Sacramento Kings dispel Orlando Magic, end losing streak
After losing four-straight games, the Sacramento Kings finally got their first win of 2019, topping the Orlando Magic in convincing fashion.
With Marvin Bagley III finally back in the rotation after missing nearly a month recovering from a knee injury, the Sacramento Kings snapped a four-game losing streak at home against Orlando.
Behind De’Aaron Fox’s 20 points and Willie Cauley-Stein’s double-double, the Sacramento Kings cruised to a relatively easy 111-95 win over the Magic, sweeping the season series against their Eastern Conference opponent. Despite a slow start to open the game, this one was never really in doubt. The Sacramento Kings came into tonight as four-point favorites and seemed to have no problem dispatching the Magic on Monday night.
Nikola Vucevic came on strong in the first quarter for Orlando, leading them to an early lead before Sacramento took a 20-17 lead and never really looked back. The Kings ended the opening frame up 29-25, despite the Magic only shooting 33.3 percent due to the Kings fouling at an alarming rate (Orlando 13 FTA’s in Q1). Once the fouling stopped, the Kings got going.
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Using a 9-0 run to open the second quarter, the Kings quickly jumped out to a 43-27 lead before ending the half up 58-42. No King had more than 11 points in the first half, but it hardly mattered for a Sacramento team firing on all cylinders. Coming out of the half, the Magic just couldn’t overcome their first-half deficit falling by 16, despite keeping pace with Sacramento in the second half (both teams with 53 second-half points).
Player of the Game: Bogdan Bogdanovic—15 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, one steal, 6-15 shooting and a +11
Truly, this could’ve gone to a few players, as Willie Cauley-Stein notched an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double and De’Aaron Fox scored 20 points on 9-14 shooting, still, Bogi gets the award tonight.
Despite struggling with efficiency (6-15 FG, 3-8 3PT), Bogdanovic was impactful all-around tonight, flirting with a triple-double in 32 minutes of play. Bogdan has spent the last two games with the starters as Iman Shumpert remains sidelined by a finger injury and had performed well, averaging 16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in those contests.
Play of the Game
If this happened to you in MyPark on 2K, you’d just turn off your system and go to bed. Enough said.
Next Up: Sacramento Kings (20-20) at Phoenix Suns (9-32) on Tuesday, Jan. 8