Harrison Barnes didn’t look like himself at the start of the season, but now the veteran forward looks like an indispensable piece for a team that hopes to end the NBA’s longest playoff drought.
Barnes scored 29 points to lead the Kings to a 132-119 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday evening at AT&T Center. Barnes went 8 of 11 from the field, 4 of 6 from 3-point range and 9 of 11 at the free-throw line to help the Kings win their fourth in a row.
De’Aaron Fox scored 23 points and Domantas Sabonis posted his franchise-record 20th consecutive double-double with 18 points, 18 rebounds and eight assists. Davion Mitchell came off the bench to score 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting with four 3-pointers for the Kings (24-18), who moved six games over .500 for the first time since April 2006.
Jakob Poeltl had 23 points and seven rebounds for the Spurs (13-31), who have lost five in a row. Josh Richardson scored 21 points. Keldon Johnson added 20 points and seven rebounds.
The Kings became the first team in franchise history and the eighth team in NBA history to score 130-plus points in five consecutive games. The last team to post five or more consecutive 130-point games was the Denver Nuggets from Nov. 10-22, 1988.
The Kings will try to win their fifth in a row when they visit the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena. The Kings haven’t been seven games over .500 since the end of the 2004-05 season, when they went 50-32 to earn the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference.
Barnes has played a huge role in Sacramento’s recent surge. He averaged 9.9 points on 35.5% shooting from the field and an abysmal 18.5% shooting from 3-point range over the first nine games of the season. Over the past eight games, he’s averaging 22.3 points on 55.7% shooting from the field and 51.8% shooting from beyond the arc.
Kevin Huerter returned to Sacramento’s starting lineup after missing the past two games against the Houston Rockets due to a non-COVID-19 illness. He finished with nine points on 4-of-11 shooting in 23 minutes.
The Kings got off to a slow start against San Antonio. They trailed 13-4 after going 2 of 10 from the field over the first 4:10 before Barnes broke the ice with a 3-pointer, sparking an 18-6 run that put the Kings up 22-19.
Sacramento led 33-32 at the end of the opening period. Fox and Sabonis combined for four points on 2-of-8 shooting in the first quarter, but the Kings got 10 points from Barnes and 14 points from their bench.
“It took the whole squad,” said Mitchell, who was awarded the team’s defensive player of the game chain. “I think our starters got off to a slow start. We just tried to do our job and come in and just bring some energy, and I think we did that and then we just kept it rolling.”
The Spurs were leading 44-41 when Kings coach Mike Brown took a timeout with 8:21 to play in the second quarter. At that point, the Spurs were 21 of 28 from the field, shooting a sizzling 75%. The Kings held San Antonio to 6-of-15 (.400) shooting over the final 6:48, but they still trailed 64-63 at the halftime break.
The Kings finally took control in the third quarter. They went up by six on a midrange jumper by Fox, extended their lead to 14 on a three-point play by Barnes and carried a 102-90 advantage into the fourth quarter.
San Antonio made one last run to cut the deficit to four midway through the fourth, but the Kings outscored the Spurs 17-8 over the final 6:01.
