Kings 129, Cavaliers 110: Fox shines in blowout win

Despite their record, the Cleveland Cavaliers played a really good game of basketball up until the final quarter, where the Sacramento Kings, led by De’Aaron Fox, went on a run to put this game out of reach. They outscored Cleveland 33-21, but the Cavaliers did get some threes from Channing Frye late in the quarter to reach that 21 point mark. De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield were fantastic today, and Marvin Bagley III and Bogdan Bogdanovic provided big minutes off the bench as usual. With this win, the Kings are now 13-11!

The Sacramento Kings opened the scoring with a three from De’Aaron Fox. After baskets by Willie Cauley-Stein and Iman Shumpert, the Kings took an early 7-2 lead forcing a Cleveland timeout within minutes. The Kings eventually extended their lead to 24-9 at the five minute mark of the quarter, but the Cavaliers fought their way back, making it a single-digit game. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored a pretty jumper with mere seconds left to give Sacramento a 38-27 lead after one. Buddy Hield led the way with eight for Sacramento, De’Aaron Fox scored seven (with four assists) and Marvin Bagley and Bogdanovic each added six off the bench. The Cavaliers were led by Jordan Clarkson’s and Larry Nance Jr’s seven points each.

The second quarter didn’t start off nearly as well. The Kings missed numerous shots and the Cavaliers answered with an 8-0 run to make the lead 38-35. The game was very close for most of the quarter, with Cleveland taking a 46-44 lead at one point to which the Kings quickly tied it up through Willie running the floor. The Kings took a 51-46 lead, but the lead eventually became 60-61 in favor of the opposition. Sacramento had a 66-63 lead but a Clarkson three at the buzzer tied things up. Cleveland was led by Collin Sexton’s 18 points, followed by Clarkson’s 17 off the bench. Fox led the way for the Kings with 16 (and eight assists) and Hield’s 13. Sacramento allowed 39 points, which is not the way to defeat a 5-19 team on the road.

Led by Fox’s great start, the Kings jumped out to an 81-72 lead to begin the third quarter. The Kings stayed in control for most of the quarter, even though Fox went to the bench early with four fouls. He was called for two fouls in a matter of seconds that took him out, which led to Frank Mason’s first appearance. Hield, Bogdanovic, and Bagley gave the Kings solid minutes off the bench to keep the lead. The quarter ended 96-89 in favor of Sacramento. Clarkson went up to 22 points for the Cavaliers and Sexton scored three more points to go to 21. Hield had 25 to lead all scorers and Fox had 24.

Sacramento came out and completely dominated the fourth quarter. Cleveland seemed completely out of it once the score became 100-89 and they stood no chance the rest of the way. The lead kept slowly growing and a Justin Jackson three really put this one out of reach. This was the quarter I think many of us fans were hoping for as Cleveland kept this game closer than we would’ve liked for most of the time. The game ended 129-110 and the Kings extend their winning streak to three!

Best Players

De’Aaron Fox struggled shooting the ball quite often these past few games, but he threw all of that behind him and dominated this game. He finished with 30 points, one shy of his career high, and also dished out 12 assists. He was 12-16 from the field, including a mark of 4-5 from three.

Buddy Hield was also hitting the three ball at a high rate, going 5-8 from three and 9-17 overall, en route to 25 points. He also had four rebounds, two assists and three blocks.

In 25 minutes off the bench, Marvin Bagley scored 17 points on 8-9 shooting. The rest of his stat sheet were just ones (one rebound, assist, steal, and block), but the rookie provided big minutes and clean-up points. Great game for him coming off a back injury.

Bogdan Bogdanovic was 7-18 from the field for 15 points also off the bench, getting more minutes in the backup point guard role but it’s working. He also had four assists and three rebounds.

Willie Money Watch

Willie Cauley-Stein had a pretty efficient game, scoring 10 points on 5-5 shooting in 27 minutes. He also grabbed six rebounds, had three assists and came up with two steals. Not the best performance numbers wise, but he did what was necessary out there.

Notable Players

Nemanja Bjelica scored 13 points on 6-8 shooting with four rebounds.

Kosta Koufos off the bench grabbed eight rebounds and added six points.

Justin Jackson added seven points and three assists in 27 minutes.

Notable Stats

The Kings shot 57% overall and 45% from three (13-29). They were only 4-7 from the free throw line, which is really bad but they got the win anyways.

31 assists for Sacramento and five blocks.

The Kings forced 18 turnovers and took advantage with 31 points off of them.

72 points in the paint for the Kings, compared to 42 for the Cavaliers.

The Game in One Sentence

This win ensures the Kings a .500 record road trip with two more games coming up.

Next Game

We’ll see the Kings head to Indiana tomorrow to play the Pacers at 4:00 PM PST. Last week’s game between these two teams came down to the wire so it’ll be a fun one!