Game Recap: Kings 74, Wizards 62
The Sacramento Kings (5-1) earned a spot in the Samsung NBA Summer League Championship with their convincing 74-62 victory over the Washington Wizards (5-1) Sunday at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. Sacramento used a 39-10 run that spanned the first and second quarters to outdistance itself from Washington to earn its fifth straight victory in Las Vegas.
The Kings will square off against the Houston Rockets (5-2), who are also riding a five-game winning streak of its own, in Monday’s title bout at 6:00 pm.
Trailing 7-4, Sacramento scored six straight points to turn the game’s momentum in its favor. Nik Stauskas, the eighth overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, got things going — a 14-4 run — with a game-tying 3-pointer moments before Quincy Acy sank a go-ahead free throw. The Kings wound up outscoring the Wizards 10-4 the remainder of the period.
Sacramento kept the pedal down in the second as its lead grew to as much as 26 points — 43-17 — with a 25-6 run that lasted the initial 7:29 of the stanza.
In all, the Kings had nine different players contribute at least two points in the massive 39-10 outburst. Stauskas (five points), Acy (two), Eric Moreland (two) and Ray McCallum (five) combined for the first 14 points that sparked the first-quarter offensive. MarShon Brooks scored 14 in the second quarter alone to couple with 11 more from a combination of Jared Cunningham (three), Ra’shad James (two), Brendan Lane (two) and Ben McLemore (two).
Sacramento took a 21-point lead into intermission and maintained a healthy distance until Washington rattled off a 19-5 run to pull within seven in the early stages of the fourth quarter. The spurt began with 5:11 remaining in the third and the Wizards trailing by 21. Otto Porter (seven), Glen Rice Jr. (five), Jarell Eddie (five) and Daniel Theis (two) combined to pull their team within single digits for the first time since early in the second frame.
That seven-point margin was the closest Washington would get to Sacramento as the lead grew to as much as 17 midway through the final stanza.
Sacramento was paced by a quartet of players in double figures. Brooks paced the team with 14, while McCallum added 11 to 10 apiece from Acy and Cunningham. Moreland, who had six points, led all players with 12 rebounds — 10 of which came on the defensive boards.
Rice Jr. had a game-high 24 points for the Wizards behind an 8-for-23 day from the field. He sank one 3-pointer and made all seven free throws.
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