A Royal Pain
Fansided

Change In Lineup Does Little For Sacramento Kings In Loss To Celtics

By Jonathan Roberts

Sacramento Kings center Kosta Koufos (41) and teammate Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield (24) walk off the court as their team trailed against the Washington Wizards by more than 30 points in the fourth quarter on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. The Wizards won 110-83. (Hector Amezcua/Sacramento Bee/TNS via Getty Images)
Sacramento Kings center Kosta Koufos (41) and teammate Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield (24) walk off the court as their team trailed against the Washington Wizards by more than 30 points in the fourth quarter on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. The Wizards won 110-83. (Hector Amezcua/Sacramento Bee/TNS via Getty Images) /
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After a hot start that included George Hill tallying seven points and his team recording nine assists, the Sacramento Kings’ offense again stalled in a 113-86 loss to the Boston Celtics on the second night of a back-to-back.

After ending the first quarter down just three points, and taking a 28-27 lead early in the second period, the Celtics broke out a 13-2 run and never looked back.

While veteran players like Zach Randolph and George Hill combined for 19 points in the first half, the Kings still went into halftime down 58-45, a lead that would only grow for Boston. The third period offered no reprieve for the Kings’ offense as they scored only 15 points while Boston added 31 to make it an 89-60 deficit for Sacramento.

Sacramento *technically* outscored Boston in the fourth quarter by a score of 26-24, but nearly all the Kings’ points came against the Celtics’ reserves. Buddy Hield was the Kings’ leading scorer with 17 points off the bench on 7/11 shooting. He also finished with 7 rebounds and 2 assists. Randolph ended the night with 16 points and Hill finished with 10 points.

Takeaways:

The Kings made a change to the starting lineup, opting to start Garrett Temple over Hield. Hield responded well with arguably his best game of the season while Temple struggled with just 2 points on 1/5 shooting.

Strangely, Skal Labissiere did not play a single second in first half and didn’t even enter the game until late in the third quarter. Skal was healthy coming in, and no injury was reported, so this is something to keep an eye on. He ended up playing 16 minutes but they all came in garbage time even though Skal has been one of Sacramento’s best players this season.

This also marks the third straight game in which the Kings have trailed by at least 28 points, all of which ended with losses of 27, 18, and 27 points respectively.

This loss also marks six straight since the Kings beat the Mavericks in Dallas on October 20th.

Up Next: The Sacramento Kings (1-7) take on the Detroit Pistons (5-3) in Detroit Saturday at 7 pm EDT

Note: All Stats From NBA.com

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