Haliburton’s Big Fourth Leads Kings To First 3-0 Road Start Since 2014-15
Oct 29, 2021, 7:46 PM | Updated: 7:46 pm
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Sacramento outlasted New Orleans behind a big fourth quarter performance from Tyrese Haliburton
It isn’t a secret that the 2021-22 Sacramento Kings have trouble closing out games.
Tyrese Haliburton decided to take things into his own hands on Friday night as the young guard scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Kings past a shorthanded New Orleans Pelicans team by a final of 113-109.
With the win, Sacramento improves to 3-2 on the season and begins the season with a 3-0 road record for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
The Kings received a welcome sight early as De’Aaron Fox scored nine points in the first quarter to put Sacramento out in front early. Fox and the Kings shot a blistering 66-percent (14-of-21) from the field to take a 33-26 lead into the second period.
New Orleans took advantage of a sluggish Kings bench to open the second quarter on an 11-5 run and take a 36-35 lead, but Sacramento answered with a 24-12 run to take a 59-45 advantage into the half. Richaun Holmes and Harrison Barnes each scored 12 points in the first half to pace a red-hot Kings offense (54-percent from the field, 43-percent from three-point range).
The Pelicans out-rebounded the Kings 7-0 on the offensive end to keep themselves within reach, with Jonas Valančiūnas picking up six second-chance boards on his own in the first half.
New Orleans erased the 11-point deficit with a 24-10 run top open the second half, as the Kings defense had no answer for Brandon Ingram and the Pelicans offense.
The Kings received a huge break with just over a minute remaining in the third as Pelicans guard Trey Murphy III committed a shooting foul on a Buddy Hield three-point attempt. After further review, the foul was reassessed as a Flagrant 1 foul, giving the Hield three free-throws and the Kings a bonus possesion.
Hield knocked down all three shots from the line and Richaun Holmes converted a lay-up to give the Kings a five-point possession–a 5-0 run that would put Sacramento up 77-72 heading into the fourth quarter.
Davion Mitchell knocked down his second triple of the night with 8:30 remaining to give the Kings an 86-78 lead–one that Sacramento would not relinquish down the closing stretch. The Pelicans made things interesting late, cutting the deficit to 107-104 with 22.3 seconds remaining, but to no avail.
Tyrese Haliburton’s huge fourth quarter (10 points) would be too much for New Orleans to overcome as Sacramento held on to pull themselves back above the .500 mark. Friday night was another test for this Kings team that hopes to make noise in the Western Conference, playing a shorthanded Pelicans team that was without All-Star forward Zion Williamson.
Sacramento will need to win games that they ‘should’ win if they want to snap a 16-year postseason drought. Games like Friday night are a perfect example of what needs to be done in order to make that happen.
Rounding Out The Box Score
Tyrese Haliburton controlled the pace of the game on Friday, flirting with a triple-double once again.
The sophomore guard scored 17 points on seven-of-12 shooting from the field and dished out a game-high eight assists during the win. Haliburton looks more than comfortable running the offense, having finished with six or more assists in three of Sacramento’s five games this season.
Harrison Barnes posted his second double-double of the season, scoring 16 points and pulling down 12 rebounds over 36 minutes of action. The veteran forward has been playing like an MVP candidate over the first five games of the season, averaging over 20 points per game and 10 rebounds per game during Sacramento’s 3-2 start.
Richaun Holmes was nearly perfect on Friday night, as the talented big man finished with 21 points on seven-of-eight shooting from the field and seven-of-seven from the free-throw line to go along with six rebounds in the win.
De’Aaron Fox did a little bit of everything against New Orleans, scoring 23 points (nine-of-21 from the field) seven rebounds and five assists.
Buddy Hield followed up Wednesday’s huge game with 20 points on six-of-11 shooting from the field and six boards over 30 minutes. Davion Mitchell finished with eight points and two steals to round out Sacramento’s key contributors.
Free-throws, Free-throws, Free-throws
Prior to Friday night’s game, Kings head coach Luke Walton said that the Kings need to do a better job of:
- Getting to the free-throw line
- Converting those free-throw attempts
The Kings would do both of those things to a near-perfect standard, knocking down 24-of-25 (96.0%) attempts from the charity stripe.
Coming Up
The four-game road trip will continue on Sunday as the Kings will face Luka Dončić and the Dallas Mavericks in a Halloween matinee at the American Airlines Center.
Sacramento got the best of Dallas last season, winning all three matchups by an average margin of 11 points. The most recent head-to-head meeting between these two Western Conference was on May 2nd when the Kings defeated the Mavericks by a final of 111-99 behind 27 points from Buddy Hield.
Sacramento has won 13 of the previous 19 matchups against Dallas dating back to the 2015-16 season.
You can find all of your Kings vs Mavericks coverage right here on Sports 1140 KHTK, starting with pregame coverage at 11:00am PST on Game Night prior to a 12:30pm PST tip-off from Dallas.
Upcoming Sacramento Kings schedule
- October 31st @ Dallas Mavericks
- November 2nd @ Utah Jazz
- November 3rd vs New Orleans Pelicans
- November 5th vs Charlotte Hornets
- November 7th vs Indiana Pacers
