Sacramento Kings rally past the Toronto Raptors
The Sacramento Kings posted their best start in seven years when they scored a come-from-behind 111-108 win over the Toronto Raptors on Monday 1 November at the Arco Arena, taking them to
3-1 on the season.
The 2010 Rookie of the Year, Tyreke Evans, left the game with an upset stomach in the third period, but came out strong to spark a huge run, which erased the 16-point lead of the Raptors,
who absorbed their second loss of the season.
The 21-year old guard racked up 23 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, while highly-touted rookie big man DeMarcus Cousins also came out strong in the second half to finish the game
with 16 points to go with four rebounds.
"We had a talk before the game," said head coach Paul Westphal on Evans' big night. "I said stop trying to get assists, just play. If he pre-thinks a play, sometimes he loses his aggressiveness.
When he's aggressive, that's when he's the best passer, too."
Beno Udrih chipped in 17 points, while centre Samuel Dalembert scored only four points, but collected a team-high 14 rebounds for the Kings, who won their third game of the season by overcoming
double-digit deficits in the second half of all their games.
"If I had my choice between the first and second half I would take the second half," Westphal said. "That was a really exciting game. I'm so happy for our guys. I don't want to have to come
back every game like this, but it's nice to know we can."
The Raptors came out firing in the first half and continued to sizzle in the third period and led by as much as 16 points before Evans and Cousins spearheaded Sacramento’s big run. Cousins
made all of his four attempts in the final period and Sacramento took the lead for the first time, 96-95, with 5:59 left in the game after a long-range bomb from Omri Casspi.
"Cousins did a great job of getting those second chances and being a beast inside and that hurt us," Toronto coach Jay Triano said. "They didn't turn it over and they didn't miss many shots,
so it was tough to get transition points going the other way and get easy buckets."
Andrea Bargnani paced the Raptors with his 28 points on 10-for-17 shooting from the field, while second-year guard-forward DeMar DeRozan scored 24 points, but admitted that they had a hard
time breaking Sacramento’s defence in the second half.
"I think they figured us out a little bit and tried to change things up in the second half," DeRozan said. "They threw a zone at us a few times and they tried to limit us going to the basket.
That was the difference in the second half."
Lithuanian forward Linas Kleiza added 18 points, while Reggie Evans finished the game with six points and game-high 19 rebounds for the Raptors, who will face the Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers,
and the Portland Trail Blazers on the road over the next five days.
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