Moral wins are for losers. The Sacramento Kings have a 15-45 record, which defines them as losers in the strictest sense; ergo, moral wins are for the Sacramento Kings. Transitive property, brotha. The Kings lost to Utah 109-102 in overtime. DeMarcus Cousins didn't shoot particularly well, but he finished with 18 points and 18 rebounds and seven assists and three blocks and two steals and just two turnovers. That's a real nice performance from a rookie, or any player really. Cheers to DeMarcus!
Marcus Thornton didn't have his best shooting night (8-21), but managed to milk 22 points out of it. He's up to 21.2 points per game on .584 True Shooting as a King; some have written about the potential for conflict when high-usage Thornton meets high-usage Tyreke Evans, but I'd prefer not to buy trouble right now. We've got enough, thank you. Thornton hit the tying three in the closing seconds to send the game to overtime. Snaps for Marcus!
Sacramento had three big vital runs in the second half -- an 8-0 to slice into Utah's 10-point lead early in the third, a 9-1 run a bit later to take the lead and an 11-2 to open the fourth and give the Kings their largest lead at 83-74. The one common thread in all three: Thornton and Beno Udrih were the backcourt anchors. The other pieces were mixed up -- Cousins was in for the first and third run, for example -- but Thornton and Udrih were doing it. They didn't have great plus-minus figures for the game -- they both played heavy minutes in the bad second quarter and all of overtime -- but they were in the game for those runs. Worth noting, considering that Udrih's style is essentially a muted version of Evans.
Francisco Garcia is back! And he was off to a quick start -- he scored 18 points 23 minutes. He had 10 in his first four minutes of work. Welcome back, brother!
The Kings next back in Sacramento on Monday against the Rockets.