The Sacramento Kings traveled up to Canada to face one of the hottest teams in the NBA on Friday night. The Toronto Raptors had won eight of their last nine games and showed no signs of stopping.
The Kings have had trouble on the road, winning only two games away from home in 15 tries. The Raptors wouldn't be an easy team to beat. Sacramento would have to battle back after falling behind by eight points halfway through the second quarter and led by one point at the half.
Then one team got cold north of the border.
The Kings went on a 20-0 run that started from the 1:50 mark of the second quarter to the 7:18 mark of the third quarter. They outscored the Raptors 28-10 in the third quarter.
Toronto cut into the Kings' lead as much as they could, but they couldn't overcome a dominant night by DeMarcus Cousins. The Kings won their second-straight road game by a score of 105-96.
Cousins finished with a season-high 31 points and tied a career-high of 20 rebounds, joining Chris Webber and Brad Miller as the third Kings player to grab at least 30 points and 20 rebounds in a game. John Salmons scored 20 points for the Kings on 7-of-14 shooting.
Kyle Lowry had a team-high 27 points for the Raptors and Alan Anderson had 20 points. Both players came off the bench.
Kings coach Keith Smart said he doesn't know what went wrong for the Raptors (12-21), but knew the Kings (13-20) had to have a good third quarter:
"I don't know what happened to them, but I know we played a very good third quarter. I thought we came into the locker room at halftime and with the right focus. We got the game back."
Although Cousins had the best night of his young career, he says that the Kings' best player has been Salmons:
"He fills the stat sheet every night. He may have a night where he's passing the ball, finding players or he's making plays at the basket. John's been our best player for a lot of these games, but he's not getting the credit he deserves."
To finish their road trip, the Sacramento Kings will visit the Barclays Center for the first time to play Brooklyn Nets on Saturday. Tip-off is at 4:30 p.m PST.
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