Six and a half seconds to go. Harrison Barnes presses Nikola Jokic. Jokic misses the ball. De’Aaron Fox turns him forward. Barnes misses an ax dunk. And Buddy Hield, following the play, gets a hand on the rebound for a tip to win the game for the Kings.
Pure pandemonium.
Normally, at altitude, road crews cannot keep up with Denver. But Sacramento reversed the script at the opening of the season.
De’Aaron Fox and the Kings set the pace against the Nuggets, at least after the first quarter, and stole the victory from the reigning Western Conference finalists, 124-122 in Denver to begin the 2020-21 campaign.
The Kings were trying to catch up for most of the first half, thanks to some hot kicks from Nuggets’ attackers to start the game. Sacramento reached two points at the end of the second quarter, but Denver made an effort to finish the half with seven points.
Instead of losing momentum with the break, the Kings increased the pressure. They immediately won six consecutive points and finally took the lead with 6:55 to throw the third in a Marvin Bagley III bucket in the painting. In total, Kings overcame the Nuggets by 12 points in the third quarter. Denver failed to keep up with Fox during the break, and the Nuggets couldn’t even keep him in front of them in the middle of the court.
In the final stretch, while the Nuggets were trying to get back, the Kings were forced to perform as a veteran team. And they turned to two vets, Hield and Barnes, to take them home. Barnes had a series of controlled shots for the basket to keep up with Denver’s pace in the fourth quarter and overtime. He finished with 21 points, second only to Hield’s 22. Hield had five of the team’s 10 points out of 3 and gave his all in defense. He raised Jokić at the post from time to time and had active hands all the time.
This was a high-energy effort by the Kings. The execution was random, but they did the job and won the first victory of the season. What a hurry.