Kings blow by Pelicans to gain ground on Grizzlies without Fox
The Kings haven’t fared well with De’Aaron Fox out of the lineup this season, but they found a way to win without him Monday night.
Kevin Huerter scored 25 points and Domantas Sabonis posted his eighth triple-double of the season, leading the Kings to a 123-108 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans before a sellout crowd of 17,708 at Golden 1 Center.
Huerter has snapped out of his shooting slump in a major way after making just 29.2% from 3-point range in February. Over the past three games, he has made 15 of 23 (.652) from beyond the arc.
“It’s huge for us,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “He has to be able to impact the game with his shooting, but what I like just as much as his shooting tonight, he had eight assists, but on top of that, I challenged him. I challenged him to go get some rebounds and he came up with five rebounds. At 6-7 and as long as he is — and for the most part, he’s in pretty good position — he should get five rebounds in a game, so I’m extremely excited about that.”
Sabonis had 19 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for the Kings (38-26), who moved within a half-game of the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Sabonis is now tied with Maurice Stokes (1957-58) and Oscar Robertson (1967-68) for the eighth-most triple-doubles in a season in franchise history.
Robertson ranks first (41), second (26), third (26), fourth (22), fifth (20) and sixth (13) on that list, followed by Norm Van Lier (12).
Seven players scored in double figures for Sacramento, including Davion Mitchell, who had 15 points and six assists while starting in place of Fox.
“Every time before the game when De’Aaron is not playing, Malik (Monk) always comes up to me and says you’ve got to be extra aggressive,” Mitchell said. “… I just try to go out there and be aggressive on both ends of the floor and I think that’s what I did today.”
Brandon Ingram scored 24 points for the Pelicans (31-34), who are now in a three-way tie for the final play-in spot in the West. Jonas Valanciunas had 19 points and 12 rebounds.
Fox was listed as questionable for Monday’s game due to left hamstring soreness. He participated in the morning shootaround and was considered a game-time decision, but Brown ultimately chose to sit his All-Star point guard as a precautionary measure.
Brown said it was his decision, explaining that the Kings will have Tuesday and Wednesday off before they conclude a fourgame homestand against the New York Knicks on Thursday in a game that will be nationally televised by TNT.
“If this was a playoff game, at the end of the day, Foxy probably could have played,” Brown said. “He wanted to play. I pulled the plug on it because, even if you feel a little pain in your hamstring, that can turn into something big. And if I sit him tonight, I felt he’d have tonight to rest and tomorrow and the next day to continue on with the season. We have a lot of games bunched up in a short amount of time, and so with that type of deal, I just felt it was best to sit him right now instead of turning something that’s really, really small into possibly something that could be really big or could linger the rest of the year.”
Fox has missed only seven games this season, including two in early February following the birth of his son and one last week in Oklahoma City due to left wrist soreness. Going into Monday’s game, the Kings were 2-4 without Fox, who is averaging 25. Points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists.
“Anytime you’re missing one of those types of guys, it’s impactful, but at the end of the day we believe in everybody in that locker room and that’s why we’ve got 17 guys on the team,” Brown said. “It’s basically next man gotta step up and play. We don’t need one particular guy to try to fill the void. It’s got to be a collective effort.”
The Pelicans went up by seven in the opening period and led 32-29 at the end of the first quarter. The Kings came back to take an eight-point lead in the second, but the game was tied at the half.
New Orleans shot 60.5% in the first half, but Sacramento did a better job defensively following the halftime break. The Kings outscored the Pelicans 38-20 in the third quarter after using a 2-3 zone defense to hold them to 7-of-20 (.350) shooting.
“I thought they threw a different look at us,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “They threw some zone and we just allowed it to stagnate us offensively . ... We missed shots (and) turned the ball over a little bit too much. It was the third quarter. We started the game well, ball moving, getting stops, getting out running and hitting shots. They’re one of the best teams in the third quarter and they proved it tonight.”
The Kings led 97-79 at the end of the third quarter and went up by as many as 24 in the fourth.
“I think Mike and (assistant coach Jordi Fernandez) did a really good adjustment, kind of switching it up,” Mitchell said. “We
went zone a little bit, kind of gave them a new look so they really weren’t in rhythm offensively.”
Elite offense
The Kings shot 56.6% from the field and made 16 of 38 (.421) from 3-point range. They had 39 assists on 47 made baskets with only 10 turnovers.
“They’re a fun team to watch,” said Green, who worked with Brown as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors from 2016-19. “Obviously, Mike Brown and I go back to our Golden State days, so I’m extremely happy for him, his staff, their team, the city and what they’re doing. We didn’t need them to hit those shots tonight that they did. But once again, I’m happy for Mike. I’m happy for his team. They play hard. They play together. I said it earlier, they’re an elite offensive team and you can see why. They’ve got weapons all over the floor.”
Welcome back
Kings assistant coach Luke Loucks rejoined the team after missing the past two games due to a death in the family.
Loucks is in his first season in Sacramento after previous stints with the Golden State Warriors, where he served as a player development coach, and Phoenix Suns, where he worked in basketball strategy and personnel evaluation.