Domantas Sabonis’ free throw with 42.8 seconds remaining in overtime broke a tie, Malik Monk dropped in a pair of foul throws with 13.0 seconds left and the Sacramento Kings snapped a three-game losing streak with a 121-118 victory over the visiting Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
Sabonis’ free throw came after Portland’s Matisse Thybulle created the game’s final deadlock on a layup with 1:48 to go.
With his team down one, Jerami Grant, the game’s leading scorer with 38 points, had a chance to give Portland the lead with 37.0 seconds remaining but couldn’t connect from short range.
Monk misfired on a floater in the lane at the other end, but grabbed his own rebound and was fouled, leading to his two foul shots that stood as the game’s final scoring.
Grant got two subsequent looks at a potential tie but missed consecutive 3-point attempts in the final 9.1 seconds.
The extra session was required after Monk scored the final four points of regulation for the Kings, including a pair of free throws with 8.1 seconds left. Portland’s Skylar Mays then couldn’t connect on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, leaving the teams in a 111-111 tie.
Minutes earlier, Deandre Ayton contributed eight points to a late 10-2 burst that appeared to put the visitors in position for a third consecutive road win at 109-104 with 1:59 left in regulation. But Monk countered with all the Sacramento scoring in a regulation-ending, 7-2 run that forged a tie.
Sabonis missed what would have been his first triple-double of the season by one assist, finishing with team highs in points (27) and rebounds (11) to go with the nine assists.
Monk had 23 points and a team-high 10 assists off the bench, while Kevin Huerter put up 17 points, Davion Mitchell 16, Harrison Barnes 12 and Alex Len 10.
Grant came up two points shy of his fourth career 40-point game. He also found time for nine rebounds, five assists and three blocks.
Mays (18 points, game-high 11 assists) and Ayton (18 points, team-high 10 rebounds) had double-doubles for Portland, while Shaedon Sharpe chipped in with 18 points and Thybulle 13.
–Field Level Media
