‘Not again’: Kings avert another disaster, beating Spurs with Wembanyama out due to injury

The Kings have developed a bad habit of suffering bad losses to inferior opponents with key players sidelined due to injuries, but this time they escaped with a win.

Barely.

A sellout crowd of 17,968 nearly blew the roof off Golden 1 Center during a raucous celebration as Sacramento avoided another disaster with a 131-129 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, but the Kings knew they were fortunate to get the win in a tight Western Conference playoff race.

“You’d rather learn a lesson in a win than a loss with the way the standings are and how close teams are,” Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox said. “It’s good to walk away with a win, but obviously we know we have to be much better.”

The Spurs came back from a 20-point deficit to take an eight-point lead despite the absence of 7-foot-4 rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama. The Kings went down by five when Fox fouled out with 57 seconds remaining, but they scored seven unanswered points over the final 51 seconds to stay within a half-game of the Phoenix Suns for the No. 6 seed in the West.

Harrison Barnes made a driving layup. Malik Monk made a game-tying 3-pointer. Then Domantas Sabonis came up with a crucial steal, leading to a breakaway dunk that put the Kings on top with 7.7 seconds remaining.

The Kings have been here before, often blowing big leads against shorthanded teams while suffering unthinkable losses to the likes of the Portland Trail Blazers, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls.

“It’s not a position we want to be in, but just to get the win, it’s great,” Sabonis said. “It looked pretty ugly there with a minute left, like, ugh, not again.”

Sabonis had 31 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists for the Kings (36-26), who opened a six-game homestand with a win on the second night of a back-to-back after beating the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday at Crytpo.com Arena. Sabonis recorded his 45^th consecutive double-double.

Fox, who matched his career high with 44 points against the Lakers 24 hours earlier, finished with 33 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals. He scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to give the Kings a chance before fouling out.

Malik Monk went 6 of 18 from the field with six turnovers, but he posted 18 points, seven rebounds and eight assists to finish with a plus-13 net rating. Keon Ellis had 11 points and a plus-15 rating in 17 minutes in another strong performance off the bench.

Devin Vassell had 30 points, five rebounds and nine assists for the Spurs (13-50), who shot 51.1% from the field and 47.1% from 3-point range while going 21 of 21 at the free-throw line. Malaki Branham came off the bench to score 23 points. Zach Collins and Keldon Johnson had 22 points apiece.

Wembanyama was ruled out with a right ankle sprain and did not accompany the team to Sacramento. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich started Collins in place of Wembanyama, who is averaging 20.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.4 blocks and 1.3 steals.

The Kings beat the Spurs twice with Wembanyama in the lineup earlier this season. The 20-year Frenchman had 19 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, five steals and five blocked shots in a 127-122 loss to the Kings on Feb. 22. He had 27 points, nine rebounds and two steals in 129-120 loss to the Kings on Nov. 17.

“Obviously, having a guy who’s 7-5 or whatever Wemby is that can score on all three levels and block shots the way he does, impacts the game in that way,” Kings coach Mike Brown said before the game.

“It’s hard to get to the rim when he’s sitting down there, but they’re physical and they do play hard, so it’s not going to be easy, but you don’t necessarily have one of the best shot blockers, if not the best shot blocker in the game, sitting on the backside. And if they need a bucket, they still have a couple other guys they can go to, but when you have Wemby on the floor, you have a guy who’s 7-5 that can shoot over anybody and create his own shot.”

The crowd began to grow restless when Sacramento fell behind 21-15 and trailed 31-30 at the end of the opening period, but then the Kings turned on the jets. After going scoreless in the first quarter, Fox scored eight points in the first 2:30 of the second quarter, fueling a 14-2 run that put Sacramento up 44-33.

The Kings extended the lead to 17 on a three-point play by Barnes and went up by 20 on a breakaway dunk by Fox. The Spurs came back to cut the deficit to 11 on a three-point play by Collins before the Kings carried a 71-59 lead into the halftime break.

The Kings shot 53.7% on 54 field-goal attempts with 21 assists on 29 made baskets in the first half, but they hit just 6 of 19 (.316) from 3-point range. The Spurs shot 47.7%, went 7 of 17 (.412) from beyond the arc and made all 10 of their free throws to say within striking distance.

San Antonio cut the deficit to four on a jumper by Collins early in the second half and got within two on a 3-pointer by Branham with 4:37 to play in the third quarter. Two 3-pointers by Ellis and an alley-oop from Fox to Monk helped the Kings carry a 100-95 lead into the fourth.

The Spurs tied the game on a basket by Vassell early in the fourth quarter. They took a 105-103 lead on two free throws by Jeremy Sochan and went up 108-105 on a 3-pointer by Johnson.

San Antonio took a 114-106 lead when Blake Wesley scored with 7:59 to play. The Spurs led 129-124 when Branham made two free throws following Fox’s sixth foul. The Kings appeared to be headed for another stunning loss, but Barnes, Monk and Sabonis saved the day.

“Obviously, we found a way to get the win and we will take the win, but you give San Antonio credit, give Pop credit, give all his guys credit,” Brown said. “They came in here and they played hard. Defensively, they were very physical, and they played the right way offensively.

“We have to play better than that. We can’t accept the way we played tonight. Now, we’ll take the win, but we can’t accept the way we played tonight and think everything is going to be OK going forward.”

Eyes forward

Barnes offered a sage response when asked about Monday’s loss to the Bulls and his team’s tendency to play down to the level of competition against teams that are missing one or more of their best players.

“At this point in the season, I think it’s less about trying to analyze what has happened and more about focusing on putting together a consistent 48 minutes,” Barnes said before Wednesday’s game against the Lakers. “I think that’s been the mentality the last 48 hours (following the loss to the Bulls). Obviously, you look at the tape and you see things you could have done better, but coming into tonight’s game, our focus is on tonight, and with however many games we have left, it’s important that we keep our eyes focus on just the next game.”

Keeping up with Colby Jones

Rookie guard Colby Jones was active and in uniform for Sacramento a few hours after turning in an extraordinary performance for the G League Stockton Kings.

Jones had a career-high 43 points, five rebounds, seven assists and four steals in a 130-102 victory over the Mexico City Capitanes in a matinee affair early Thursday afternoon at Golden 1 Center. Jones went 16 of 22 from the field and 8 of 12 from 3-point range.

Injury news

A potentially serious knee injury to Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns could have a big impact on the Western Conference playoff race.

ESPN reported Thursday the Timberwolves were still working to understand the full extent of the injury. The Athletic reported Towns will be out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee. Officially, Towns was ruled out for Thursday’s game against the Indiana Pacers due to left knee soreness.

Towns is averaging 22.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists for the Timberwolves, who were tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top spot in the Western Conference going into Thursday’s games.

Up next

The Kings will continue their homestand when they play host to the Houston Rockets at 3 p.m. Sunday at Golden 1 Center.

The Rockets (27-35) will visit the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday. They were 12^th in the Western Conference as of Thursday, a half-game behind the Utah Jazz for 11^th and six games behind the Los Angeles Lakers for 10^th.

Alperen Sengun had 45 points and 16 rebounds in a 114-101 win over the Spurs on Tuesday. He had 23 points and 19 rebounds in a 122-116 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.