The Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Clippers Made History Yesterday
The game that they played was the second-highest-scoring game in NBA history
I was looking through my phone notifications yesterday when I stumbled upon my hometown Sacramento Kings NBA notification. The game had just concluded and I saw something that had me in disbelief. 176–175 Kings over the Clippers in double overtime in Los Angeles at Crypto.com Arena. What?! I thought that it was possibly an error and it had been entered wrong into the system. It’s happened before in the past. But no.
This was a legitimate NBA game right after the All-Star break two NBA teams participated in. For the record, the game was the second-highest scoring in NBA history and the Kings and Clippers now have the 3rd and 4th highest scores for a game in NBA history after this historic nail-biter. The game with the record was recorded back on December 13, 1983, between the Detroit Pistons and the Denver Nuggets. The Detroit Pistons defeated the Nuggets 186–184 in that game but that game went to triple overtime.
I find that this recent game was more impressive considering it was done with only two overtimes. I was curious as to how this score was achieved so I looked at the box score. Two players on the Kings, De’Aaron Fox (42) and Malik Monk (45) scored over 40 points. The more impressive thing about this feat is that Malik Monk did this off of the bench in 41 minutes of play. De’Aaron Fox also added an additional 12 assists to his scoring total.
One player, Kawhi Leonard, on the Los Angeles Clippers scored over 40 points in this game as well as he finished with 44 points in the losing effort. It’s the first time in Kawhi’s career that he’s lost when scoring over 40 points. That in itself is a feat. It’s insane to think that with the number of points that these two teams scored that someone was actually going to lose.
The crazy part about this too is that it is Russell Westbrook’s first game with his new team, the Los Angeles Clippers. He added 17 points, 14 assists, and 5 rebounds in 39 minutes on 7–13 shooting. Some other notable players from both teams last night were Paul George, Norman Powell, Terance Mann, Nicolas Batum, and Mason Plumlee from the Clippers and Domantas Sabonis, Trey Lyles, and Davion Mitchell from the Kings.
Most notably, Paul George added 34 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists for the Clippers in 41 minutes alongside Kawhi Leonard. Domantas Sabonis for the Kings added 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists. Seven players on the Kings scored in double figures and seven players also scored in double figures for the Clippers. This game could’ve honestly gone either way and was definitely notable for a lack of defense, obviously.
De’Aaron Fox and the Sacramento Kings were definitely up to the challenge of facing a new-look Clippers team with the previously mentioned veteran point guard Russell Westbrook added to the mix with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to create an apparently new “superteam”. Russell Westbrook has definitely been in decline as he came off of the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers previously but he’s still a spark and now he’s a starter for the Clippers team featuring the two other stars.
It will definitely be fun to see where this Clippers team goes after this loss but they certainly looked exciting on the offensive end for sure. De’Aaron Fox had some choice words for the team with Russell Westbrook. He basically told it like it is but he also sounded like a leader saying what he said.
“Was it thoughts about Westbrook, or was it thoughts about us? I don’t give a f**k who’s over there. It doesn’t matter. You see the league, the talent in this league. There are a lot of talented teams. Obviously, he added talent to this team, but we come in, we worry about us.”
There are certainly a lot of talented teams and he’s right. The Kings didn’t have to make any moves to be one of the talented teams this year. They already have had it all year. The win over the Clippers improves their record to 34–25 as they stay the third seed in the Western Conference currently.
It was hard not to see the team make any moves as the teams around them made some big win-now moves in the hopes of making the postseason but it doesn’t seem to be fazing this team. This team is accomplishing some NBA history and they will continue to be one of the best, if not the best offensive team in the NBA this year.
They are poised to break their 17-year playoff drought, which is currently the longest in the NBA and make it back to the postseason for the first time since the team had players like Chris Webber leading them. It’s an exciting time for Sacramento Kings basketball and all I have to say to that is, “Light the beam.”
