Kings' Cousins Has 32 In Loss To Spurs
Jeff Ayres had 15 points and rookie Kyle Anderson added 14 points as the San Antonio Spurs overcame DeMarcus Cousin's 32 points and 11 rebounds to rally for a 106-99 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Monday night.
Marco Belinelli scored 14 points and Tony Parker had 13 points and five assists for San Antonio (2-3).
Rudy Gay scored 18 points for Sacramento (2-4). Carl Landry added 15 points and Darren Collison had 14.
The Spurs forced nine turnovers in the third, outscoring the Kings 28-18 in the quarter. Aron Bayne's reverse layup pulled San Antonio within 78-77 with 12.8 seconds left in the third.
Anderson's dunk on a 3-on-1 fast break with 9 minutes left gave San Antonio an 83-82 lead, which the teams would exchange until the Spurs took control in the final minutes.
Anderson stole the ball in the backcourt and raced to the basket for a layup despite being hacked on the left forearm by Collison with 2:36 remaining.
Cousins dominated with Tim Duncan missing the game to rest, hitting step-back jumpers when he wasn't bullying a series of defenders in the paint. He scored Sacramento's first six points and finished the first quarter with 13 points, including going 5 for 8 on free throws.
Parker took it up on himself to score with the Spurs struggling early, running off screens for pull-up jumpers and driving to the basket. After pulling San Antonio within 14-9, Parker began distributing.
Sacramento went on a 24-6 run after Bryce Cotton's 3-pointer gave San Antonio its first lead with 7:31 remaining in the first half. Cousins had six points, three rebounds, a steal and a block in the run. Gay had nine points in the run, including a three-point play gave Sacramento a 60-44 lead after sinking a free throw to complete a three-point play
The Kings: Sacramento coach Michael Malone is squarely on "Team Pop" in the Spurs coach's minor tiff with Robert Sarver. The Phoenix Suns owner apologized to the fans Thursday because San Antonio was without five players for a preseason game, leading Popovich to say he was surprised the speech wasn't uttered in a "chicken suit." "I got a kick out of the whole Phoenix thing and what's going on with that. I love watching it from a far. No one can ever question how Pop runs his team. His results speak for themselves." . G Nik Stauskas sat out the game by coach's decision to rest. The rookie guard out of Michigan is averaging 9.6 points in 24.4 minutes while playing the team's first five preseason games. . Sacramento entered Monday's game with five players averaging double-figure scoring in the preseason. Cousins upped his preseason average to 17.6 points in five games.
The Spurs: Duncan sat out his second game of the season. Duncan is averaging 16.0 points and 7.7 rebounds in 29.7 minutes through three games. . San Antonio had broken 100 points just once in the preseason entering Monday. . Rookies Anderson, Green and Cotton have scored 91 points during the preseason.
San Antonio plays host to Atlanta on Wednesday.
Sacramento visits Lakers on Friday.
