A Royal Pain
Fansided

Highs and Lows: Sacramento Kings Reke Havoc On Denver Nuggets

By Rafe Wong

Feb 23, 2017; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein (00) celebrates with forward Anthony Tolliver (43) and center Kosta Koufos (41) after a play against the Denver Nuggets during the second quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 23, 2017; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein (00) celebrates with forward Anthony Tolliver (43) and center Kosta Koufos (41) after a play against the Denver Nuggets during the second quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /
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A new team, a new era. The Sacramento Kings came into tonight’s game with a winning mindset and found a way to defeat the Denver Nuggets by a score of 116-100.

Listed down below are the highs and lows of the game pertaining to the Kings.

HIGHS

Willie Cauley-Stein: Willie Cauley-Stein was hands down the best player for the Kings tonight. For the game, the 7’0” redwood recorded 29 points (career high) and 10 rebounds while shooting 14-22 from the floor. Cauley-Stein unleashed everything this evening. We expect Trill to be efficient on the defensive end, which he did, but he was a huge asset for the Kings in scoring the basketball tonight. Also, when did Willie learn to rebound like that? Better than a Coke machine, right?

Perimeter Defense: The Denver Nuggets came into this game tied 7th in the league in three-point shooting percentage, but the Kings’ defense gave them fits tonight. For the game, the Nuggets only made 34.3% of their three-pointers which helped the Kings big time in their overall defense. The Kings usually are not effective when guarding the three-point line, but tonight, it was a different story.

Bench Play: Lead by Willie Cauley-Stein, the Kings’ reserves helped the Kings skyrocket up for the win. The group that consists of Cauley-Stein, Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans and Skal Labissiere recorded 72 points, 23 rebounds, 6 assists while shooting 61.7% from the floor in tonight’s game. The bench has always been consistent for the Kings this season, but what made it impressive tonight was the performances of Hield and Evans who made their Kings debuts this season.

LOWS

Collision’s Shooting: Darren Collison had himself a good outing recording 15 points and 10 assists, but he did struggle shooting the ball tonight as he made only 38.4% of his shots. Overall, Collision had a decent outing, but considering that he is the best offensive player on the Kings right now, he did not exceed expectations.

Turnovers: Turnovers remain to be an issue for the Kings. For the night, Sacramento recorded 14 turnovers which caused Denver to find their way back into the game. As a collective whole, the Kings’ offense had a great outing. But turnovers remain to be an Achilles heel for the players wearing purple.

Stopping Gary Harris: Overall, the Kings did a good job in stopping the Nuggets’ offense tonight, but they did have a hard time defending Gary Harris. For the game, Harris scored 23 points while shooting 9-19 from the floor and 5-11 from the perimeter. Harris was the best player for Denver tonight which helped the Nuggets stay in the game.

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