A second nine-game losing streak completely derailed the Kings’ season. The skid, finally, is over.
In a Sunday stunner, the Kings (23-34) walked into American Airlines Center and pounded the Dallas Mavericks (30-26). Sacramento held on for a 121-107 win after leading by as many as 21 points in the third quarter, ending a nearly three-week dry spell.
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Luka Doncic shook off a rough start and took over the game late, finishing with 37 points, including 22 in the fourth quarter. Dorian Finney-Smith put up solid numbers and Jalen Brunson added 20 points off the Mavericks' bench, but it wasn’t enough to take down the clearly motivated Kings.
De’Aaron Fox starred down the stretch, but he wasn’t the only King to come up huge. Hassan Whiteside dominated early, Terence Davis took over in the second quarter and Harrison Barnes torched his former team in the third.
Here are three takeaways as the Kings finally ended their drought.
De'Aaron Dealing
Fox has a love-hate thing going with the officials this season. It took him all of 5:14 to pick up his 10th technical foul of the season, and that only seemed to light a fire under the Kings’ leading scorer.
An angry Fox is not a good thing for an opponent. The star guard went into attack mode after the call, posting a 30-point, 12-assist double-double.
Fox needs to find a way to bottle Sunday's performance. He was physical and aggressive, and that's a huge reason why the Kings came away with the victory.
Finger Roll
There is no middle ground for Davis. He’s either on fire, or he can’t hit a shot. The Kings got the good version of the second-year pro Sunday night in Dallas.
Davis could do no wrong in the second quarter, scoring 15 of his 23 points as the Kings dropped 45 points on the Mavs in the period. He even had a nice little throwback finish in transition.
The Kings picked up Davis on the cheap at the deadline because he has a lot of potential. He needs to figure out how to iron out some wrinkles, but when he is on, it’s tough to slow him down.
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Ca-Caw
Barnes was quiet early, but the Mavs had no answers when he got going. Barnes made his first six shots, including five straight from long range to help the Kings build a big lead against his former team.
Once the Mavs tightened up on him on the perimeter, he hit Dallas with a smattering of Euro steps to the rim.
Barnes finished with 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting, including 5-for-8 on 3-pointers. He was forceful and clearly motivated to end the Kings’ losing streak