Pacers 126, Kings 121: ‘Little things turn into big things’ amid four-game losing streak

There were nearly six minutes left in the game when Kings fans started heading for the exits with their team trailing by 16 points.

They almost missed a big comeback, but that come back came up short in another disappointing loss to a shorthanded team that was missing one or more of its best players.

Bennedict Mathurin scored 25 points to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 126-121 victory over the Kings on Thursday before a sellout crowd of 17,832 at Golden 1 Center. The Pacers won despite the absences of All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton (hamstring) and two-time All-Star Pascal Siakam, who was acquired in a trade with the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.

The Kings have lost four in a row, their longest losing streak since the start of the 2022-23 season. They will try to end their skid when they play host to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday before going out on a seven-game road trip.

“There’s plenty of games in this losing streak that we could have won,” Kings center Domantas Sabonis said. “We just let them slide and that can’t happen. That’s four in a row and we’ve got to do whatever we can to come out against Atlanta and get that win.”

The Kings staged a late 22-9 run to give themselves a chance in the final minute, but untimely turnovers, bad defense and poor free-throw shooting continued to haunt them.

“It’s a lot of little things that are turning into big things,” Kings forward Keegan Murray said.

The Kings are last in the NBA in free-throw shooting at 72.5%. They were even worse against Indiana, making 18 of 32, an abysmal 56.2%.

“That’s two games in a row we shoot 50% from the free-throw line,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “I’m not sure what it is. Today we shot more free throws in a shootaround than we ever have in a shootaround since I’ve been here. And yesterday, we shot more free throws in a practice than we ever have since I’ve been here.”

Sabonis went 5 of 8 at the free-throw line. De’Aaron Fox, who again left without speaking to the media, went 5 of 9. Malik Monk, an 85% free-throw shooter, went 1 of 6.

“Every team I’ve been a part of, the more you mention it, the more it actually becomes a thing,” Sabonis said. “Today, Malik was 1 of 6. That’s unheard of.”

Kevin Huerter scored a career-high 31 points for the Kings (23-18), continuing his recent resurgence. Huerter went 11 of 17 from the field and 7 of 12 from 3-point range.

Sabonis posted his 12^th triple-double of the season with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, tying two-time MVP Nikola Jokic for the league lead. Sabonis also recorded his 24^th consecutive double-double, the third-longest streak in franchise history.

Murray had 27 points and nine rebounds. Fox finished with 24 points, five rebounds and six assists. He went 8 of 20 from the field and 3 of 8 from 3-point range.

T.J. McConnell scored a season-high 20 points for the Pacers (24-17). He went 9 of 14 from the field.

“T.J. McConnell killed us all night,” Huerter said. “It felt like we couldn’t keep him in front of us.”

Myles Turner scored 18 points. Jalen Smith had 17 points and 13 rebounds. Former Kings guard Buddy Hield had 12 points, six rebounds and eight assists after blowing kisses to the crowd when he was booed during pregame introductions.

Following the game, Hield took off his jersey and threw it to a Kings fan who was wearing his Kings jersey.

The Pacers led 34-31 after outscoring the Kings 24-12 on points in the paint in the opening period. They went up by 11 early in the second quarter and carried a 70-57 lead into the halftime break.

Indiana shot 62.2% from the field in the first half. The Pacers had a 38-24 advantage on points in the paint, a 7-0 advantage in second-chance points and a 19-4 advantage in points off the bench.

Huerter made two 3-pointers and two midrange jumpers at the start of the second half, single-handedly outscoring the Pacers 10-2 over the first 2:05 to cut the deficit to five. The Kings got within two on a pair of free throws from Sabonis midway through the third, but the Pacers responded with a 13-5 run to reestablish a double-digit lead.

Sacramento trailed by 16 following a pullup jumper by Mathurin with 5:49 to play in the fourth. The Kings made one last charge when Fox came alive to spark a 20-7 run over a span of 3:38. Fox, Huerter and Murray all made big baskets as the Kings rallied to get within three with 32 seconds to go, but Fox missed a 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds left and Monk missed two free throws with 3.2 seconds remaining.

“You go back to the work. You get in the gym,” Huerter said. “You’ve got to build your confidence by trusting the work you put in. We shot ourselves in the foot. This is the third game in a row this has happened against three good teams. It feels like it’s all self-inflicted and that’s why it’s frustrating for us. It’s no secret. We can’t miss 14 free throws at home and expect to beat a team that’s this good, even with the players they have out. That’s stuff that we can control.”

Rotation

Brown has tinkered with his rotation and even made a change to his starting lineup recently, but he seems to have settled on a group that will lead the Kings into the second half of the season.

Huerter has returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench for five games. Brown is going with Monk, Trey Lyles, Sasha Vezenkov and Alex Len off the bench after leaning on the likes of Davion Mitchell, Chris Duarte, Keon Ellis and JaVale McGee earlier in the season.

“I hate to say this, but I feel fairly comfortable (with the current rotation),” Brown said before the game. “Now, that doesn’t mean I may not change again with the way our rotation is right now, but I feel fairly comfortable with what we’re doing right now, and I’m going to ride with it a little bit and give it an opportunity.”

Sasha watch

The Kings struggled to make open 3-pointers in a Jan. 12 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, so Brown turned to Vezenkov. He liked what he saw.

Vezenkov got another opportunity for extended minutes in Tuesday’s game against the Phoenix Suns. He matched his season high with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 18 minutes.

“I threw Sasha out there early in the (Philadelphia) game because I was like, ‘Dang, we are not shooting the ball well and we’ve had some decent looks,’” Brown said. “I thought Sasha moved well. I thought he did some nice things, so the following game against Milwaukee, I said, ‘Hey, let’s throw him out there again,’ and he played well. We’re going to keep giving him an opportunity as long as he does, and I thought he played really well against Phoenix.”

Vezenkov finished with seven points and three rebounds in 11 minutes against the Pacers. He went 2 of 3 from 3-point range.

Up next

The Kings will have three days off before they conclude a brief two-game homestand against the Hawks on Monday at Golden 1 Center.

The Hawks are coming off back-to-back wins over the San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic. They will visit the Miami Heat on Friday and play host to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday before making the cross-country flight to face the Kings and Golden State Warriors.

The Kings handed the Hawks a 117-110 loss Dec. 29 in Atlanta. Fox scored 31 points in that game. Sabonis had 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. The Kings shot 51.7% while holding the Hawks to 39.4%. Trae Young, Dejounte Murray and Bogdan Bogdanovic combined to go 18 of 52 (.346) from the field.