of possessions of guarding Sabonis in coverage and not switching, not passing him off to other guys,” Vogel said. “He’s had four exceptional defensive performances for us in the last four games, starting with Kawhi (Leonard) then guarding LeBron (James) and then throughout the game in Portland, and then down the stretch guarding (Anfernee) Simons, and then tonight guarding Sabonis, so when he puts his mind to it, he can really be a force on that side of the ball, and, defensively, he was a big part of this win tonight.”
Durant on Sabonis
Durant explained how he handled the task of guarding Sabonis when Vogel went with a small-ball lineup.
“I just try to take on the challenge of an All-Star-level player,” Durant said. “I know it is going to have to take multiple efforts to stop him and he is a physical dude. I just try to play physical with him, make his catches tough, push out his catches. He likes to just stand at the 3-point line and survey and get triple-doubles, so I just try to make him turn his back a little bit, pressure him and get my hands in the passing lane. Try to disrupt him just a tiny bit. Still crazy that we end up finishing that game the way we did. We have been the worst fourth quarter team, what feels like in the history of the game, and tonight we come back. It is crazy how life works.”
Durant was asked what fuels him to be the best defensive player he can be.
“My calling, my purpose of being a human being, is to be the greatest basketball player I can be,” Durant said. “That is the reason why I am alive at this point. I’ve got to be working on every aspect of the game to become great at it and still work.”
Swipa the Fox
Fox came up with a steal with 38.8 seconds to play in the first half to move ahead of Chris Webber for fifth in the Sacramento era. Fox now ranks seventh in franchise history with 570 career steals. He is averaging a career-high-tying 1.6 steals on the season.
Up next
The Kings will come home to open a brief two-game homestand when they face the Indiana Pacers on Thursday at Golden 1 Center. Former Kings guard Tyrese Haliburton is traveling with the Pacers on their current road trip, but he is not expected to play due to a left hamstring injury.
The Athletic reported Tuesday the Pacers were engaged in active trade talks with the Toronto Raptors regarding a deal that would send two-time All-Star Pascal Siakam to Indiana in exchange for Bruce Brown Jr., other salaries and three first-round draft picks.
The Kings will get three days off following Thursday’s game before they play host to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. They will then hit the road again for a seven-game trip beginning Jan. 25 against the Golden State Warriors.
