SACRAMENTO -- The schedule caught up to the Kings.
Playing their third game in four nights with one day of travel in the middle, the Kings came out flat on their home court, and the Houston Rockets took advantage.
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James Harden put up big numbers against Sacramento for the second time in four days, and the Kings put up little resistance overall as they fell 130-105 at Golden 1 Center.
Here are three takeaways as the Kings stumbled on their home floor to move two games under the .500 mark on the season at 38-40. The Rockets improved to 50-28 as the Western Conference's No. 3 seed.
Buddy and …
The Kings have lived on big nights from Buddy Hield this season. He did it again against the Rockets, but the rest of the squad struggled to keep up.
NBA
Hield finished the game with 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting. He added seven rebounds and five assists, but it wasn’t even close to enough for Sacramento.
Despite his team's rough schedule, Hield still is running and gunning for the Kings. With four 3-point makes, Hield now has 589 through the first three years of his NBA career. He needs 10 more over the next four games to tie Damian Lillard’s record of 599.
Rookie still rising
Marvin Bagley continues to shine. The only thing to slow the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft is a series of injuries that have cost him 20 games this season.
Locked up against Kenneth Faried for much of the night, Bagley matched the veteran’s intensity and came away with a solid performance. He posted 19 points, eight rebounds and one block in 28 minutes.
The MVP does MVP things
Sacramento -- just like most of the other 28 teams in the league -- has no answer for Harden.
After the Rockets guard torched the Kings on Saturday for a 50-point triple-double, he did major damage again. The reigning MVP dropped in 7 of 12 from long range on his way to 36 points and 10 assists in 29 minutes.
As a team, the Rockets finished the night 26 of 61 (42.6 percent) from 3-point range. The 26 makes tied the NBA's single-game record.