The Kings Guards: Haliburton, Hield Lead Kings Past Spurs
Dec 19, 2021, 5:35 PM | Updated: 6:04 pm
(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
Buddy Hield scored 19 points in the fourth quarter during Sunday’s win over San Antonio
With the Sacramento Kings missing six players due to COVID-19 Health & Safety Protocols or injury, somebody needed to step up on Sunday afternoon.
As it would turn out, three players answered the bell in a big way.
Buddy Hield, Tyrese Haliburton and Damian Jones combined for 79 points during a fun afternoon at Golden 1 Center as the Kings defeated the San Antonio Spurs by a final of 121-114.
With the win, Sacramento improves to 13-18 on the season and has won two of their past three games.
Much like they did on Friday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento quickly jumped all over San Antonio in the first quarter on Sunday.
Tyrese Haliburton established a new career-high for assists in a single quarter after dishing out seven dimes in the first period to lead the Kings to a 37-27 lead heading into the second quarter. Both Haliburton and Harrison Barnes scored eight points apiece to jumpstart the Sacramento offense.
Haliburton posted his second-straight double-double before the game reached the midway point, scoring 12 points and tallying 10 assists to lead the Kings to a 63-56 lead at the break.
With Haliburton creating as a playmaker and knocking down his looks on the attack, the Sacramento offense looked very smooth in the first half. The sophomore guard did a good job of getting all of his teammates involved, with center Damian Jones having quite the first half as well.
Haliburton assisted Jones on four of his five made field goals as the big man scored a season-high 14 points over just 10 minutes of action to lead all Kings scorers in the first half.
As was the case following Sacramento’s strong start on Friday night, the Kings would once again yield a big run to their opponent in the opening minutes of the second half. San Antonio mounted a 13-4 run to take a 69-67 lead with seven minutes remaining in the third.
Buddy Hield knocked down back-to-back triples, Damian Jones established a new career-high of 23 points at the end of the third quarter and the Kings punched back with a run of their own to take a 91-85 lead into the fourth quarter.
Second-year guard Jahmi’us Ramsey drilled a deep triple and then threw down an emphatic jam on back-to-back sequences to give the Kings a 98-87 advantage with less than 10 minutes to go.
After the Spurs cut things to 102-97, Buddy Hield and Haliburton would go on a 7-2 run by themselves to push Sacramento’s lead back into double-digits. Hield got red-hot down the closing stretch, nailing two more triples to make it 118-103 with three minutes left to all-but put this one away.
‘Buddy Buckets’ scored 19 points in the fourth quarter to help lead the Kings to an important win over the Spurs in front of a matinee crowd at Golden 1 Center.
“He probably would have wanted that (performance) on his birthday, but he gave everybody else a birthday present today,” Kings head coach Doug Christie said following the win.
The Kings offense was firing on all cylinders during the win, finishing the night 50-percent from the field and 56-percent from the three-point line. Sacramento is 7-1 this season when they shoot 39-percent or higher from three-point range.
Sunday’s win over San Antonio is one of importance seeing that the Spurs are going to be one of the imposing teams in the way of Sacramento’s quest for a Play-In spot.
With a loss to the Spurs, the Kings would have fallen to 0-2 on the season against their Western Conference counterpart, therefore awarding San Antonio a season-series victory. Instead, Sacramento and San Antonio will play a tie-breaker on March 3rd at AT&T Center in a game that will determine the season’s head-to-head winner.
Each game is important, but Sunday’s win could come in handy down the closing stretch of the season for this Kings team.
Rounding Out The Box Score
Buddy Hield scored a season-high 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field and seven-of-nine shooting from three-point range, with 19 of those points in the fourth quarter.
When Hield is on, he is really on, and Sacramento needed this performance out of their sharpshooter.
Tyrese Haliburton posed his second-straight game with at least 20 points and 10 assists, scoring a season-high 27 points to go along with four rebounds and 11 assists (tied a career-high). The sophomore guard was aggressive from the field, converting 12 of his 19 field goal attempts while also setting the table for his teammates.
One teammate that largely benefitted from Haliburton’s playmaking was Damian Jones.
Jones scored a career-high 23 points in the win, setting the new mark in the closing moments of the third quarter. The 26-year-old was nine-of-15 from the field and a perfect two-of-two from three-point range while also pulling down eight boards over just 19 minutes.
Injury Report
De’Aaron Fox, Davion Mitchell, Alex Len, Marvin Bagley III, Terence Davis and head coach Alvin Gentry are all currently in the NBA’s COVID-19 Health & Safety protocols.
According to the league’s guidelines, those that are in protocols will need register successive negative tests 24 hours apart in order to return to basketball activities.
Richaun Holmes (eye) missed his sixth-straight game due to recovery from a right eye laceration. Holmes is considered day-to-day moving forward.
Coming Up
There could not be a worse time for the Sacramento Kings to run into the Golden State Warriors.
Not only will the Kings play the second half of a back-to-back at Chase Center on Monday night, they will do so against MVP candidate Steph Curry and a 24-6 Warriors team–all without the services of De’Aaron Fox, Davion Mitchell, Alex Len, Marvin Bagley III and Terence Davis due to Health & Safety protocols.
Sacramento dropped its only matchup against Golden State this season on October 24th by a final of 119-107 at Golden 1 Center.
You can find all of your Kings vs Warriors coverage right here on Sports 1140 KHTK starting at 5:30pm PST on Game Night prior to a 7:00pm PST tip-off from San Francisco.
Upcoming Sacramento Kings Schedule
- December 20th @ Golden State Warriors
- December 22nd vs Los Angeles Clippers
- December 26th vs Memphis Grizzlies
- December 28th vs Oklahoma City
- December 29th vs Dallas Mavericks
