National Basketball Association
Charlotte 99, Sacramento 85
When: 5:00 PM ET, Saturday, February 25, 2017
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California
Officials: #18 Matt Boland, #64 Justin VanDuyne, #48 Scott Foster
Attendance: 17608

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Charlotte Hornets haven't been doing a whole lot of winning recently. Coach Steve Clifford acknowledges there are plenty of reasons for that, but that his players' collective desire has not been one of them.

They reiterated that to him Saturday in a 99-85 matinee victory over the Sacramento Kings at the Golden 1 Center that snapped a five-game losing streak.

"One thing I'm proud of that sometimes the NBA can come up with a very tough scheduling situation," Clifford said. "To go from Detroit, which is three time zones over and to land here, then have to play a 2 p.m. game, that's about as tough as it gets. This shows that we have guys who want to win."

The Hornets (25-33) may have been fatigued from an overtime loss to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night and the cross-country trip to the West Coast, but it was hardly noticeable. They scored the first 12 points, surrendered the next 15, grabbed the lead right back and never let it go

"It was good the way we played," Hornets guard Marco Belinelli said. "Against Detroit, we didn't defend when it was most important. In this game, we were ready to play defense."

Frank Kaminsky scored 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to pace the Hornets, who won for only the second time in their past 14 overall and for the 11th time in their past 35. He made 9 of 18 shots, canned five 3-pointers and also helped stymie the Kings' pick-and-roll designs for center Willie Cauley-Stein.

"Frank was good," Clifford said. "And I thought Marco hit some big shots for us. Hopefully, we can turn this into a trend."

Kaminsky, the third-leading scorer among second-year players, Kaminsky is averaging 17.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists in his past nine games.

Marvin Williams added 16 points, Nicoas Batun scored 15 points, and Belinelli added 13 points with six assists for the Hornets, who fell a point shy of scoring 100 in regulation for the first time in four games despite shooting only 40 percent from the field.

The Kings, playing for the second time since trading Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans last Sunday, missed their first seven shots and didn't score for nearly 3 1/2 minutes in the first quarter. They had only 18 assists on 31 field goals, and posted only 40 first-half points, their third-worst mark of the season.

Sacramento hadn't been held to fewer than 86 points since scoring 81 in the final regular-season game of last season.

"We spent a lot of emotion ... on the game the other night," Kings coach Dave Joerger said. "This was a situation where you had a team that is a veteran a team, a very physical team, and they pushed us around the court most of the game with their sized and their experience at all positions."

Ben McLemore scored 18 points to pace the Kings, continuing a strong February. McLemore, who has endured an up-and-down four seasons with Sacramento, is averaging 13.0 points and shooting 45 percent from the field during the month. He's also making 51 percent of his 3-point attempts.

Buddy Hield, the focal point for the Kings in the Cousins trade, scored 15 points off the bench. Anthony Tolliver and Tyreke Evans each scored 11, and Darren Collison added 10.

But Cauley-Stein, two days after scoring a career-high 29 points with 10 rebounds in 35 minutes, tallied two points and two rebounds in 28 minutes against Charlotte. With Cauley-Stein rendered ineffective, the Kings were forced into an 11-for-28 performance from 3-point range.

"Teams are definitely going to start doing that now, playing the pick-and-roll where we're not getting layups or dunks," Cauley-Stein said. "They're going to challenge us from the 3-point line. Me personally, I've just got to find other ways to make an impact."

Skal Labissiere had a career-high 13 reounds for Sacramento, and also scored eight points.

NOTES: The Hornets left quickly for Los Angeles and a Sunday contest against the Los Angeles Clippers. Charlotte is in the middle of a stretch of five games in eight days against Western Conference teams. ... Kings F Arron Afflalo (hamstring) missed his second consecutive game. ... F Miles Plumlee (calf strain) missed his second straight game, and F Cody Zeller's absence continued, as well. Zeller (quadriceps soreness) missed five straight games and 12 of the last 13. ... Kings coach Dave Joerger hinted that rookie C George Papagiannis, the 13th overall pick in the 2016 draft, may get more minutes now that F/C DeMarcus Cousins has been traded. Papgiannis played 18 minutes in four games with the Kings. At Reno in the Developmental League, Papagiannis averaged 13.1 points and 8.3 rebounds in 19 games. ... The Kings trailed by 20 points in a game 16 times this season, fourth-most in the NBA.
Top Game Performances
 
Charlotte   Sacramento
Frank Kaminsky 23 Scoring Ben McLemore 18
Marco Belinelli 6 Assists Darren Collison 5
Frank Kaminsky 13 Rebounds Skal Labissiere 13
Nicolas Batum 6 Free Throws Made Tyreke Evans 3
Frank Kaminsky 2 Steals Darren Collison 1
Nicolas Batum 1 Blocks Willie Cauley-Stein 3
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Charlotte 99 40.0 14-38 17-18 26 50 3 10 11
Sacramento 85 39.2 11-28 12-15 18 41 6 3 14
Upcoming Games
  • Sacramento will play their next game at home against Minnesota. The Kings have a W/L % of .360 after a win and .471 after a loss.
  • Charlotte will play their next game on the road against LA Clippers. The Hornets have a W/L % of .542 after a win and .353 after a loss.