Second-half surge helps Kings beat Pelicans to get back to .500

Jason Anderson, The Sacramento Bee on Dec 12, 2024

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The Kings continued their recent resurgence with a 111-109 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday at Smoothie King Center.

Domantas Sabonis had a monster double-double with 32 points and 21 rebounds for the Kings (13-13), who have won four of their last five to get back to .500 for the first time since Nov. 22.

CJ McCollum scored 36 points for the Pelicans (5-21), who went 6-0 against Sacramento last season. New Orleans was missing Zion Williamson (left hamstring strain), Brandon Ingram (left ankle sprain) and Jose Alvarado (left hamstring strain).

The Kings will be back in action when they play host to the Denver Nuggets on Monday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

Stat leaders

DeMar DeRozan scored 32 points for Sacramento. De’Aaron Fox had 18 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. Keegan Murray added 18 points and nine rebounds while Malik Monk was held to five points on 2-of-11 shooting.

Trey Murphy III scored 21 points for New Orleans. Dejounte Murray had 20 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, but he committed eight of his team’s 16 turnovers.

Halftime report

The Kings trailed 55-53 after shooting 36.2% from the field and 23.5% from 3-point range in the first half.

Sabonis had 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting with 12 rebounds. The rest of the team combined to go 10 of 38 (.263) from the field and 4 of 17 (.235) from beyond the arc.

The Pelicans weren’t much better. They shot just 40.9% from the field, but they went 8 of 22 (.3364) from long distance, outscoring the Kings 24-12 from the 3-point line.

Second-half surge

DeRozan got hot following the halftime break. He scored 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting, going 3 of 3 from 3-point range.

The Kings went up by as many as 10 and led 91-83 after outscoring the Pelicans 38-28 in the third period. The Kings pushed the lead back to double digits early in the fourth quarter.

The Pelicans stormed back from a 14-point deficit to get within two with 1:24 remaining, but the Kings held on to win.

Up next

The Kings will return to Sacramento to open a five-game homestand against the Nuggets on Monday.

The Nuggets (12-10) are coming off a 141-111 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. They will play host to the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday before coming to Sacramento to start a three-game road trip.