What a way to head for the Kings to head into Thanksgiving!
The Kings got a crucial 125-21 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday thanks in large part to some unlikely contributors.
It was the bench frontcourt of Marvin Bagley III and Damian Jones that led the Kings to a victory in the fourth quarter on Friday night. Yes, you read that correctly.
Jones and Bagley both entered the game towards the end of the third quarter and were so good that they played the rest of the game.
With Richaun Holmes sidelined Wednesday with an eye injury, Jones got some of his first non-garbage time minutes this season and took full advantage of them. In 18 minutes, Jones did his best Holmes impression, finishing with 9 points on 3 of 5 shooting and a huge dunk on Jusuf Nurkic which ignited the Golden 1 Center crowd.
Bagley’s appearance started off slowly, but he quickly asserted himself with a couple of put-backs around the rim and a three-point dagger with 30.5 seconds that extended the Kings lead to 7 points.
De’Aaron Fox had one of his better games of the season, scoring 21 points on an efficient 8 of 13 shooting. However, he was ejected halfway through the fourth quarter with the game in the balance after he received two technicals for arguing an offensive foul call.
The fact the Kings prevailed to win even without Fox is a testament to how well this team can play on certain nights.
Overall, the Kings did about as well as you can hope in guarding Portland’s vaunted backcourt. Damian Lillard finished with 32 points but shot just 38.8% shooting C.J. McCollum shot just 6 for 20, finishing with just 13 points.
After Wednesday’s win, the Kings are now 2-0 against the Trail Blazers this season, having previously beaten them 124-21 on opening night in Portland.
The Kings will next head to Los Angeles to face the Lakers for the first time this season on Friday night.