Kings bounce back from rough loss, rout Nuggets 135-106
SACRAMENTO — After a rough loss against the league's last-place team, the Sacramento Kings easily took down the defending champion Denver Nuggets 135-106 at the Golden 1 Center on Friday night.
Domantas Sabonis earned his 16th triple-double of the season (and 48th of his career) with 17 points (on 77.8% shooting), 10 assists and 17 rebounds. It was Sabonis' franchise-best 34th straight game with at least a double-double, and he leads the league with 47 such games this season.
De'Aaron Fox recorded a double-double of his own, scoring 15 points, and adding 10 assists, 5 steals and 2 rebounds.
After going scoreless in Sacramento's February 7 loss to the Detroit Pistons, Keegan Murray bounced back with 17 points. Off the bench, Malik Monk led all Kings scores with 23 points.
The win improves Sacramento to 30-21 on the season, with three more games, including another one against Denver, before the NBA All-Star break.
Jokic, the NBA triple-double leader the last two seasons, had 23 points, eight rebounds and seven assists to fall just short of keeping pace with Sabonis, having 15 triple-doubles on the season
The Nuggets lost for the first time in four games and missed a chance to slip past the Minnesota Timberwolves for the top spot in the Western Conference.
Sabonis is a major reason why the Kings are still in contention in their quest to make back-to-back appearances in the postseason since 2004-06.
A three-time All-Star who didn't make the team this season, Sabonis shot 7 of 9 from the floor and had 16 of his rebounds off the defensive glass. He is attempting to become the second Kings player in the Sacramento era to lead the NBA in triple-doubles. Chris Webber shared the league lead of five with Jason Kidd during the 1999-2000 season.
That helped pave the way for the Kings, two days after they became one of only seven teams to lose to the Pistons this season.
Against Denver, the Kings led by 32 at one point, forced 20 turnovers and held a 65-42 advantage in bench scoring.
Aaron Gordon scored 14 points for Denver. Christian Braun added 13 and Jamal Murray had 12. The Nuggets were playing on the second half of a back-to-back after beating the Lakers in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Monk made one of the biggest plays of the night when he stole an inbounds pass and made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first quarter.
