For the past two games, the Sacramento Kings have been a completely different team.
Sacramento took the defending champion Miami Heat to double overtime thriller. They followed that loss with a rout of the Orlando Magic, ending a six-game skid and nine consecutive road losses.
Tied with New Orleans for the worst record in the Western Conference, the Kings faced the best in the west tonight on March 1, the San Antonio Spurs and the Kings went back to their normal ways
Both teams got into turnover trouble early in the game. While the Spurs took advantage of the Kings' mistakes, Kings coach Keith Smart benched his starting line-up with 7:24 left in the first quarter down 13-4.
The Kings were able to cut a 19-point deficit down to nine points, but the veteran Spurs were able to bounce back after their time out. While Tyreke Evans nailed a 75 foot shot to beat the buzzer at halftime, the Kings would trail 63-49 at the half.
While the Spurs couldn't be stopped with a 97-69 lead over Kings at the end of the third quarter, they lost Tony Parker after he sprained his left ankle after landing on Isaiah Thomas' foot.
Even with Parker out, the Kings couldn't take advantage of the Spurs misfortune, losing 130-102.
Marcus Thornton got hot in the fourth quarter, scoring a game-high 25 points to go with five assists in the game for the Kings. Thomas finished with 18 points.
Manu Ginobili had a career-high 15 assists to go with nine points for the Spurs. DeJaun Blair scored a team-high 16 points, Tiago Splitter had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Tim Duncan finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Eight Spurs players scored in double digits and the team had 41 assists for the game compared to the Kings' 20 assists.
The Kings will host the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday March 3 at 3 p.m. PST.
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