SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Kings nearly let the game get away from them in the third quarter, but De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton took over in the fourth.
Fox recorded his first double-double of the season, leading the Kings to a 125-115 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night at Golden 1 Center. Fox posted 24 points and 10 assists for the Kings (3-1), who beat the Nuggets for the second time in seven days.
Richaun Holmes scored 20 points on 10-of-13 shooting for Sacramento. Marvin Bagley III added 18 points, all in the first half. Harrison Barnes put up 13 points, a career-high eight assists and six rebounds.
Rookie first-round draft pick Haliburton had a big game off the bench, finishing with 13 points and six assists. He was especially good in the fourth quarter, contributing eight points and five assists in the final frame. Nemanja Bjelica and Buddy Hield had 12 points apiece for the Kings, who haven’t gone 3-1 to start a season since 2014-15.
Nikola Jokic posted another triple-double for the Nuggets (1-2), who were on the second night of a back-to-back after beating the Houston Rockets on Monday night in Denver. Jokic had 26 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds. Michael Porter Jr. had 30 points and 10 rebounds.
Sacramento fell behind 12-7 in the opening minutes, but after a slow start the Kings began to improve their tempo. Bagley cut to the basket for a layup from Fox, Hield drained a transition 3-pointer from the left wing and then Bagley put a pretty move on Paul Milsap, spinning inside for another basket.
Denver had a five-point lead early in the second period, but 3-pointers by Haliburton, Bjelica and Hield fueled a 9-1 run that put the Kings up 41-38. Bagley closed with a flourish to finish the first half with 18 points, helping the Kings carry a 74-62 lead into the break.
The Kings couldn’t maintain that momentum in the third quarter. The Nuggets blitzed them with a 21-3 run to take an 85-81 lead on a 3-pointer by Porter. The Kings fell behind by as many as 10 before battling back to cut the deficit to four going into the fourth quarter.
Denver went up by seven early in the fourth, but then the Kings began to play with a sense of urgency, imploring each other to push the pace. Fox hit a step-back 3-pointer to spark a 22-3 run that was capped by Haliburton’s 3-point bomb from 29 feet.
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MURRAY RULED OUT
Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray was not listed on the team’s injury report earlier in the day, but he was ruled out with a right elbow contusion shortly before game time.
Murray had 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting in 31 minutes in Monday’s 124-111 victory over the Rockets. He struggled in a season-opening loss to the Kings last week, finishing with nine points after going 1 of 9 from the field and 0 of 5 from 3-point range.
Murray is coming off a career year after averaging 18.5 points, 4.8 assists and 4.0 rebounds in 2019-20. The Kings did a fairly good job defensively against Murray in three games against the Nuggets last season, holding him to 15.3 points per game on 15-of-40 (.375) shooting.
