Kings beat Clippers in LA

LOS ANGELES——The Sacramento Kings realize they might have started playing their best basketball of the season too late to contend for a playoff spot.

Beating the powerhouse Los Angeles Clippers on the road twice in less than a month still feels awfully good, even if the Clips are far from the best version of themselves these days.

Kent Bazemore scored a season-high 23 points, Bogdan Bogdanovic added 20 and the Kings made a decisive fourth-quarter surge to beat the Clippers 112-103 on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020.

De’Aaron Fox had 20 points and eight assists for the surging Kings, who have won two straight out of the All-Star break and eight of 12 overall. Sacramento is still just 23-33, but the progress is encouraging for the franchise with its NBA-worst playoff drought at 13 seasons.

“We’re feeling a lot better about ourselves now,” Fox said. “Obviously we need to keep this going, but we came out of the All-Star break and we were prepared. We’re in a good place right now. We can only control ourselves as far as the rest of the season goes, but we’re feeling good.”

Sacramento blew a 14-point lead in the second half to a Clippers lineup missing injured stars Paul George and Patrick Beverley. But the Kings then shut out Kawhi Leonard and the Clips for more than five straight minutes down the stretch, making a decisive 10-0 run capped by Harry Giles’ percussive dunk off an alley-oop from Bogdanovic with 58 seconds left. /