Mavs rally in fourth to down Kings
Six players reached double figures for the balanced Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night as they rallied in the fourth quarter to dump the Sacramento Kings 106-99 in a matchup of Western Conference doormats at Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento, Calif.
Sacramento managed just 14 points in the fourth quarter, losing the lead for good when Yogi Ferrell drilled a 3-pointer with 10:38 left to make it 87-85. That was part of a 16-0 run to start the period by the Mavericks, who pushed the margin to 97-85 on Devin Harris' 3-pointer at the 6:52 mark.
The Kings never got closer than six for the game's remainder. They were outscored 25-14 in the fourth quarter.
Harrison Barnes paced Dallas with 18 points, while Norman Powell added 17 on 7-of-9 shooting. Dirk Nowitzki hit for 15 points and Dennis Smith Jr. netted 12 despite hitting only 4-of-15 shots. Wesley Matthews and Ferrell each scored 11 points.
Rookie De'Aaron Fox and reserve Garrett Temple tallied 15 points apiece to pace Sacramento, while Willie Cauley-Stein and Zach Randolph each added 14. Buddy Hield came off the bench to notch 13 points, but it wasn't enough to keep the Kings from falling to 20 games under .500.
The teams battled on mostly even terms for three quarters, with Sacramento shooting better than 60 percent in that span and Dallas not much farther behind. The Kings took a 28-27 lead to the second quarter after scoring six straight points in under a minute, including a Kosta Koufos hook shot with 20.1 seconds left to cap the spurt.
The Mavericks grabbed a 56-54 halftime lead as Smith provided his first points of the game on a tip-in with 31.3 seconds remaining in the half. The teams swapped the lead repeatedly before Dallas made the half's final push.
Sacramento came back in the third quarter to own a six-point lead, scoring on five straight trips near the period's end, and took an 85-81 edge to the final 12 minutes.
--Field Level Media