Kings fall short in close OT game in Portland

This game went down to the wire but ultimately the Kings fell short and lost to the TrailBlazers 122-120. After coming off a game where the Kings lost to the Lakers tonight was a big game with both the TrailBlazers and Kings coming off losses. Also, the Kings were on the second game of a back to back.

In the first quarter there was a lot of back and forth between DeMarcus Cousins and Myles Leonard. But Cousins won this matchup and Leonard was trying everything in his arsenal to defend Big Cuz but couldn't do so. Despite this, Portland got off to a quick run over the Kings and they quickly found themselves down early on. But this didn't matter because DMC chipped in 13 points and 6 rebounds of his own to help trim this deficit they were in. After the first quarter the Kings were only down 35-31. With some momentum.

The second quarter was a back and forth defensive battle between both Pacific teams. DeMarcus sat the majority of this quarter. Rudy Gay and Darren Collison filled his absence very nicely while Rudy added 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. While Collison chipped in 8 points of his own and shot very well from the field in this particular quarter. Although the Kings did at one point find themselves down again by 11 points this time but cut that lead down to 5 at the half. A lot of this was because the TrailBlazers took advantage of the Kings turnover woes. They had 7 turnovers alone in the first half and it was the same story in the second half. And the Blazers are known for being a great team out in transition and these turnovers helped them take advantage.

Sacramento managed to go on a big time run late in the third quarter that gave them some momentum but essentially they were unable to keep a stable lead due to the back and forth play by both teams. After 3 quarters of play Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum combined for 41 points and 16/28 from the field which they're arguably one of the best PG/SG duos in the NBA. At this point in the game DeMarcus, Darren, Rudy, and Aaron Afflalo were the bulk and majority of the Kings offense and they were hitting really good shots on the floor.

The fourth quarter was a big back and forth battle with both teams unable to create a big lead to put the game away. Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum were on fire and hitting big shots for their respective team that couldn't be stopped at all. At one point the Kings were down by 5 points very late in the game but were able to fight through it and tied the game off a Cousins take to the basket to ultimately send the game into overtime. Overtime was very much the same. They missed some key baskets that came back to hurt them but you could tell with this Sacramento team playing 11 games in 17 days you can see the fatigue. I know this isn't an excuse but you can see they were exhausted. This game was easily a early on game of the year candidate because both teams later in the game could not get a lead from each other and it was a back and forth game which was very good to see.

I'll share some things I noticed in this game. One was that the Sacramento Kings never kept their heads down and came back on numerous occasions and made a run to come back in this game. You always love to see that in a game like this against a high octane team. Gotta love the heart and if they can continue to play at a high level like this it will result in many close games and wins.

Darren Collison played very well off the bench and I won't be surprised if the Kings decide to start him next game because of his recent performances. He had a stat line of 20-5-4 on the night. I can not stress enough how well DeMarcus Cousins kept his emotions in check tonight as I mentioned earlier how Miles Leonard was playing physical and trying to get under Cousins skin, he managed to keep calm and continue his dominance.

Notable Kings stats:

DeMarcus Cousins had 33 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists on 12/22 shooting, and 3/7 from beyond the arc. He did a little bit of everything tonight as well as playing good defense. Rudy Gay added 29 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists in 43 minutes of play. Very effective in the a lot of playing time he got tonight. Aaron Afflalo had 15 points of his own against his former team. Darren Collison off the bench had 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists had a very well played night and locked up Lillard in big time moments in the game for the most part.

The Kings will get a much needed 4 days of rest and the San Antonio Spurs come to town on November 16th and will tip off at 7:30pm PST and the game can be found on CSNCA and this is the start of a big and rough home stand and we sha'll see how the Kings preform against many playoff teams moving forward.