The Sacramento Kings continued their five-game road trip against the Orlando Magic yesterday night on Feb. 27. Whatever got into the team in last night's double overtime loss in Miami hasn't left them.
Things didn't start out smoothly for the Kings. Orlando's E'Twaun Moore scored nine of his 11 points in the first three minutes of the first quarter. After an early time out, it was all Sacramento.
Led by DeMarcus Cousins' eight points, the Kings went on a 23-9 run and finished with 11 assists and no turnovers to end the quarter, leading the Magic 36-22.
The Kings were red hot in the second quarter, shooting 70 percent from the field for 31 points compared to the Magic's 37.5 percent.
Leading 67-44 going into the second half, the Kings put the game out of reach after leading by as much as 33 points in the third quarter.
Orlando cut their deficit to 19 points, but the Kings would go on to win 125-101, end a six-game losing streak and a streak of nine road losses.
John Salmons had another solid night for the Kings with a team-high 21 points to go with five assists and Marcus Thornton finished with 20 points and a game-high eight rebounds off the bench.
Tyreke Evans added 17 points a team-high seven assists and a game-high four steals.
Tobias Harris scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Magic. Arron Afflalo had 15 points, a team-high seven rebounds, six assists and six turnovers.
Former King Beno Udrih had 14 points and a game-high eight assists.
Kings coach Keith Smart didn't know what to expect from his team after playing a doube overtime game the night before:
Coming off a game like last night in Miami with a double overtime and you have no idea if you spent too much energy trying to play in that basketball game and what this game might be ... both teams played.
Obviously, we had an extended period of a game last night, but I thought the guys had the right energy and I said in pregame 'It's going to be determined by the team with the most energy and we're going to have to utilize our bench the right way
Salmons, who averages 9.3 points per game, has scored 15 or more points for the past three games. He even got up for a rare dunk over the Magic's Andrew Nicholson that sparked the Kings' first quarter run. Salmons says that it's something that hasn't happened in a while:
It might have been two or three years since I did that, but it was fun. It's what the game is about, having fun.
The Kings will end their five-game road trip tomorrow on March 1 against the San Antonio Spurs at 5:30 p.m. PST.
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