National Basketball Association

Highs and Lows: Sacramento Kings Lose Thriller In Indiana

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:46 p.m. ET

Fansided, Rafe Wong/FanSided via A Royal Pain

Overtime was not kind to the Sacramento Kings tonight as they lost to the Indiana Pacers by a score of 115-111. Listed down below are the highs and lows that pertain to the Sacramento Kings.

HIGHS

Three-Point Shooting: The three-point shot played a big part in the Kings’ offensive success tonight. As a collective whole, the Kings shot 50% from beyond the perimeter, 11 of those threes were made in the first half. It’s obvious to say that a basketball team is better when they can make their perimeters shots, but for the Kings, it takes them to another level. Because DeMarcus Cousins attracts so many double teams, he needs to have reliable shooters around him to make the offense flow, and fortunately, that was the case tonight.

Point Guards: Ty Lawson and Darren Collison were a boost for the Kings tonight. For the game, the point guard duo recorded 42 points and 11 assists while shooting 13-24 from the floor and 6-9 from the perimeter. In the last week, the point guards for Sacramento have been a valuable asset for their team. Both players have progressed as the season has gone on and there are no signs of them stopping from being effective.

Arron Afflalo: Arron Afflalo is starting to look like the player that Kings fans hoped he would be when he signed last summer. For tonight, Afflalo was able to score 15 points while shooting 6-9 from the floor. In the month of January, Afflalo has really been able to salvage his season. Prior to tonight’s game, Afflalo is averaging 8.5 points per game while shooting 48% from the floor and 51.4% from the perimeter in the month of January. Those numbers will increase after tonight’s performance.

LOWS

Turnovers: The Kings’ offense was efficient tonight, but a hiccup from tonight’s performance was their high rate of turnovers. For the game, the Kings recorded a whopping 19 turnovers which caused the Pacers to keep the game close and take momentum away from Sacramento. The flow of the offense was solid tonight for the Kings, but turnovers caused it to stagnant a little as the game progressed.

Foul Trouble: The physical play of Sacramento’s defense was apparently too physical. As a result, the Kings recorded 30 fouls for the night which caused Indiana to shoot from the free throw line 33 times. The Pacers finished the game making 29 of their free throws which gave them an 87.5 success rate for the night.

Kings Continue To Tease: Throughout the first half, it seemed like the Kings were going to walk away from this game with the victory, but we are talking about the Kangz. Like most games, the Kings, unfortunately, lost their lead and ended tonight’s game with a loss.

A notorious trend from the Sacramento Kings this season (and previous ones) has been that they can’t hold on to “comfortable” leads. Instead, they let their opponents rally back which usually leaves Kings fans in disappointment. Yes, it is entertaining to watch the Sacramento Kings play on a gamely basis because the games are exciting. But I think Kings fans can agree that it would be much better to watch their team keep leads and close out games. It would really help the fans and their sanity moving forward.