Marvin Bagley III, Kings defeat Pacers for 4th straight win
Bruce Brown #1 of the Brooklyn Nets defends against Marvin Bagley III #35 of the Sacramento Kings during their game at Barclays Center on February 23, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by AL BELLO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
Marvin Bagley III finished with 31 points and 12 rebounds to help the Sacramento Kings cap a perfect four-game road trip with a 104-93 victory over the host Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night.
The Kings (29-37) won their fourth in a row since Bagley returned after missing over a month due to a fractured hand.
Bagley started the game strong, scoring 14 points in the first quarter to ignite Sacramento, which still has a slim chance of sneaking into the play-in tournament in the Western Conference.
The Kings entered play Wednesday trailing the 10th-place San Antonio Spurs by 3 1/2 games and the 11th-place New Orleans Pelicans by 1 1/2 games.
Sacramento hosts San Antonio on Friday and can secure the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Spurs with a victory.
Sacramento cooled off the Pacers (30-35), who averaged 146.5 points over their previous two games. The Kings scored 25 points off 22 Indiana turnovers.
Domantas Sabonis finished with 17 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists to lead the Pacers, who hold the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference, two games behind the eighth-place Charlotte Hornets.
Delon Wright put together another strong effort with 23 points, seven rebounds, six assists and six steals for the Kings, while Buddy Hield had 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Richaun Holmes added 12 points.
Terence Davis finished with 10 points.
A day after the Kings announced they had lost Tyrese Haliburton (left knee hyperextension) for the remainder of the regular season, Harrison Barnes (left adductor tightness) missed his fifth consecutive game, and De’Aaron Fox (health and safety protocols) sat out for the seventh game in a row.
Chimezie Metu (lower back soreness) and Robert Woodard II (lower back soreness) also remained out.
Caris LeVert finished with 14 points for Indiana, while T.J. McConnell, Doug McDermott and Kelan Martin had 11 each.
Goga Bitadze (left ankle sprain) returned after a seven-game absence and collected five points and six rebounds in just over 20 minutes.
Malcolm Brogdon (sore right hamstring), Jeremy Lamb (sore left knee), JaKarr Sampson (concussion) and Edmond Sumner (left knee contusion) were unavailable.
–Field Level Media
