Spurs fall to Kings 104-99 on West Coast.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Spurs arrived at Golden 1 Center on Monday night with plenty going for them.
They had momentum after downing the Houston Rockets two days earlier. They had forward Rudy Gay back on the court after having missed three games with a sore right heel. And they had a stated goal of wanting to start a three-games-in-four nights West road swing the right way.
“We’ve got to be able to fight through and win on the road,” Dante Cunningham said. “This is a good opportunity.”
But it all went for naught. Six players scored in double figures for the Kings, including a 22 points off the bench from Bogdan Bogdanovic, to down the Spurs 104-99.
The Spurs (7-5) knotted the score at 90 on a turnaround jumper by LaMarcus Aldridge with 5:11 left, but the Kings (8-6) went on a 10-0 in which De’Aaron Fox and Nemana Bjelica sank 3pointers. Aldridge helped fuel the run by committing two turnovers.
DeMar DeRozan led the Spurs with 23 points. Aldridge postedhis sixth double-double with 14 points and 18 rebounds.
Gay finished with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting in 20 minutes.
The Spurs grabbed a one-point lead midway through the fourth, but a 9-2 run capped by Harry Giles’s slam gave the Kings an 88-82 cushion with about 8 minutes left.
The Spurs trailed by as many as eight points in the first half and by seven in third quarter. But backto-back 3s by Gay and Davis Bertans pulled them within 77-76 entering the fourth.