SACRAMENTO -- Never get in a shootout against a team with Kyrie Irving, James Harden and a whole bunch of shooters.
The Kings learned this lesson the hard way Monday night in Sacramento when the Brooklyn Nets rolled into Golden 1 Center and came away with a 136-125 victory.
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Harden posted a casual 29-point, 14-assist, 13-rebound triple-double. Irving added 40 points on 9-for-11 shooting from 3-point range. The Nets stars were way too much for the Kings to handle.
Here are three takeaways as the Kings dropped their fourth straight game to fall to 12-15 on the season.
The run
Through the first 24 minutes of the game, the Kings and Nets were going at it. And then Brooklyn put the pedal to the floor.
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At the 7:20 mark of the third, Buddy Hield dropped in a 3-pointer to move the Kings within two points at 82-80. Less than five minutes later, the Nets led 102-80 and the game was over.
Irving and Harden starred during the 20-0 run, but Brooklyn received some nice buckets from DeAndre Jordan, Joe Harris and Jeff Green in the stretch as well.
It’s raining 3s
Brooklyn’s shooters flanked the wings and waited for the kick out from Harden and Irving. They were ready to fire at will and that is exactly what they did. The Nets hit 14-for-22 from long range before going to the intermission. The 14 makes in the half tied a franchise record. They finished the night with a franchise record 27 makes from long range, but they weren’t the only ones hitting.
After a miserable performance on Sunday against the Grizzlies, Buddy Hield found his stroke against Brooklyn. Hield knocked down his first five 3-balls on the night and finished with 21 points on 6-for-9 from deep.
Hield had a decent shooting night, but the Kings were outscored 81-36 from 3-point range in the blowout loss.
Limited, but solid
With Richaun Holmes out with a sore knee, Marvin Bagley got the start at the five. Bagley was coming off back-to-back missed games due to a calf injury, which put him on a minutes restriction.
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While he only played 21 minutes, the 21-year-old big was impactful for Sacramento, finishing with 19 points and seven rebounds.
When Bagley has a mismatch like he did against the Nets, the Kings need to take advantage and feed in the blocks. He easily could have given them more production in the paint.