By Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO —The Kings faced the Toronto Raptors in the second game of a back to back pre-season matchup at Sleep Train Arena. It was another tightly contested pre-season matchup for most of 3 quarters before the Kings pulled away and defeated the Raptors 113-106 in front of 10,061 fans.

DeMarcus Cousins led the Kings with 19 points in 3 quarters of play.

The Raptors put up a fight scoring 30 in the fourth quarter taking advantage of several King’s turnovers.   DeMar DeRozan (25pts) and Kyle Lowry (23pts) led the charge for the Raptors.

Another impressive night for the King rookie Guard Nik Stauskas. Stauskas was 5 of six from the field and 2 for 2 from behind the 3 point line. Stauskas had 13 points total. Kings coach Michael Malone continues to be impressed by the rookie. “Even when Nik doesn’t have it, he has intelligence and feel for the game to make a play for someone else, very rarely does he force up a bad shot” said Malone following the game.

The coach was not impressed with the defensive effort however. “That’s another game where we gave up 30 points in the fourth quarter. Good offense, bad defense. “ Malone added.

The Kings turned the ball over 20 times and that led to 21 points for the Raptors. “We need to do a better job of valuing the basketball.” said Malone.

Up next the Kings head to the far east to Shanghai, China to face Brooklyn for a back to back series with the first game on Saturday, October 11^th. Game time is 9:30pm Pacific time. Interestingly, both Malone and Cousins referred to the games in China as a business trip.