PHOENIX – Kevin Durant hit two free throws with 1.8 seconds left, as the Phoenix Suns came roaring back to beat the Sacramento Kings 119-117 on Tuesday night.
Grayson Allen tied a franchise record with nine 3-pointers and scored 29 points for the Suns, who trailed 113-96 before closing out the game with a 23-4 run. Durant finished with 27 points, then tried to explain how the Suns rebounded.
“I have no idea,” Durant said. “Normally I know how the game is going, but I felt like it was a blur. Everything happened so fast. I think we were all in a closed area.
“They're a team that likes to play a free-wheeling offense, so when you can disrupt it they turn into a different team. We put pressure on (Domantas) Sabonis a little more. We switched a lot of screens and made them play 1.” “on-1.”
The Suns are only the second team in the past 25 seasons to overcome a deficit of 20 or more points over the final eight minutes of the fourth quarter, joining the Kings over the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2020, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Devin Booker scored 16 points and 11 assists, Bradley Beal added 13 points and Jusuf Nurkic scored 10 points and grabbed 15 rebounds for Phoenix.
The Kings led by 22 points with 8:22 left, but Durant came back with a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Eric Gordon later made back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the score at 115. He scored 13 points off the bench.
“We stayed in it. We stayed in the fight mentally,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “There were a lot of moments where our guys were struggling and frustrated, and we were getting kicked.
“We saw firsthand that modern NBA teams never get out of a game. We looked at small lineups. We were playing with five 3-pointers. We finally got Eric in there and he hit some big 3s. All those guys really stepped up.” “
Durant's free throws with 30 seconds left in the game gave the Suns a 117-115 lead, their first since the score was 3-2. De'Aaron Fox, who led all scorers with 33 points, tied it with a jumper with 19 seconds left. But then he fouled Durant, who was attempting a long jump. After his free throws, the Kings' last-second shot was long.
Sabonis scored his 11th hat trick of the season with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. It was his 23rd straight game with double figures in at least two columns and his 36th double-double in the league this season.
“It's a tough way to lose. Give them credit,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “We played a good 42 minutes. In the last six minutes, we made some tough shots at the rim. We couldn't score from the rim instead of continuing to move the ball and move bodies. Everything was really stagnant. We shifted the goal to the rim.” The ball is over.
“We didn't have any speed in the half-court, we were holding the ball too much. We have to figure that out. Hopefully that's something we can learn from.”
Keegan Murray scored 18 points, Sasha Vezenkov added 14, and Malik Monk finished with 13 points and eight assists for Sacramento, which has lost three straight games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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