Another tough offensive night from Rudy Gay, who went 6/22, would end up dooming the Sacramento Kings (11-13) as they fell to the lowly Detroit Pistons (5-19) 95-90.
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Once again, lack of offense, no timely rebounding and turnovers would plague the Kings who are on a bit of a down-spiral. The Pistons outperformed them in the game, and especially in the third quarter, when the Pistons pulled away after outscoring the Kings 24-14.
An up-and-down first quarter ended with the Kings holding a 24-23 lead. Gay finished with eight, after knocking down a pair of threes. Jason Thompson finished with six and Ben McLemore ended the period with five.
Bench production from the Kings gave the team a boost in the second period as Carl Landry, Derrick Williams and Nik Stauskas each had multiple baskets for Sacramento. Gay dropped 14 points and four assists in the first half and Landry ended with eight points after getting to the line five times, making four. Darren Collison also dished out six assists for the team.
11 turnovers and Kings being outscored in the paint 22-12 in the first half allowed the Pistons to hang around as the Kings held a 46-43 lead at the half.
The Kings made seven threes in the half, four from Gay.
All in all, it was a second half to forget for the Kings as they were completely outplayed in the half.
The Kings couldn’t buy a basket in the third quarter while the Pistons took advantage of poor choices and forced shots to take a double-digit lead before the Kings cut the lead to seven at the end of the third. Kyle Singlet knocked down wide-open threes in the period to help stretch the Pistons lead.
The Pistons started the fourth with an alley-pop. After the teams exchanged baskets, Ray McCallum almost turned the ball over, but instead re-gained his composure when the ball went out of bounds and scored an off-balance three in the corner as the shot-clock wound down.
The Pistons once again made a push and the Kings couldn’t keep up.