Kings Mount Furious Rally But Can’t Catch Streaking Suns - BullsClips's Dynasty

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Kings Mount Furious Rally But Can’t Catch Streaking Suns

Posted on June 1, 2011 at 06:41 PM.

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PHOENIX, Ariz. – The Sacramento Kings nearly became the first team to beat the Pheonix Suns behind their huge second half, but came up just short, falling 121-119 at US Airways Arena on Friday night.

It seemed as though it was going to be another comfortable win for Phoenix, as Kevin Durant led the charge with 22 of his 33 points in the first half and the Suns led by as many as 22 in the second quarter.

“My shot was falling tonight, simple and plain,” Durant told reporters following the close win. “It just seemed like the basket was ten times as big. That being said, we need to get better defensively as a unit, that second half was ridiculous, no excuse for letting them back in the game like we did.”

Phoenix shot an astounding 64.7% from the field, including 70% in the first quarter. Another offensive catalyst for Phoenix was point guard Mike Conley, who posted yet another double-double, notching another new career-high in assists with 18 and 17 points.

The second half was another story, as Sacramento outscored Phoenix 77-58 and had big production from Vince Carter (a team-high 32 points), Louis Williams (28 points), and Tim Duncan (19 points and five steals).

“We nearly had a fantastic comeback,” Sacramento Kings head coach Paul Westphal said following the disappointing loss Friday night. “But, all that happened tonight was that we lost. It doesn’t matter that we were close, all that matters is that it goes an an ‘L’ in the win-loss column. We lost tonight because of our first half. You can’t fall into that big of a hole and expect to win. Great second half effort, but on to the next one now.”

The Kings stormed back, and cut the Suns lead to just three points with 40.8 seconds remaining after a Shawn Marion dunk over Durant. It was a two-point game with 5.6 seconds left and after another of the Phoenix 18 turnovers, Sacramento had an opportunity to tie or win. Duncan was forced to shoot a deep three pointer from the top of the key, reminiscent of the shot he hit in the 2007 playoffs against the Suns, but this time it came up woefully short as time expired.

The Suns (8-0) travel to Staples Center Sunday at 5:30 p.m. MT for a rematch with Monta Ellis, Aaron Brooks and the struggling Lakers (1-8), whom they defeated 111-109 to open their home slate back on Oct. 29. Durant and Marcus Thornton led the way with 31 and 27 points respectively. The Kings, who fell to 5-3 on the season host Jason Kidd, Joakim Noah, Lamar Odom and the Detroit Pistons (5-4) tomorrow night.

Nov 12, 2010 - SAC at PHX
TEAM	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Sacramento Kings (5-3)	23	19	38	39	119
Pheonix Suns (8-0)	30	33	31	27	121

Sacramento Kings
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Louis Williams	23	10-18	2-6	6-7	0	3	1	0	3	28
Vince Carter	33	12-28	2-7	6-6	5	3	3	0	1	32
Shawn Marion	31	6-9	0-0	0-0	4	2	2	0	0	12
Tim Duncan	33	9-11	0-1	1-1	6	3	5	2	1	19
DeMarcus Cousins	30	4-9	0-0	0-2	9	3	2	0	1	8
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Ramon Sessions	18	2-4	0-0	6-6	5	2	0	0	1	10
Ronnie Brewer	10	0-5	0-0	0-0	2	1	0	0	0	0
Boris Diaw	13	1-2	1-1	0-0	1	1	1	0	1	3
Jeff Pendergraph	6	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Reggie Williams	6	2-4	0-1	1-1	1	0	0	0	1	5
Antoine Wright	3	1-3	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	2
J.J. Barea - DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
TEAM TOTALS		47-93	5-16	20-23	33	18	14	2	9	119

Pheonix Suns
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Mike Conley	24	8-10	0-0	1-1	3	18	1	0	3	17
Marcus Thornton	27	8-18	1-4	0-2	4	5	0	0	2	17
Kevin Durant	31	15-18	2-2	1-1	7	1	0	0	2	33
Dirk Nowitzki	31	11-20	1-3	3-3	7	0	0	0	3	26
Tyson Chandler	31	2-3	0-0	0-0	11	1	4	0	3	4
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Nick Young	14	2-3	1-1	0-0	0	2	0	0	1	5
Kirk Hinrich	17	1-4	0-1	0-0	1	4	1	1	3	2
Omer Asik	6	2-2	0-0	0-0	1	1	1	0	1	4
Thabo Sefalosha	5	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Brandon Bass	14	6-7	0-0	1-1	1	0	1	0	0	13
James Jones	6	0-0	0-0	0-0	3	1	0	0	0	0
Daniel Gibson - DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
TEAM TOTALS		55-85	5-11	6-8	38	33	8	1	18	121