Sacramento Kings (20-39) at San Antonio Spurs (45-14), 8:30 p.m. (ET)

 

The Sports Network

The San Antonio Spurs will try to get back on track after an uncharacteristically bad home loss this week when they welcome the Sacramento Kings to the Alamo City.

The Spurs dropped an overtime game to the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night, 105-101. San Antonio lost an 18-home winning streak with a defeat to a team who is just 7-24 outside of Phoenix.

"They played better in a lot of different areas and we didn't play well," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. "Give Phoenix credit, they haven't been winning a lot of games. They deserved to win the game."

The setback to the Suns, whom the Spurs beat by 10 in Phoenix on Sunday, was San Antonio's first loss at the AT&T Center since Nov. 19 against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Jermaine O'Neal grabbed a missed free-throw from Manu Ginobili with 3.7 seconds remaining and hit Wesley Johnson with a perfect football pass. Johnson then drained a tying 3-pointer.

"I think overall we made a lot of mental errors, especially on that last play on the free-throw line when Johnson went all the way down the court and wasn't picked up," said Popovich. "That cost us the game."

The Spurs didn't make a single field-goal in overtime, going 0-for-10.

After their long rodeo road trip that spanned much of February, the Spurs have 12 of their next 14 in San Antonio.

The Kings will end a five-game road trip on Friday night. Their trek through the south has seen them go 1-3, but that one victory came in the last outing.

Sacramento thrashed the Orlando Magic, 125-101, on Wednesday night. Any 24- point road victory is impressive, even if it's against the Magic, but that one was really remarkable.

On Tuesday, the Kings took the surging Miami Heat to two overtimes before falling. Less than 24 hours later, after five Kings played 40-plus minutes, and John Salmons tallied over 50 points, they blew out the Magic immediately.

The Kings won the first quarter by 14, the second quarter by nine and the third by seven. Add it up and the Kings were 30 ahead after 36 minutes.

"These past two nights probably have been the best basketball we played all season," said DeMarcus Cousins. "When we play this way, (we are) a tough team to beat."

Salmons led the Kings against the Magic with 21 points, but only played a little over 22 minutes. Six other Sacramento players scored in double figures and the Kings shot 55 percent from the field.

The Spurs have won four straight over the Kings, including two this season. San Antonio has owned Sacramento in recent history with 25 wins in the last 28 meetings. The Kings are 2-13 in their last 15 in the Alamo City.

Read more Basketball Wires stories from the Miami Herald

Get your Miami Heat Fan Gear!

Join the
Discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

The Miami Herald uses Facebook's commenting system. You need to log in with a Facebook account in order to comment. If you have questions about commenting with your Facebook account, click here.

Have a news tip? You can send it anonymously. Click here to send us your tip - or - consider joining the Public Insight Network and become a source for The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

Hide Comments

This affects comments on all stories.

Cancel OK

  • Videos

  • Quick Job Search

Enter Keyword(s) Enter City Select a State Select a Category