Kings can’t solve Houston problem in loss to Rockets; Alperen Sengun suffers scary injury

The Kings couldn’t handle the size, strength and physicality of the Houston Rockets when they suffered back-to-back blowout losses earlier this season in Houston.

It looked like they had solved that problem when they used superior speed and quickness to push the pace in the early stages of Sunday’s game, but the Rockets again found a way to impose their will.

“I thought their physicality, their effort level, all that stuff defensively was right on par with what they do, how they’ve been playing and how they’ve won games,” Kings coach Mike Brown said.

Fred VanVleet had 22 points and nine assists as the Rockets completed a surprising season sweep of Sacramento with a 112-104 victory before a sellout crowd of 18,022 at Golden 1 Center. The Kings staged a late rally to bring life to the arena in a sleepy matinee affair, but a hush fell over the crowd when Rockets center Alperen Sengun went down with a scary right leg injury late in the fourth quarter.

Sengun stayed down for several minutes while receiving attention from the team’s medical staff before he was helped into a wheelchair and carted off to the locker room. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sengun will undergo an MRI on his knee and ankle Monday.

“I don’t know what the reports are, but any time you see someone come out in a wheelchair, it’s definitely scary,” Kings center Domantas Sabonis said. “He’s a very young, talented player and I feel bad. No one wants to get hurt. I just wish him the best and a speedy recovery.”

The Kings (36-27) fell to seventh in the Western Conference playoff race, a half-game behind the Phoenix Suns for the No. 6 seed with 19 games remaining.

Sabonis finished with 25 points on 10-of-11 shooting with 15 rebounds and eight assists. He recorded his 46^th consecutive double-double but committed nine of Sacramento’s 13 turnovers. Sabonis said he needs to be “smarter with the ball.”

“They were being physical with everyone,” Sabonis said. “I was trying to get my teammates open and threading the needle or trying to do the handoffs, and they were blowing them up.”

De’Aaron Fox had 18 points and nine rebounds, but he went 7 of 21 from the field and 2 of 9 from 3-point range. The Kings shot 18.8% from beyond the arc with Keegan Murray going 0 of 5, Kevin Huerter going 0 of 3 and Malik Monk going 2 of 8.

Jalen Green scored 19 points for the Rockets (29-35), who have won four of their last five games. Sengun had 14 points, six rebounds and two steals before the injury forced him to leave the game with 39.1 seconds remaining.

“You hate to see that, especially that late in the game,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Alpi’s making a play there to try to obviously get back and get a defensive stop. That doesn’t diminish the win, in general. I think it’s one of our best road wins. And he had a huge part in that, obviously.

“We’ll see what it is from there. Hate to speculate. It looked like he landed awkwardly with that ankle, and he might have rolled it.”

The Kings got bodied by a bigger, more physical Rockets team in early November when they suffered 107-89 and 122-97 losses in Houston. The Kings pushed the pace in the opening minutes on Sunday while building a double-digit lead.

The Rockets went 4 of 12 from the field to start the game, giving Sacramento ample opportunity to rebound and run the floor in transition while amassing a 9-2 advantage in fastbreak points.

The Kings led by as many as 12 while holding the Rockets to 39.1% shooting in the first period. They went up by 13 in the second quarter before the Rockets came back to cut the deficit to three on back-to-back 3-pointers by VanVleet.

Sacramento led 59-54 at the halftime break, but Houston kept coming early in the third quarter to take a 64-63 lead on two free throws by VanVleet. The Kings briefly reclaimed the lead on a three-point play by Murray, but the Rockets responded with a 13-0 run to go ahead 77-66.

The third quarter was a disaster for Sacramento. The Kings went 4 of 16 from the field and 0 of 6 from 3-point range. They committed nine fouls and eight turnovers as the pace of play came grinding to a halt. Houston went to the free-throw line 10 times, going 9 of 10, while outscoring the Kings 11-1 in points off turnovers.

The Rockets turned a 9-2 deficit into a 10-9 advantage in fastbreak points after stopping Sacramento’s transition game in the second and third quarters.

“I think our defense was allowing our offense to get out and run and create easier opportunities for us,” Fox said. “In the second half, we weren’t getting the stops we needed defensively to make it easy for us offensively.”

The Rockets led 86-73 at the end of the third quarter and went up by 17 early in the fourth. They were still up by 15 with less than seven minutes remaining when the Kings staged a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to five with 3:20 to play, but Jabari Smith Jr., Sengun and Green hit big baskets down the stretch to secure the win.

Spray 3s

Brown noted the Kings rank third in the NBA in drive-and-kick 3-point attempts, but they only had 10 against the Rockets after averaging just 11.6 over the previous five games.

“We had nine turnovers in the second half,” Brown said. “One of the things we talked to our guys about, they do a great job when that ball hits the paint, whether it’s on a pick-and-roll or a drive, they just (collapse), and we either got too deep and turned it over or we just didn’t spray the ball.

“... We’re not doing a great job spraying the ball. We’re holding onto it too long in the paint or we’re trying to score through traffic in the paint. We’ve got to get back to moving that ball and getting easy shots because easy shots and/or sprays for us lead to great 3s.”

Cleared to play

Kings guard Davion Mitchell was cleared to play about two hours before tipoff after being listed as questionable due to chest soreness.

Mitchell finished with eight points, two rebounds and three assists in 18 minutes. He went 3 of 7 from the field and 2 of 5 from 3-point range.

Mitchell averaged 10.8 points over the previous four games with astounding efficiency, making 18 of 21 (.857) field-goal attempts and 5 of 8 (.625) from 3-point range. Mitchell had 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting in an overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 1. He had 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting from 3-point range in Wednesday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Up next

The Kings will continue their six-game homestand when they face the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday at Golden 1 Center.

The Bucks (41-23) are third in the Eastern Conference, 8 ½ games behind the conference-leading Boston Celtics and a half-game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bucks will be concluding a four-game road trip after visiting the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 30.8 points, 11.2 rebounds and 6.4 assists for Milwaukee. Damian Lillard averages 24.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists while shooting 42.3% from the field and 35% from 3-point range. Khris Middleton averages 14.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists.