Kings Heroic Efforts Fall Short in Battle with the Nuggets

The Sacramento Kings closed out their four-game road trip in a battle to the end with the Denver Nuggets, falling 110-116.

This game, especially the second half and even more so the fourth quarter, was a battle indeed. It got physical on both ends, with neither team backing down. But as the game got tighter, the Kings offense struggled to get any flow.

They went to DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine down the stretch to carry the offense, and it almost worked, but the Kings fell just short of a perfect road-trip.

DeRozan finished the night with 35 points and 5 assists while LaVine had 20 points and 6 assists. They both shot 43.8% from the field and DeRozan made 4-of-6 threes while LaVine made 3-of-7.

What's even more impressive is the types of shots they were taking. The Nuggets were draped all over them, literally in some cases, with whistled may or not having been involved. But the two All-Stars made the tough shots to keep the Kings in the game.

The problem was that everything for the Nuggets looked easy. They were able to get to the line, get to the rim, and run their offense to perfection for easy looks.

The Kings denied Nikola Jokić and doubled him, but as we've seen before, he was able to set up his teammates when the game was on the line. Russell Westbrook led the Nuggets in scoring, carving up the Kings all night and getting the basket with ease. When the Kings offense slowed to a stop, the Nuggets offense took off.

The hard part to stomach is how great the Kings offense looked early in this game. They had 21 assists through three quarters, but had just one in the final frame.

Kings Assists by Quarter
1st: 9
2nd: 4
3rd: 8
4th: 1
— Will Z. Stats (@will_zimmerle) March 6, 2025

It makes sense that the Kings struggled to move the ball, as their two main distributors in Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk missed the game with injuries. They lead the team with 6.2 and 6.1 assists per game, leaving Sacramento just over 12 assists to make up for.

It was a game the Kings could have had, but would have been an extremely impressive win. At this point of the season though, every game hurts, especially the close ones.

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