Kings start new era with win over Nuggets
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Sacramento Kings' remaining Kentucky Connection showed they might be capable of doing their own significant damage, and that life without DeMarcus Cousins will have its moments.
Willie Cauley-Stein and Skal Labissiere combined for 41 points, and Sacramento opened a new era without its former big man by blasting the Denver Nuggets 116-100 at the Golden 1 Center.
Cauley-Stein, in his second season out of Kentucky, scored 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 32 minutes off the bench, while Labissiere, a rookie, scored a career-best 12 points in 14 minutes, and the Kings (25-33) won for the fifth time in six games overall and for the fourth consecutive time at home. They trail Denver (25-32) by a half-game as the two teams battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Kings' trade of Cousins to New Orleans -- where he joined fellow Kentucky product Anthony Davis -- figures to free up minutes for Cauley-Stein and Labissiere, and they capitalized immediately, combining for 27 points in the first half to help Sacramento take a 61-44 lead into the break.
Buddy Hield, acquired from the Pelicans in the deal along with Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway, scored 16 points, while Evans added 15. Both came off the bench for the Kings, whose reserves outscored Denver's 72-44.
Gary Harris scored 23 points to lead the Nuggets, and Wilson Chandler scored 18 off the bench. Nikola Jokic, who finished second in the NBA's Skills Competition during All-Star weekend, pulled 10 rebounds but scored just four points, and Denver shot just 44 percent from the field.
NOTES: The Nuggets acquired C Roy Hibbert from the Milwaukee Bucks before the game in a trade for a 2019 second-round draft pick, the team announced. Hibbert, 30, didn't play a minute for the Bucks after being acquired from the Charlotte Hornets earlier this month. He played 42 games with the Hornets, averaging 16.0 minutes, 3.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. ... Kings F Arron Afflalo (right hamstring strain) and G Malachi Richardson (right partial hamstring tear) didn't suit up. Richardson is out 3-6 weeks, but the Kings haven't said how much time they expect Affalo to miss. ... Nuggets coach Michael Malone coached former Kings F DeMarcus Cousins for just more than a season, and his firing is considered by some in the organization as one of the Kings' biggest mistakes of the Cousins era.