Domantas Sabonis records historic triple-double in Sacramento Kings’ win over Toronto Raptors
Domantas Sabonis had a picture-perfect game to help the Sacramento Kings defeat the Toronto Raptors late Wednesday night.
The former Gonzaga men’s basketball standout finished with 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds. Sabonis went 6-of-6 from the field, 5-of-5 from the free-throw line and didn’t turn the ball over once in Sacramento’s 122-107 victory. With that, he became the first NBA player since 1977-78 to post a triple-double, go perfect from the field and the free-throw line and not commit a turnover — all in the same game.
“Domas, another triple-double; I feel like I’m saying that quite a bit,” Kings head coach Mike Brown said with a shrug after the game. “Big-time game from Domas.”
Wednesday marked Sabonis’ fourth triple-double of the season and his NBA-leading 30th since the start of the 2023-24 campaign. He’s also recorded a double-double in each of Sacramento’s past seven games, which included a game-winning putback layup from Sabonis to help down the Miami Heat in the final seconds of a thrilling interconference matchup earlier this week.
More importantly for Sabonis, though, his team has now won five of its last six games after two close losses to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers to start the season. The Kings (5-3) went 3-1 on their last road that took it them to Utah, Atlanta, Toronto and Miami. The 15-point win over the Raptors at Golden 1 Center avenged Sacramento’s only loss on its road trip.
“We knew we should been playing a bit better all game but they’re a very scrappy team and talented,” Sabonis said. “They’re playing a way that’s really hard to guard for other teams and in that fourth quarter, we just kind of locked in defensively and that’s what led to easy points.”
After a back-and-forth affair through three quarters, the Kings finally took control of the game in the fourth quarter with an 11-4 scoring burst to start the period. DeMar DeRozan came up big down the stretch, as the 35-year-old veteran scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, going 5-of-5 from the field in the process, to help Sacramento outscore the visitors, 33-14, in the final period. DeRozan finished with a team-high 27 points.
“Obviously, DeMar down the stretch, he closed it for us,” Brown said. “It was great to see him getting to his spot and letting him go to work.”
“As long as we keep getting wins, let’s just keep playing this way,” Sabonis said. “I think the best part of today is that we played 33 minutes so, that’s good.”
Sabonis, who finished second in the association in minutes played last season (2,928) while starting in all 82 games, will look to keep his ironman streak up when the Kings host the Los Angeles Clippers (4-4) on Friday.
Former Zag Kelly Olynyk was out for Wednesday’s game. The Canadian big man has yet to suit up this season while dealing with a back strain and could be out for a few more weeks, according to his head coach Darko Rajakovic.
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