Sabonis joins elite list with 20th triple-double of the season in Kings’ win over Clippers
Few men in NBA history have done what Kings center Domantas Sabonis is doing this season.
Sabonis posted his league-leading 20th triple-double of the season with 17 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists, helping the Kings beat the Los Angeles Clippers 123-107 on Sunday before a capacity crowd of 19,370 at Crypto.com Arena.
Sabonis became the sixth player in NBA history to record 20 or more triple-doubles in a single season, joining Oscar Robertson, Russell Westbrook, Wilt Chamberlain, Nikola Jokic and James Harden. Sabonis also extended his double-double streak to 39 games, giving him a league-high 52 on the season.
“This is Domas’ 20th triple-double of the year,” Kings coach Mike Brown said while looking at the list of players who have accomplished that feat. “Guys, there’s only one, two, three, four, five other players in a season, and these are all Hall of Famers. … The sad part about it is this man didn’t even get an All-Star bid and he’s one of six in the history – not this season, in the history of the game.”
De’Aaron Fox had 33 points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals for the Kings (33-23), who moved up to fifth in the Western Conference with the win, percentage points ahead of the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans. Fox also had eight deflections in what teammate Harrison Barnes called one of the best defensive efforts of his career.
“I know for me to be the player I want to be and my coaches think I can be, and for us to be the team we want to be, it starts on the defensive end,” Fox said. “And just being that first guy, being at that point of attack, picking up, those are things you ask your quote-unquote defender to do or your backup or someone coming off the bench to do, but I want to be one of those guys who can get it done on the offensive end and also do those types of things on the defensive end.”
Barnes scored 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Kevin Huerter added 15 points, going 6 of 10 from the field and 3 of 6 from 3-point range.
“I thought a big thing for us tonight was just our pace and our physicality,” Barnes said. “We talked about that during this last stretch. We feel like if we play our style of basketball, we’ll be in a lot of these games.”
Norman Powell scored 21 points to lead the Clippers (37-19). Harden had 20 points on 4-of-13 shooting with five rebounds and eight assists. Kawhi Leonard had 20 points on 7-of-18 shooting.
The Clippers shot 48.8% from the field, but they went 8 of 27 (.296) from 3-point range and committed 16 turnovers, allowing the Kings to amass a 25-16 advantage in points off turnovers.
“We always talk about bringing a level of physicality to the game and I thought our guys brought that level of physicality while leading with their chests,” Brown said. “And this is probably one of the games that we did it for as close to 48 minutes as possible. I thought our guys were really, really good on the defensive end of the floor.
“One of the things we talked about was doing a better job of getting to 3-point shooters, and I thought our guys did a hell of a job with their technique getting to their hot guys and their non-hot guys. If we can be average in that area throughout the course of the year, we’d probably have another four to five wins, if not more, so great job defensively by our group overall.”
The Clippers were missing nine-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA selection Paul George, who was ruled out due to left knee soreness. Clippers coach Tyronn Lue started Norman Powell.
The Kings were without the services of backup center Alex Len, who was out due to illness. Brown could have turned to JaVale McGee, but instead he elected to go small with Trey Lyles at center when Sabonis was not on the floor.
The Kings outrebounded the Clippers 15-6 over the first eight minutes with six offensive rebounds and a 6-0 advantage in second-chance points. Sacramento ended the first period with a 17-9 rebounding advantage, but Los Angeles led 28-25 after shooting 52.2% while holding the Kings to 39.3%. Sacramento’s shooting woes were mostly due to Sabonis, who went 1 of 8 from the field to start the game, struggling to score inside against Ivica Zubac.
The Kings started the second quarter with a 9-2 run to take a 34-30 lead on a 3-pointer by Chris Duarte. They went up by seven later in the second period and carried a 58-51 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.
The Kings extended their lead to 17 points early in the third quarter after Huerter made back-to-back 3-pointers to fuel a 10-0 run at the start of the second half. They led by as many as 18 before the Clippers came back to cut the deficit to seven later in the third.
Los Angeles got within five on a few occasions early in the fourth quarter, but the Kings had an answer every time.
“For us, it was about getting stops,” Brown said. “We felt like we could score as long as we got stops. That’s a good team down there and they’re going to make a run. They made their run. Now, let’s get some stops and let’s push this lead back up, and our guys responded time after time after time.”
Up next
The Kings will return to Sacramento to play the Miami Heat on the second night of a back-to-back Monday at Golden 1 Center.
Miami got some bad news Sunday when Jimmy Butler, Thomas Bryant and Nikola Jovic were suspended for their roles in the melee that occurred in Friday’s 106-95 win over the Pelicans. All three will miss Monday’s game against the Kings.
In addition, Tyler Herro (knee), Orlando Robinson (back) and Terry Rozier (knee) are listed as questionable. Josh Richardson (shoulder) and Dru Smith (knee) are out.
Butler, a six-time All-Star, scored 31 points on 10-of-14 shooting with seven rebounds and six assists in a 115-106 victory over the Kings on Jan. 31 at Kaseya Center in Miami.
Upcoming schedule
Feb. 26 vs. Miami Heat
Feb. 28 at Denver Nuggets
March 1 at Minnesota Timberwolves
March 4 vs. Chicago Bulls
March 6 at Los Angeles Lakers
