Neemias Queta injured in Kings’ loss to Los Angeles Clippers at Las Vegas Summer League
Kings rookie Colby Jones turned in his most impressive performance yet, but center Neemias Queta went down with an injury in a Las Vegas Summer League loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
Xavier Moon and Jordan Bowden scored 18 points apiece to lead the Clippers to an 80-70 victory over the Kings at Thomas & Mack Center. The Kings came back from a 21-point deficit to get within eight in the fourth quarter, but they couldn’t get any closer, falling to 1-1 in Las Vegas.
Jones had 19 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocked shots for the Kings, who will play the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday at Cox Pavilion. Jones, who came out of Xavier as the 34th overall pick in June’s NBA draft, made 8 of 13 from the field and 3 of 7 from 3-point range.
“Just being confident in my shot,” Jones said. “Coach has been telling me to shoot the ball when I’m open and that gives me a lot of confidence. I’ve been working on that a lot so I want to trust that and be able to shoot it when I’m open.”
Keon Ellis also had a strong outing for Sacramento. He finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Queta limped off the floor in the second quarter and never returned after being ruled out for the rest of the game due to right foot soreness. Kings assistant and summer league coach Luke Loucks did not have an update immediately after the game.
“I don’t have a ton of info,” Loucks said. “He came up hobbling. I don’t know if it was foot or ankle. I’m sure our medical team is all over it. I’ll probably get an update sometime tonight or tomorrow.”
The Kings lost their first game of the summer following two wins at the California Classic and Friday’s 80-76 victory over the Atlanta Hawks in Las Vegas. The Clippers led 17-16 at the end of the opening period. They started the second quarter with a 13-0 run to take a 30-16 lead following a 3-pointer by Bowden and an emphatic dunk from Kobe Brown.
Queta limped off the floor with 6:06 to play in the first half. He immediately went back to the locker room for treatment. He did not return for the start of the second half and was ruled out a short time later.
It wasn’t clear when Queta was injured. He appeared to be in some discomfort for several possessions early in the second quarter and came away with a pronounced limp after battling for a defensive rebound with just over six minutes remaining in the half.
Los Angeles went up 42-21 on another 3-pointer by Bowden and carried a 19-point lead into the locker room at the break. The Clippers only shot 41% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range, but the Kings really struggled to make shots, hitting 9 of 33 (.273) from the field and 3 of 15 (.200) from beyond the arc.
“I thought the Clippers played the way we wanted we wanted to in terms of their physicality and in terms of switching up their defenses, and offensively, it got us on our heels,” Loucks said.
The Kings came back to cut the deficit to eight on a 3-pointer by Mike Daum early in the fourth quarter. They had a couple of chances to get closer, but they found themselves down double digits again after a 3-pointer by Jones was overturned to no basket because a video review showed he was out of bounds.
The Kings shot just 37.3% and committed 18 turnovers. They outscored the Clippers in the third and fourth quarters, but they couldn’t overcome the big deficit.
“Tonight, kind of a slow start,” Ellis said. “Coach knew it would probably be a slow start after two days off, so it kind of was, and then in the second half we picked it up a little bit and won both quarters, but that slow start kind of killed us.”
