By Charlie O. Mallonee

Sacramento – The Sacramento Kings opened their final season in the Sleep Train Arena with a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers 111-104 on Wednesday night. The Clippers – led by forward Blake Griffin – appeared to be headed to a relatively easy victory until the Kings fought their way back into the game in the fourth quarter.

The Kings trailed the Clippers by as many as 15 points in the game. The Kings took their first lead in the game with 6:51 to play on a Rudy Gay jump shot. The lead seasawed back and forth until Los Angeles went on a “mini” six point run that put the game out of reach for the Kings.

The game took on a playoff atmosphere as the sellout crowd did all they could to urge their team to an opening night victory. In the end, the Kings began their run too late to overcome the very talented Clippers squad.

Kings

The Kings were expected to rely more on outside shooting under the leadership of George Karl. Instead, the game became a battle in the paint in the first half. It continued to be a game dominated by play in the paint until the Kings began to find their outside shooting range in the fourth quarter. Sacramento scored 48 points in the paint to just 36 for the Clippers.

The Kings finished the game shooting .436 from the floor (41-for-94). Sacramento shot just .350 from the field in the first quarter.

Sacramento shot .458 (11-for-24) from beyond the 3-point arc with eight of those 3-pointers coming in the second half.

The team did not shoot well from the free throw line which is surprising because the Kings are known as an excellent shooting team from the stripe. The Kings went 11-for-18 (.611) from the free throw line. The limited number of trips to the foul line may also be of concern to coach George Karl.

It appeared that the Kings might do themselves in with turnovers. They committed 10 turnovers in the first half. The team tightened up its play and committed just six turnovers in the second half.

Sacramento finished the game with 24 assists – just one off the goal George Karl has set for the team of 25 per game.

The Kings out-rebounded the Clippers 49-42.

DeMarcus Cousins led the Kings in scoring with 32 points. Cousins also grabbed 13 rebounds to make it a double-double performance.

Rudy Gay scored 16 points. Darren Collison put up 13 points to go with six assists. Kosta Koufos scored 10 points, Marco Belinelli recored nine points, Omri Casspi scored 5 and Rajon Rondo 5.

Belinelli dished out seven assists while Rondo added four of his own.

Coach Karl used 11 players in the game in varying configurations. Several times the Kings went with a three guard look.

Clippers

The key the Los Angeles victory was their shooting. The Clippers shot .525 (42-for-80) from the field and .316 (6-for-19) from beyond the 3-point line.

The Clippers were led by Blake Griffin’s 33 points. Griffin seemed to be able to score at will in the first half. He scored 20 of his 33 points in the first half.

Guards Chris Paul and JJ Redick combined for 33 points. Paul scored 18 and made it a double-double night by adding in 11 assists. Redick put up 15 points shooting 5-for-11 in the game.

Center DeAndre Jordan played much of the game in foul trouble but managed to score eight points and grab 12 rebounds. Jordan also added in four blocked shots.

Jamal Crawford (11 points) and Paul Pierce (12 points) played significant minutes coming off the bench.

What they had to say after the game

“I liked the flow of the whole game except for the first quarter,” said Kings head coach George Karl. “The first quarter we had seven turnovers and not much pace. They are a very good basketball team that knows how to win close games.”

“We didn’t play great,” explained Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. “We made a lot of turnovers, unforced errors, but it was like a team win. We bring Paul (Pierce) in, he makes a shot. We take him out. We put Austin (Rivers) in, he makes a steal. Come out of a timeout and DJ (DeAndre Jordan) gets the dunk. That’s how you want to win really. Execution is very important and we did that tonight.”

“I think it was a good thing for us. We talked about it a lot and that we still got to figure some things out. We have to figure out our identity, the new faces and stuff like that but at the end of the day you have to win and figure it out at the same time,” said Clippers guard Chris Paul.

Up next

The Clippers traveled back to Los Angeles where they will play their home opener on Thursday night versus the Dallas Mavericks.

The Kings have Thursday off and will return to action on Friday night when they host the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Kings and Clippers will face off again on Saturday night in Los Angeles.