by Charlie O. Mallonee

The San Antonio Spurs (35-23) broke out of a four game losing streak on Friday night beating the Kings (20-35) in Sacramento 107-96.

The Kings played without two of their starters – DeMarcus Cousins and Darren Collison – who were sidelined due to injuries. The Kings are now just 2-11 when Cousins does not play.

The Spurs led the Kings 80-78 after three quarters. It took three minutes and five seconds into the fourth period for either team to score. When the scoring began, the scales tipped toward the Spurs who scored 18 points off eight Kings’ turnovers. San Antonio outscored Sacramento 27-18 in the final quarter.

“The basketball IQ in the fourth quarter – I’m not saying it was bad – it wasn’t good,” explained Kings Head Coach George Karl after the game.

The Kings had no assists in the fourth quarter and were outrebounded 11-8. Sacramento committed nine personal fouls to just four personals for San Antonio.

“They’re a team that knows how to win games. They’ve been frustrated, and I think they played with an urgency. It was pretty much the class of a championship team,” summarized Karl.

Tony Parker led the Spurs scoring attack with 19 points. Kawhi Leonard scored 17 points, Manu Ginobili 16 and Tim Duncan added 12.

The Spurs shot just 39.8-percent (35 for 88) from the field and hit eight of 23 attempts (34.8-percent) from downtown. They were 29 of 32 (90.6-percent) from the free throw line. San Antonio recorded 18 assists and turned the ball over just six times.

Ben McLemore led the Kings in scoring with 21 points. He went five for eight from the floor and 10 for 12 from the charity stripe.

Ray McCallum scored 20 hitting on 10 of 17 field goal attempts. Rudy Gay added 16 points.

Jason Thompson had a strong night on defense and stepped up to score 12 points while grabbing 11 rebounds to record the double-double. Andre Miller had a 10 point game.

Sacramento shot 48.1-percent (38 for 79) from the floor. They attempted just four 3-point shots and were successful just once. The Kings were 19 for 23 (82.6-percent) from the foul line.

“In general, I thought how we played was very good. We ran better. We ran more often. The spacing and tempo of the game was pretty good. We just didn’t finish plays – didn’t make good decisions,” said Karl.

The Kings are now 1-1 on this three game homestand. The homestand comes to an end on Sunday afternoon when the Kings host the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Trail Blazers defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 115-112 on Friday night.

The Kings are hoping that center DeMarcus Cousins will be available on Sunday versus the Blazers. Cousins sat out the Spurs game due to a left ankle sprain and left hip contusion suffered in the Memphis game on Wednesday.

Darren Collison is headed to Philadelphia to be evaluated on Monday with surgery on his right hip flexor probable on Tuesday.

The Kings are now 2-2 under George Karl as head coach.

Sacramento will face the Spurs for the fourth and final time next Wednesday evening in San Antonio. The Kings play the Knicks in New York City on Tuesday.