Suns storm again from 22 down in 4th quarter to beat Kings

PHOENIX — Kevin Durant made two free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining and the Phoenix Suns staged a livid comeback to beat the Sacramento Kings 119-117 on Tuesday night time.

Grayson Allen tied a franchise document with 9 3-pointers and scored 29 factors for the Suns, who trailed 113-96 earlier than closing the sport with a 23-4 run. Durant completed with 27 factors, then tried to clarify how the Suns rallied.

“I’ve no clue,” Durant mentioned. “I often know the way the sport is flowing, however I felt like this was a blur. Every little thing occurred so quick. I suppose we had been all in a zone and locked in.

“They’re a group that likes to play a free-flowing motion offense, so when you’ll be able to disrupt that they flip into a unique group. We pressured [Domantas] Sabonis somewhat bit extra. We switched so many screens and made them play 1-on-1.”

The Suns are simply the second group up to now 25 seasons to beat a deficit of 20 or extra factors throughout the closing 8 minutes of the fourth quarter, becoming a member of the Kings over the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2020, in accordance with ESPN Stats & Info.

Devin Booker had 16 factors and 11 assists, Bradley Beal scored 13 factors and Jusuf Nurkic had 10 factors and 15 rebounds for Phoenix.

The Kings led by 22 factors with 8:22 to play, however Durant sparked a comeback with a pair of 3-pointers within the fourth quarter. Eric Gordon later made consecutive 3-pointers to tie it at 115. He scored 13 factors off the bench.

“We stayed in it. We stayed within the struggle mentally,” Suns coach Frank Vogel mentioned. “There have been plenty of moments the place our guys had been struggling and pissed off, and we had been getting our butts kicked.

“We’ve got seen firsthand that within the fashionable NBA, groups are by no means out of a sport. We appeared on the small lineup. We had been going 5 3-point shooters. We lastly obtained Eric in there and he hit some massive 3s. All of these guys actually stepped up.”

Durant’s free throws with 30 seconds left gave the Suns a 117-115 lead, their first because it was 3-2. De’Aaron Fox, who led all scorers with 33 factors, tied it with a jumper with 19 seconds to go. However he then fouled Durant, who was trying an extended jumper. After his free throws, a last-second shot by the Kings was lengthy.

Sabonis recorded his eleventh triple-double of the season with 21 factors, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. It was his twenty third consecutive sport with double figures in no less than two of the columns and his league-high thirty sixth double-double of the season.

“It is a powerful approach to lose. Give them credit score,” Kings coach Mike Brown mentioned. “We performed 42 minutes. The final six minutes, we took some powerful pictures on the rim. We could not rating on the rim as an alternative of simply persevering with to maneuver the ball and transfer our bodies, every little thing was actually stagnant, we turned the ball over.

“We had no tempo within the halfcourt, we had been holding the ball loads. We’ve got to determine it out. Hopefully it is one thing we are able to study from.”

Keegan Murray scored 18 factors, Sasha Vezenkov had 14 and Malik Monk completed with 13 factors and eight assists for Sacramento, which has misplaced three in a row.

The Related Press contributed to this report.