Sacramento Kings crush Boston Celtics 118-96 in a lopsided contest: NBA Recap
With most of the Sacramento Kings back court out with injury troubles, Isaiah Thomas is making the most of his opportunity as a starter and led the Kings to a 118-96 win over the struggling Boston Celtics here at the Sleep Train
Arena Sunday night.
Thomas posted 27 points and dished out 5 assists, going 10 of 15 from the field. He made one of Kings two 4 point plays early in the third period as Sacramento took control of the game early in the second half. DeMarcus Cousins
was huge; he had a triple-double with 12 points 10 assists and 10 rebounds as the Kings won their 4th straight home game.
“That guy has an infectious personality," Kings Coach Keith Smart said. "He has that magnetism that brings players and people around to him. He brought that energy to start the game off right with him in the starting lineup. All
our guards do a great job, but what he's been able to do is kind of give us a little injection of the steam that we need. He's done that, plus he's making his shots."
Thomas got the go ahead to start as both Aaron Brooks and Tyreke Evans are sidelined with injuries. And he was going against one of the best point guard in the Eastern Conference, Rajon Rondo, but Thomas kept the latter to a season-low
2 points on 1 of 6 from the floor.
Rondo did hand out 10 assists for the night; Paul Pierce posted 20 points while Kevin Garnett finished off with 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Celtics.
The Celtics have been struggling lately since beating Brooklyn Nets on Christmas day. Since then wins have been hard to come by, Boston visited Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors and Sacramento looking for a road win but
they got outscored by 69 points in these three losses and have now fallen below 0.500.
Feeding from the energy of the home crowd, Kings got to a fast start to the game and raced to an 18-8 lead early in the first quarter. They remained in control throughout the game and were leading 18-24 by the end of the first
period.
The score was tied on 28 early in the second quarter but the Kings pulled ahead quickly to maintain their lead. Garnett layup at the buzzer had the Celtics trailing 49-54 at halftime.
Garnett made it a two point game early in the second half but Thornton’s four point play proved to be the turning point. Thomas sank another from the three point land to push the Kings lead to 84-71 later in the period and it pretty
much sealed the deal as the Kings outscored the Celtics 34-23 in the fourth period to secure a ‘W’.
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