Category: Sports News

Doug Christie provides honest explanation about being on hot seat for Kings originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SACRAMENTO — The more the Kings lose, the more the big-picture questions arise. 

The Kings fell to 1-11 in a 120-107 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday at Golden 1 Center, extending their franchise-record home winless streak to seven games to begin the 2026-27 NBA season. 

To be sure, expectations weren’t high surrounding Doug Christie’s team coming in. General manager Scott Perry has made it clear his team is in early stages of a multi-season rebuilding project around promising rookie Darius Acuff Jr.

But Sacramento has the second-worst record in the NBA –– only the 1-12 Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks are worse –– and currently is on pace to finish with seven wins, worse than the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, who had the worst 82-game record in NBA history at 9-73. 

That futility has led to a swelling conversation about the immediate future of Kings coach Doug Christie, who is 23-70 since having the interim tag removed from his title before last season. 

Christie was asked Friday about that conversation and if he feels the growing pressure as the Kings dropped their fifth straight. 

“I think the seat is hot, always,” Christie said. “The nature of this business, it’s all about winning. So that’s where you think the seat is always hot.”

Christie’s answer reflected a sense of urgency that any NBA coach could relate to. But he also knows he’s the Kings’ eighth head coach since the current ownership group headed by Vivek Ranadivé assumed control in 2013.

Christie had a front-row seat to the firing of Mike Brown in December 2024, just less than two seasons after being voted as the unanimous coach of the year and helping end the Kings’ 17-year NBA playoff drought, the longest in league history. Brown, of course, won a championship last season with the New York Knicks.

Christie was an assistant on Brown’s staff, and leaped a handful of Brown assistants for the head job after Brown was fired while on the way to the airport to travel to a road game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Christie and Perry remade the staff the following offseason when Perry came on as general manager and made Christie the full-time head coach. 

The Kings went 22-60 in the Christie’s first full season. Landing Acuff with the No. 7 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft served as the silver lining in what proved to be a lost season while Domantas Sabonis, Keegan Murray and Zach LaVine missed most of it with injuries. 

Christie indicated he understands why he’s in the crosshairs of some Kings fans unhappy with the product on the court. But he’s trying not to focus on that, he said.

“What’s for me is going to be for me,” Christie said. “I’m always going to do my best, continue to improve in every aspect of whatever it is I do. No one’s going to outwork me when it comes to that. So that’s not something I worry about. 

“In moments, do you feel like, ‘ugh’? Yeah, of course,” he continued. “But then I go find my center and understand that I’m a leader of men and an organization, and I have to come with the proper energy, the proper messaging, all those things to continue to lead them forward.”

Christie pointed to Friday’s performance as a positive despite the final score. The Kings had good energy throughout the game, Christie said. They lost by getting outscored at the 3-point line by 18 points and the free-throw line by 11 more. 

They lost while outscoring the Blazers in points in the paint (46-38), second-chance points (12-6), and fast-break points (20-10). It wasn’t a blowout that has become too common early this season.

Sabonis rebounded from his scoreless performance on Tuesday with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while Murray had his best game of the year with 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists in his return to the starting lineup for the first time since the second game of the season. 

The Kings were led in scoring by DeAndre Hunter’s 24, while Acuff had his streak of 20-plus points snapped at seven games by finishing with 17 on 6-of-19 shooting. Acuff had just seven points through three quarters but scored 10 in the fourth. 

Still, those developments were far from enough to overcome Portland. And there’s little proof the Kings will bring the energy they brought Friday consistently as the season continues. 

The schedule remains tough with the next game Sunday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Wednesday versus the Phoenix Suns before a back-to-back on the road against the Lakers and home to the Boston Celtics next Friday and Saturday.

“But I’m always searching because leadership is something that I take seriously when it comes to (the players) and trying to find a pathway for them to be successful,” Christie said. “…And if you’ve ever been through anything in life, you don’t look at the totality of it. You look at it in bite sizes.

“A lot of people can be overwhelmed by that. I’m just not built that way. So therefore, I won’t let my players be built that way, and that’s how we get through.”

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Yaxel Lendeborg ‘f–ked up mentally,' blames himself for Warriors' loss to Spurs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN ANTONIO – Steph Curry in two thrilling games against the San Antonio Spurs last season scored a combined 95 points in a three-day span. 

The Warriors on Friday night in their first game since Curry sustained a right oblique abdominal tear scored a total of 85 points in a 38-point loss to the Spurs at Frost Bank Center. 

Life comes at you fast without Wardell. 

That kind of rough reality was especially true for Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, who easily had the worst game of his NBA career thus far. Lendeborg scored a career-low three points on 1-of-13 shooting and was a minus-40 in 23 minutes. 

“We just lost by like 100,” Lendeborg said at his locker. “I’m f–ked up mentally right now.” 

Trash talking Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić wasn’t Lendeborg’s real welcome to the NBA moment. Playing without Curry against Victor Wembanyama and the defending Western Conference champions, who came into the night on a 10-game win streak, was. 

The game was over in the opening minutes. San Antonio raced out to an 18-0 lead, which is the most points the Warriors have ever allowed before scoring since the NBA’s play-by-play era began in the 1997-98 season. 

With Lendeborg sitting at his locker with a towel draped over his head, director of player development/assistant coach Everett Dayton tried his best to console the young forward. The two work together individually, and it’s Dayton who takes Lendeborg through his pregame routine. His message was what the rest of the coaching staff and Warriors teammates are trying to relay to their prized rookie: It’s a long season, and games like these only can be good for the long haul. 

Lendeborg wasn’t being dismissive. He was just dejected as someone who is competitive to the core and harshly hard on himself. 

“Ain’t gonna lie, I don’t even … I don’t have nothing to learn, bro,” Lendeborg said in response to reporters. “We got the s–t beat out of us. I don’t know what to learn, man. I was flustered the entire game, man. Couldn’t make a damn layup. A layup. I don’t really … I don’t even know, man.”

A little more than eight hours before tipoff, Lendeborg during Warriors shootaround said he needs to “start thinking more like an alpha dog rather than a beta” with an injured Curry sidelined. Even he would say he played more like a gamma, omega or however low a blowout loss like that can go. 

But he wasn’t alone. Not at all. This was a collectively bad night and reality check for all without Curry as Lendeborg shoulders the blame. 

“It looks like he put fear in all of our hearts,” Lendeborg said of Wembanyama. “Nobody wanted to go into the paint. Nobody wanted to get their shot blocked by him. We were all just doing a bunch of weak-ass floaters, and it wasn’t our game. I mean, I don’t know how many of us work on those, especially me. I shot like seven of them, bro, in a row. I’ve never worked on a floater since like JUCO.” 

When asked if it was even harder to score on Wembanyama than he realized going into the game, Lendeborg continued to express frustration with himself. 

“He’s skinnier than me,” Lendeborg said. “I just got to go put an elbow on his chest and jump into his body or something. If he blocks it, he blocks it. If not, like, I can’t be going up there scared, though. That’s pretty much what it was. I feel like all of us were kind of scared in a way, but we’ll get it next time, I guess.” 

From the jump, Lendeborg physically and mentally felt like this wasn’t going to be his night. He missed his first three shots, made a nine-foot floater on his fourth try and then didn’t connect on his final nine shots of the night. 

“First shot, in and out. I’m like, yup, it’s going to be a bad day. Next shot, I don’t even know what it was. I think I airballed a floater, something like that. Man, once that air-ball happens on the floater, it’s like yeah man, it’s over for the rest of the game. So I was pissed off. Tried three more floaters. I made one, missed the other ones. I mean, I don’t know what the hell was going on with me, man. But couldn’t make a shot. I was 1-for-13, so you know that’s pretty much just ass with everything. 

“It was an awful performance by me. I let everybody on this team down. I don’t know what else I got to do. F–k.” 

Lendeborg entered Friday night averaging 21.7 points per game on 51.8-percent shooting. In his previous three games without Curry, he scored 26, 37 and 25 points. But two of those games were against the five-win Phoenix Suns and the three-win LA Clippers. 

Those two teams are not on the Spurs’ level. Neither are the Warriors without Curry. At least not when trying to turn the page in his absence 48 hours after seeing him hold his right side and then later learn he’s out for the foreseeable future. 

The most points Lendeborg lost by last season for the national champion Michigan Wolverines was eight. The most he lost by in his two seasons at UAB was 23. Losing by 15 points more than that is a sting he says he can’t forget. 

“They keep saying it’s like 70 games left, or 70 more games. I’m not going to forget this ever,” Lendeborg says. “I don’t remember the last time I got beat by 70. The whole entire game, no kind of hope at all. It felt helpless out there, golly. So yeah, I can’t really hear much of what they’re saying right now. I’m cooked right now.” 

Since the Warriors selected Lendeborg at No. 11 overall in the 2026 NBA draft, he has brought a refreshingly honest attitude. He also has admitted it’s really tough for him not to dwell on the bad. It’s a lesson he is going to have to learn over the grind of an 82-game season. 

Friday night was just the 13th NBA game Lendeborg has played. He might feel like the loss is his fault, but that’s far from the truth. The entire starting five produced 11 points in the first half while shooting 14.8 percent. One game after scoring 22 points as Lendeborg’s running mate in Houston, Brandin Podziemski provided only eight points on 2-of-10 shooting in San Antonio.

Role players like De’Anthony Melton, Al Horford, Gui Santos and Georges Niang have been virtually invisible the last two games, resulting in two losses coming off an eight-game win streak. 

The Warriors have two days without a game before playing the Pelicans in New Orleans, whom they beat by 51 points last Monday night. 

“One game, and we ran into a hot team that played a great game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “So, we move forward quickly.”

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Yaxel Lendeborg ‘f–ked up mentally,' blames himself for Warriors' loss to Spurs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN ANTONIO – Steph Curry in two thrilling games against the San Antonio Spurs last season scored a combined 95 points in a three-day span. 

The Warriors on Friday night in their first game since Curry sustained a right oblique abdominal tear scored a total of 85 points in a 38-point loss to the Spurs at Frost Bank Center. 

Life comes at you fast without Wardell. 

That kind of rough reality was especially true for Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, who easily had the worst game of his NBA career thus far. Lendeborg scored a career-low three points on 1-of-13 shooting and was a minus-40 in 23 minutes. 

“We just lost by like 100,” Lendeborg said at his locker. “I’m f–ked up mentally right now.” 

Trash talking Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić wasn’t Lendeborg’s real welcome to the NBA moment. Playing without Curry against Victor Wembanyama and the defending Western Conference champions, who came into the night on a 10-game win streak, was. 

The game was over in the opening minutes. San Antonio raced out to an 18-0 lead, which is the most points the Warriors have ever allowed before scoring since the NBA’s play-by-play era began in the 1997-98 season. 

With Lendeborg sitting at his locker with a towel draped over his head, director of player development/assistant coach Everett Dayton tried his best to console the young forward. The two work together individually, and it’s Dayton who takes Lendeborg through his pregame routine. His message was what the rest of the coaching staff and Warriors teammates are trying to relay to their prized rookie: It’s a long season, and games like these only can be good for the long haul. 

Lendeborg wasn’t being dismissive. He was just dejected as someone who is competitive to the core and harshly hard on himself. 

“Ain’t gonna lie, I don’t even … I don’t have nothing to learn, bro,” Lendeborg said in response to reporters. “We got the s–t beat out of us. I don’t know what to learn, man. I was flustered the entire game, man. Couldn’t make a damn layup. A layup. I don’t really … I don’t even know, man.”

A little more than eight hours before tipoff, Lendeborg during Warriors shootaround said he needs to “start thinking more like an alpha dog rather than a beta” with an injured Curry sidelined. Even he would say he played more like a gamma, omega or however low a blowout loss like that can go. 

But he wasn’t alone. Not at all. This was a collectively bad night and reality check for all without Curry as Lendeborg shoulders the blame. 

“It looks like he put fear in all of our hearts,” Lendeborg said of Wembanyama. “Nobody wanted to go into the paint. Nobody wanted to get their shot blocked by him. We were all just doing a bunch of weak-ass floaters, and it wasn’t our game. I mean, I don’t know how many of us work on those, especially me. I shot like seven of them, bro, in a row. I’ve never worked on a floater since like JUCO.” 

When asked if it was even harder to score on Wembanyama than he realized going into the game, Lendeborg continued to express frustration with himself. 

“He’s skinnier than me,” Lendeborg said. “I just got to go put an elbow on his chest and jump into his body or something. If he blocks it, he blocks it. If not, like, I can’t be going up there scared, though. That’s pretty much what it was. I feel like all of us were kind of scared in a way, but we’ll get it next time, I guess.” 

From the jump, Lendeborg physically and mentally felt like this wasn’t going to be his night. He missed his first three shots, made a nine-foot floater on his fourth try and then didn’t connect on his final nine shots of the night. 

“First shot, in and out. I’m like, yup, it’s going to be a bad day. Next shot, I don’t even know what it was. I think I airballed a floater, something like that. Man, once that air-ball happens on the floater, it’s like yeah man, it’s over for the rest of the game. So I was pissed off. Tried three more floaters. I made one, missed the other ones. I mean, I don’t know what the hell was going on with me, man. But couldn’t make a shot. I was 1-for-13, so you know that’s pretty much just ass with everything. 

“It was an awful performance by me. I let everybody on this team down. I don’t know what else I got to do. F–k.” 

Lendeborg entered Friday night averaging 21.7 points per game on 51.8-percent shooting. In his previous three games without Curry, he scored 26, 37 and 25 points. But two of those games were against the five-win Phoenix Suns and the three-win LA Clippers. 

Those two teams are not on the Spurs’ level. Neither are the Warriors without Curry. At least not when trying to turn the page in his absence 48 hours after seeing him hold his right side and then later learn he’s out for the foreseeable future. 

The most points Lendeborg lost by last season for the national champion Michigan Wolverines was eight. The most he lost by in his two seasons at UAB was 23. Losing by 15 points more than that is a sting he says he can’t forget. 

“They keep saying it’s like 70 games left, or 70 more games. I’m not going to forget this ever,” Lendeborg says. “I don’t remember the last time I got beat by 70. The whole entire game, no kind of hope at all. It felt helpless out there, golly. So yeah, I can’t really hear much of what they’re saying right now. I’m cooked right now.” 

Since the Warriors selected Lendeborg at No. 11 overall in the 2026 NBA draft, he has brought a refreshingly honest attitude. He also has admitted it’s really tough for him not to dwell on the bad. It’s a lesson he is going to have to learn over the grind of an 82-game season. 

Friday night was just the 13th NBA game Lendeborg has played. He might feel like the loss is his fault, but that’s far from the truth. The entire starting five produced 11 points in the first half while shooting 14.8 percent. One game after scoring 22 points as Lendeborg’s running mate in Houston, Brandin Podziemski provided only eight points on 2-of-10 shooting in San Antonio.

Role players like De’Anthony Melton, Al Horford, Gui Santos and Georges Niang have been virtually invisible the last two games, resulting in two losses coming off an eight-game win streak. 

The Warriors have two days without a game before playing the Pelicans in New Orleans, whom they beat by 51 points last Monday night. 

“One game, and we ran into a hot team that played a great game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “So, we move forward quickly.”

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Dejounte Murray has had enough of New Orleans.

The former All-Star requested a trade from the Pelicans, with his agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, and team officials beginning to work toward finding him a new home, ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported.

The Pelicans then put out a statement and said they are looking into “potential trade options.”

“Today, Dejounte Murray’s representatives informed us of his request to be traded,” the Pelicans said in a statement shared on X. “We will evaluate potential trade opportunities that are in the best interest of our organization.”

The trade request comes less than two days after Murray took to social media to suggest there was “sabotage” going on behind the scenes with the team.

After the Pelicans’ blowout 145-111 home loss to the Nets on Wednesday, Murray took to X, pointing out that the team was 1-8 with him in the lineup this season and 3-0 without him.

“From what’s going on INSIDE, this sounds like someone hit you to say this!! THE ‘SABOTAGE’ IS REAL!!” Murray wrote in the since-deleted post.

Murray, 30, reposted Charania’s report on Friday afternoon.

At least one potential suitor has already emerged.

The Suns have expressed interest in acquiring Murray, per NBA insider Chris Haynes.

Murray has had a disastrous tenure with the franchise since he was traded by the Hawks in July 2024 for a package headlined by Dyson Daniels and two first-round picks.

Daniels has since emerged as one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, while Murray has appeared in just 54 games in a Pelicans uniform, suffering a fractured hand in his New Orleans debut before tearing his Achilles in January 2025.

The Pelicans, who hired Jamahl Mosley as their head coach during the offseason, have lost four straight games, including a 51-point drubbing at the hands of the Warriors on Monday.

Murray is making $32.8 million this season and holds a $30.8 million player option for the 2027-28 campaign after signing a $114-plus million veteran extension in 2023.

Greetings, Panthers fans. Welcome to the weekend.

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The Golden State Warriors are facing perhaps their largest challenge of the season tonight: a road game against Victor Wembanyama and the defending Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs, without Steph Curry. This won’t be easy.

Here’s the full injury report for both teams:

Warriors

Out — Steph Curry (right oblique tear)

Curry was injured early in Wednesday’s game against the Houston Rockets, and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. Needless to say, that’s a huge hit for the team, and now begins the quest of trying to tread water with Curry sidelined.

Out — Brandon Williams (left hamstring strain)

That aforementioned task is a little bit harder because the team is missing one of their top bench scorers in Williams, who was injured during Monday’s victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Out — Jimmy Butler III (right ACL repair surgery)
Out — Moses Moody (left patellar tendon repair surgery)
Out — Kristaps Porziņģis(not with team)

No news on either of these three, which is probably a good thing at this point.

Probable — Charles Bassey (left toe soreness)

Bassey has been huge for the Warriors so far this season, especially in the past few games. So it’s a big win that he’s likely good to go for this game.

Spurs

Out — Tobias Harris (left calf strain)

Harris is playing for his sixth team in his 16th NBA season, but has yet to make his season debut after injuring his calf during training camp.

Out — Jayden Quaintance (right knee surgery)

Quaintance was the Spurs first-round pick in June’s draft, taken 20th overall. Unfortunately, a knee injury has kept him from making his NBA debut, and it will likely be quite a while before he’s cleared.

Questionable — Devin Vassell (left adductor tightness)

Vassell, as consistent as they get, has been having his typical strong season thus far. But after playing in San Antonio’s first 10 games, he’s missed the last two with injury … and could miss a third.

Questionable — De’Aaron Fox (left hip soreness)

Wembanyama is the star of the Spurs, but Fox is often still their motor, thanks to his ball-handling, playmaking, and incredible speed. Fox is having another strong season after making the All-Star Game a year ago, and the Warriors will be given quite a gift if he’s unable to play.

Enjoy the game, everyone. It tips off at 6:30 p.m. PT.

The Golden State Warriors continue their road trip with Friday night’s NBA Cup matchup against the San Antonio Spurs. The game will be played at 6:30 PM PT in San Antonio and can be watched on Prime Video.

Previously with the Warriors:

Golden State’s eight-game winning streak came to an end Wednesday night following a 115-108 loss to the Houston Rockets. However, the result took a backseat to a much bigger concern after superstar Steph Curry suffered an oblique injury in the first quarter that forced him to miss the remainder of the game.

Despite losing their best player early, the Warriors still managed to put up a strong fight against Houston. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg continued his impressive start to the season, going toe-to-toe with Rockets superstar Kevin Durant at times while leading Golden State with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Brandin Podziemski provided some much-needed scoring support, finishing with 22 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, including four three-pointers.

What to watch for tonight:

The biggest storyline heading into Friday night is Curry’s injury and what it means for Golden State moving forward. The Warriors announced Thursday that their superstar guard suffered an oblique abdominal tear and will be reevaluated in two weeks, leaving the team without its offensive engine for tonight’s game and the foreseeable future.

In years past, an extended absence for Curry would have been a devastating blow to Golden State’s chances of winning. While that still may be true, the emergence of Lendeborg as a legitimate scoring threat and head coach Steve Kerr’s revamped offensive system has this year’s Warriors thinking they are much better equipped to weather the storm.

That confidence will be put to the test Friday night against a San Antonio team that enters the matchup with a 10-2 record, the second-best mark in the Western Conference. Wednesday’s performance against Houston offered a glimpse of what the Warriors can accomplish without their superstar, but sustaining that level of play will be a tall task, especially against a Spurs team led by reigning Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama. With Curry sidelined, Golden State will need Lendeborg to build on his impressive rookie campaign, which has seen him average 21.7 points per game on 51.8% shooting from the field, while the team continues its stellar play defensively.

Enjoy the game Dub Nation. GO WARRIORS!!!

Projected Starters

Warriors: Brandin Podziemski, De’Anthony Melton, Yaxel Lendeborg, Gui Santos, Draymond Green

Spurs: De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, Victor Wembanyama

How to watch Regular Season Game 13

Who: Golden State Warriors (8 – 4) vs. San Antonio Spurs (10 – 2)

When: Friday, November 13th, at 6:30 p.m. PT

Where: Frost Bank Center — San Antonio, Texas

TV and Streaming: Prime Video

Victor Wembanyama gives blunt three-word response to Draymond Green's shove originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Victor Wembanyama did not need much to describe Draymond Green’s shove. Asked about the Warriors veteran’s Flagrant 1 foul, the San Antonio Spurs star answered in three words.

“It’s not surprising,” Wembanyama said.

Green was called for a Flagrant 1 foul with 6:47 left in the second quarter of the Warriors’ 123-85 loss to the Spurs in NBA Cup play Friday night, after a forearm shove from behind off a running start sent Wembanyama tumbling out of bounds. Officials ruled it included a “wind up” by Green. Golden State trailed 45-22 at the time and was playing without Steph Curry.

The flagrant was Green’s first of the season, and it came less than two weeks after he was ejected against the Phoenix Suns for two technical fouls during a scuffle with Dillon Brooks.

Asked about preparing for more physicality from players like Green, Wembanyama sounded unbothered.

“I feel very secure, I know I have to be smart. It’s not a good basketball strategy and it shows,” Wembanyama said.

The Spurs have not lost since dropping their first two games, winning their 11th straight behind a season-high 32 points from Stephon Castle. Wembanyama finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds in 21 minutes, and Green finished with four points, three rebounds and three assists in 16 minutes.

Three words from Wembanyama said all he needed to about Green, and the scoreboard said the rest.

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What we learned as Darius Acuff Jr. cools off in Kings' loss to Trail Blazers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SACRAMENTO — The losing streak continued for the hapless Sacramento Kings. 

The Kings dropped their second game of the Emirates NBA Cup on Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers, 120-107, and their fifth straight overall to drop to 1-11. Only the 1-12 Utah Jazz have a worse record.

The Blazers opened a 20-point lead early in the fourth quarter which drew boos from the home crowd at Golden 1 Center. Rookie guard Darius Acuff Jr. cut the lead to nine midway through the frame with a 3-pointer to give the crowd some life down the stretch.

But Portland received 34 points from forward Deni Avdija, including 14 in the fourth quarter, and 29 from star point guard Damian Lillard as the two combined to shoot 9 of 18 from 3-point range to improve to 9-3 on the season.

Hunter Leads the Way

Forward De’Andre Hunter led the Kings with 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting. He had 20-plus points for the first time since posting back-to-back 24-point outings Oct. 27 and 29.

Hunter played a team-high 41:31 and made 8 of 9 free throws. He’s been one of Sacramento’s steadiest players throughout the season and could garner interest on the NBA trade market. He has a $24.9 million expiring salary that could be of interest to a contender needing size and on the wing. 

He finished Friday 2 of 5 from distance, improving to 37 percent on the season.

Sabonis Gets Back to Filling Up the Stat Sheet

Domantas Sabonis was coming off one of the worst statistical games of his NBA career Tuesday when he went scoreless in 24 minutes during the 107-100 loss to the Orlando Magic. He went 0-for-2 from the floor with his first shot not coming until the fourth quarter. 

But he came out aggressive early on Friday, finishing the first quarter with eight points, six rebounds and three assists, including a nifty behind-the-head pass to Keegan Murray for a fast-break layup. He was aggressive throughout, finishing with 21 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.

It was Sabonis’ eighth double-double of the season, highlighted by a dunk in traffic and 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. Sabonis battled Blazers big man Donovan Clingan, who scored 13 points with 11 rebounds.

Murray’s Return to the Starting Lineup

Forward Keegan Murray was back in the starting five for the first time since the second game of the season before missing seven games with left ankle capsulitis.

Murray had his best game of the young season with a season-high 16 points, while adding seven rebounds and four assists. 

The fifth-year forward has gotten off to an uneven start to the season due to his injury after only appearing in four games all of last season, when he signed a five-year, $140 million contract.    

“Keegan’s a little bit stoic,” Kings coach Doug Christie said. “You know he’s just going to be a fantastic warrior for you through whatever it is. But for him, what I want is, I want joy. I want him to go out and have fun and play free. We’ve seen it a couple of times, we’ve seen it in flashes. But he deserves that. He’s a great kid, he works extremely hard. 

“… I know that sometimes it’s difficult when you start to get injuries and different things. Sometimes you question yourself a little bit, but he doesn’t need to question himself. He’s a damn good player. We value him very highly and he’ll see his way through it. It’s just those things unfortunately take time, but having him back in uniform is, like I told you guys previously, it makes me smile because I like to see him out there.”

Acuff’s Quiet Night That Got Loud Late

Acuff entered the fourth quarter with just seven points and was in danger of snapping his streak of 20-plus points at seven games. But he scored 10 points in the fourth, including a fast-break dunk, and two made threes. 

Acuff entered the fourth having played just 23 minutes with Christie tapping Malik Monk for 18 minutes throughout the game after Monk played just 3 on Tuesday. Acuff came into the game leading the NBA in minutes, with Christie noting recently he wanted to cut the rookie’s playing time down to ease his workload. 

The Blazers’ lengthy perimeter defenders, including Toumani Camara, Sidy Cissoko and Jrue Holiday, made things tough on the rookie, who shot just 6 of 19 on the night. 

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