The young season has been a challenging one thus far for the Sacramento Kings. They needed a win against a beatable Orlando Magic team on the road and they earned their first today 97-91 and improved to 4-9 on the season.
The story early on was once again Rajon Rondo who made three 3-pointers in the first quarter alone. Two of those came in the waning minutes of the opening quarter and they propelled the Kings to a 27-21 lead going into the second quarter.
The Magic is a youthful team that prides itself on defense, but it was the Kings’ offense that was ready for the challenge.
The Kings are going to win and lose on the play of DeMarcus Cousins, and the All-Star would deliver today with 29 points and 12 rebounds.
“I don’t think I was as aggressive as I usually am, but that’s just kind of how the game went,” Cousins told the Associated Press. “I didn’t really have to be as aggressive, we kept moving the ball.”
The Kings defense thus far has been a sore spot for the team, which had led to some bad losses. However, it was the defense that stepped up in the second quarter and throughout the game that was the difference.
Although the Magic came out with a noticeably higher effort, the Kings held onto the lead they had achieved and went into halftime with a 53-47 advantage.
The Kings have struggled early on in games and have trailed big at the half for most of their games. It appeared as if the opposite would be the case as the Magic came on strong in the third to take the lead behind the effort of Tobias Harris and Evan Fournier who would finish with 24 and 17 points respectively.
Upon the Magic managing a two-point lead, the Kings promptly took it back en route to a 22-2 run to finish out the third quarter. The run was largely due to the play of the bench, as Marco Belinelli would finish with 13 points.
Going into the concluding quarter, the Kings were up 83-67 but the Magic would refuse to go away and charged back again in the fourth.
Fournier and Harris would again challenge the Kings’ defense but it fell short and the road team would hold on for a 97-91 victory.
“Cous is a frustrated guy who wants to win,” George Karl told the Associated Press. “Sometimes it gets to him maybe in a negative way, but he cares, he wants to win and he lashes out sometimes in maybe a disruptive way. But he’s doing it because he wants to win.”
The Kings play next Monday night against Charlotte.
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