DeRozan’s 25 Too Much For Sacramento Kings To Overcome

DeMar DeRozan’s 25 points and a season-high nine assists were too much for the Sacramento Kings to overcome. The purple and white fell 102-87 to the Raptors in the Golden 1 Center today.

In what has become somewhat expected every game, the Kings’ starters struggled to a tune of a 17-2 deficit to open the game. But a burst from the second unit cut the lead to 22-17 at the end of the period.

The second quarter was much of the same. Strong play from the bench and poor shooting from starters. As a result, the Kings went into the half down 54-46 despite 14 points from Buddy Hield on 6-8 shooting. The Kings overall shot 49% but turned the ball over 12 times.

A good start to the third quarter was quickly done in by Sacramento’s five turnovers in the period, and Toronto went into the fourth up 79-67.

The fourth period was no different. Sacramento lost every quarter, and their alarming amount of turnovers was a key reason why. Sacramento actually shot 48% for the game, which is solid, but the lopsided score is a result of the Kings’ 21 turnovers.

Up Next: The Sacramento Kings (8-18), host Phoenix Suns (9-19) on December 12th.

Takeaways:

Willie Cauley-Stein (back) and George Hill (personal) were both OUT for Sunday’s game. Cauley-Stein has now missed three straight games.

JaKarr Sampson continued his strong play as he dropped 11 points on 5-5 shooting to go with five rebounds and three blocks in 19 minutes. Sampson’s strong play will likely keep him in the rotation even when Cauley-Stein returns.

Buddy Hield has kept his scorching stretch of play off the bench as he went off for 17 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists on 7-12 shooting.

Frank Mason III, coming off a game in which he scored 12 points with five rebounds and 3 assists, struggled against the Raptors. He shot 1-10 and scored just six points.

Finally, Zach Randolph has really started to hit his stride lately as he is averaging 24 points a night over his last three games. He led Sacramento in scoring yet again tonight with 19 points.