NBA Recap of Wednesday's Win

Notebook: Kings 115, Wizards 107 Posted Wednesday February 22, 2012 11:29PM
By Rich Dubroff, for NBA.com
THE FACTS: Marcus Thornton and Isaiah Thomas combined for 34 of their 40 points in the second half, and the Sacramento Kings broke a six-game losing streak with a come-from-behind 115-107 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.

The Kings trailed by eight at halftime, but outscored Washington 55-39 in the second half. Sacramento took a 102-101 lead with 5:01 to play on Thomas' driving banker. The Kings closed the game with a 15-6 run.

Thornton ended with 22, and Thomas with 18. Tyreke Evans had 20 of his 22 points in the first half for Sacramento.

Jordan Crawford led the Wizards with a season-high 32 points. John Wall narrowly missed a triple-double with 21 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. Washington ended the first half of the season with a four-game losing streak.

QUOTABLE: "There was no defense out there. It was terrible."

-- Kings' DeMarcus Cousins.


THE STAT: Thornton and Thomas had six points in the first half -- 34 in the second. Evans and Cousins had 34 in the first half -- four in the second.
TURNING POINT: In the fourth quarter, Cousins and Evans didn't play at all. Sacramento coach Keith Smart played just five players in the fourth quarter: Thornton, Thomas, Jason Thompson, Chuck Hayes and Francisco Garcia.

QUOTABLE II: "They need to introduce themselves to some of the bigs that they never throw the ball to." -- Washington coach Randy Wittman.


HOT: Evans was 8-for-10 from the field, but watched his team's rally from the bench.

NOT: Nick Young was 6-for-23 and was criticized by Wittman for missing a reverse 360' layup in the first half. "Crowd oohed and aahed. We didn't get any points out of it," Wittman said. "Until we're committed to making winning basketball plays the whole game, it's going to look like that."

GOOD MOVE: Smart keeping Jimmer Fredette off the court in the second half. Crawford scored 15 points with Fredette guarding him in the second quarter.

BAD MOVE: Young kept firing up ill-advised shots in the second half. He was 2-for-11. "I didn't know I had that many shots," Young said. "I was just trying to get things going for my teammates."

NOTABLE: Both teams reached the All-Star break having played exactly half their schedule. Sacramento is 11-22 and Washington is 7-26.

IN THE ARENA: Many devotees of Fredette swelled the crowd to 17.085. It was Fredette's first game -- college or professional -- in Washington. He scored eight points in 12 minutes.

NEXT: For the Kings, Tuesday vs. Utah, Mar. 1 vs. L.A. Clippers, Mar. 2 @ L.A. Lakers. For the Wizards, Tuesday @ Milwaukee, Wednesday vs. Orlando, Mar. 3 vs. Cleveland.