Kings Collapse in 132-96 Home Loss to Mavericks

The Sacramento Kings fell apart in Tuesday's home matchup against Dallas.

Luka Doncic (77, Dallas Mavericks), against De'Aaron Fox (5, Sacramento Kings). Dante Exum (0). / Ezra Shaw/GettyImages

The Sacramento Kings went into Tuesday's matchup against the Dallas Mavericks tied for sixth place in the Western Conference, with none other than the Mavericks. The pressure of getting the advantage over Dallas with the season winding down must have gotten to the Kings, as Sacramento utterly collapsed on Tuesday night, taking a 36-point loss in Golden 1 Center.

The Mavericks were led by Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and Tim Hardaway Jr., combining for 74 points and 20 assists. Dallas was lights out from all three levels, shooting 55.4% from the field and 56.4% from deep. While this is partly due to the Mavericks effectively hitting their shots, the Kings did an inexcusable job of letting Dallas get the shots they wanted.

The Kings had few bright spots in Tuesday's loss, but Keegan Murray was one of them. Murray dropped 17 points on 6-11 shooting while being the only effective defender on the court. Sacramento's star duo of De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis shot a combined 9-28 for 30 points. Sabonis nearly notched a triple-double with 11 rebounds and nine assists, while extending his historic double-double streak to 55 games.

Despite losing by six at halftime, the Kings got outscored by 31 in the second half, falling apart unexplainably. The Kings are now in seventh place in the West, as they would be in the Play-In Tournament if the season ended today. Sacramento can not afford to collapse in must-win games, as doing it in the wrong game could be the end of their season.

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