‘Find a way’: De’Aaron Fox helps Kings end road trip with wild win over Houston Rockets

De’Aaron Fox felt the contact and knew he had been fouled. The Houston Rockets vehemently disagreed.

In the end, there was Fox, standing at the free-throw line with a chance to send his team home with a dramatic victory in the final game of a season-long seven-game road trip.

Fox made three free throws with 0.3 seconds remaining to give the Kings a 130-128 win over the Rockets on Wednesday night at Toyota Center in Houston.

“What a game,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to find a way to win and that’s what our guys did tonight.”

Kings guard Malik Monk set up the frantic final sequence when he came up with an incredible steal on an inbound play with 1.2 seconds remaining. The Kings immediately called timeout, giving them a chance to advance the ball for one last shot.

Harrison Barnes inbounded the ball to Fox, who took one dribble to his right and rose up for a 3-pointer from the top of the arc. The shot was off the mark, but officials called Rockets guard Eric Gordon for a shooting foul.

The ending was controversial enough to trigger a pool report request. Crew chief Gediminas Petraitis was asked why Gordon was called for a foul.

“Gordon makes illegal contact to the lower body of Fox, effecting his ability to land safety,” Petraitis said.

When asked if there was any doubt in the minds of officials, Petraitis said: “There was no doubt on the floor that the call was correct. And after postgame video review the call on the floor of a defensive foul is confirmed.”

Fox said there was no question he was fouled.

“He definitely got me on my back,” Fox said. “At the end of the day, neither of us had timeouts. They couldn’t challenge, so it really didn’t matter. I had to step up and make free throws, and I did that.”

Fox finished with 31 points, five rebounds and 11 assists for the Kings (31-23), who will return to Sacramento to face Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the new-look Dallas Mavericks on Friday and Saturday at Golden 1 Center. Fox, who has established himself as one of the league’s most elite clutch scorers, had 13 points and five assists in the fourth quarter.

Fox, who could be on the verge of going to the All-Star Game as an injury replacement, leads the league with 128 clutch points this season. He is followed by Jalen Brunson (120), DeMar DeRozan (116) and Doncic (107).

Brown wasn’t surprised by Fox’s heroics.

“I don’t want to belittle it, because he was amazing, but at the end of the day, that’s what he’s supposed to do,” Brown said. “He gets paid to do that. He’s an All-Star. He’s one of our best players and he’s got to be able to make plays for us when we need him to, especially on the road, and that’s what he did. He made some huge, huge, huge plays for us, especially down the stretch.”

Domantas Sabonis had 22 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Kings, who went 4-3 on their road trip despite the brief absence of Fox, who missed two games due to the birth of his son. Monk came off the bench to post 17 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Barnes added 16 points.

There were a number of questionable calls in the final minutes, including a controversial out-of-bounds call that was awarded to the Rockets moments before Monk’s miraculous steal.

“Yeah, the Last 2 minute Report is going to be lengthy,” Barnes said.

With the win, the Kings moved eight games over .500. They are third in the Western Conference, just two games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 2 seed. The Kings are 15-12 on the road this season. The Los Angeles Clippers (17-15) are the only other team in the West with a winning record on the road.

“It’s big for us,” Barnes said. “We definitely feel like we dropped two on this road trip that we should have won, but to go over .500 (on the trip) right before the All-Star break … we feel good about where we are.”

Jalen Green scored 41 points to lead the Rockets (13-42), who were desperately seeking a win after getting blown out by the Kings on Monday. Alperen Sengun was just as sensational with 18 points, nine rebounds and 11 assists.

“You’ve got to give Houston a lot of credit,” Brown said. “They came out and played a whole lot better this game than they did last game. You could see their sense of urgency was there throughout most of the game.”

Rockets coach Stephen Silas ripped his team following a 140-120 loss to the Kings on Monday. Silas couldn’t hide his frustration 48 hours after the Rockets gave up 153 points in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“They are not giving the effort on the defensive end,” Silas said. “They are not getting after it like they are supposed to. They are not getting into their man or fighting over the screens and helping each other. They are not doing what they are supposed to do.”

The Rockets hit the Kings with a 14-3 run to take a 37-28 lead in the first quarter. They led by seven after outrebounding the Kings 15-7 in the opening period.

Sacramento quickly closed the gap at the start of the second quarter and finally took the lead on a 3-pointer by Kevin Huerter with 4:15 to play in the half. The Kings went up by four moments later when Keegan Murray made his first 3-pointer of the game, but the Rockets ended the half with a 10-2 run to carry a 62-58 lead into the halftime break.

The second half got off to an ominous start with Sabonis picking up his fourth foul less than two minutes into the third quarter. Sabonis remained in the game, but he was forced to go to the bench when he was whistled for his fifth foul with 6:51 to play in the third.

Brown turned to a bench unit featuring Davion Mitchell, Monk, Terence Davis, Trey Lyles and Chimezie Metu. Davis and Mitchell dug in on defense and Monk got hot, just as he did in Monday’s game, scoring nine points in the third period to help the Kings take a 99-97 lead into the fourth.

Mitchell had nine points and five assists in 12 minutes. Davis had 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Metu had eight points, three rebounds and two assists.

“Our bench was really good,” Brown said. “I thought Davion Mitchell was really good even though he only played 12 minutes tonight. I thought he was big for us coming off the bench in those 12 minutes. TD was big, Mezie was big, and, obviously, Malik was big, too.”