By Matthew T.F. Harrington

photo credit: thebeast980.com Sac Kings DeMarcus Cousins

The Sacramento Kings had a memorable regulation performance Monday night in Charlotte, but the good feelings evaporated in the overtime period. With DeMarcus Cousins on the bench with back stiffness in the final minutes of regulation, Rajon Rondo connected with Rudy Gay on a buzzer beating inbounds alley-oop to tie the contest at 112-all. Bay Area native Jeremy Lin scored 8 of 15 Hornet points in overtime, while the Cousins-less Kings (5-10) only scored 10 to fall to Charlotte 127-122. T

The Kings led by 11 at 108-97 with just over 5 minutes left in the game after Cousins hit a free throw. That would be the last point the Kings star would score in the contest, exiting the game with 30 points and back pain. From there Hornets guard Kemba Walker performed his trademark clutch run to lead Charlotte (8-6) to the win.

Walker and Nicolas Batum scored 13 of the remaining 15 Hornets points while the Kings managed only two field goals capped by Walker driving to the hoop for a 110-108 lead with .7 seconds left in the game. The Hornets scored 38 points in the fourth quarter to erase a 91-74 deficit after three quarters.

Despite the early exit, Cousins still pieced together a monster effort. The Kings talent notched a double-double with 30 points and 11 rebounds over 30 minutes of play. Rondo collected his 7^th 20 assist game of the season for the league lead and came a pair of rebounds short of the triple-double with 14 points. Gay had 28 points for the Kings, including the game-tying jam with .7 seconds left in the game.

The Kings continue their five-game roadtrip with a stop in Milwaukee for a showdown with the Bucks on the eve of Thanksgiving. By then they’ll know if they’ll be without the services of Cousins as the season progresses, though for the moment it appears Cousins won’t miss significant time. A win against the Bucks would be Sacramento 2-3 since last playing at Sleep Train Arena.