NBA: Kings top Mavs in OT to spoil Doncic-Irving pair’s debut, Lakers beat Warriors

SACRAMENTO – De’Aaron Fox scored 14 of his 36 points in overtime to lead the Sacramento Kings to a 133-128 victory over the visiting Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night to spoil Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic’s first game together.

Irving was acquired from the Brooklyn Nets earlier in the week

and Doncic missed the previous four games – including Irving’s first two – due to a heel injury.

Not that National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player candidate Doncic was too disappointed. The 23-year-old Slovenian was quoted by ESPN as saying: “It’s only our first game together, but it’s so fun to play with this guy.

“He’s an amazing basketball player, and I think it’s going to be really fun. First game, it was really fun.”

Domantas Sabonis recorded 22 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out and Terence Davis tallied 22 points off the bench, as Sacramento won for the third time in the past four NBA games. Kevin Huerter scored all 15 of his points in the second half, Trey Lyles added 14 points and Harrison Barnes had 13 for the Kings.

Irving had 28 points and seven assists for Dallas, and Doncic added 27 points and nine rebounds in the first contest of their highly anticipated pairing.

Said Dallas coach Jason Kidd: “For the first time for those guys to play minutes together, I thought it was really, really good. It was just natural, nothing forced. I thought this was a great game for us, as much as we’d like to be on the winning side.”

Irving, meanwhile, insisted that the pairing of two ball-dominant players in the Dallas backcourt is not an issue. He said: “The biggest asset I have is just being able to be fluid... and adapt to any situation that they throw me in role-wise.

“Point guard, playing on the ball, I’ve played with guys who have really been ball dominant. So it’s nothing new, but I think it’s just a figuring-out process that takes time.”

Josh Green scored 23 points and Christian Wood added 15 for the Mavericks, who had a three-game winning streak halted.

Meanwhile, Rui Hachimura hit two key hoops down the stretch, joining fellow newcomers D’Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt in double-figure scoring as Los Angeles held off hosts Golden State 109-103 in San Francisco.

Dennis Schroder had a team-high 26 points and Anthony Davis put up a 13-point, 16-rebound double-double with three blocks for the Lakers, who snapped a three-game losing streak. The Lakers moved within 2½ games of the ninth-seeded Warriors in the tightly bunched Western Conference play-off race.

LeBron James sat out his second straight game with a sore left foot. Stephen Curry missed his third in a row with an injured left knee. Jordan Poole totalled 29 points for the Warriors, including the team’s first 17 in the fourth quarter.

In their earlier match-up on Friday, Dallas beat the Kings 122-114 in a game where they never trailed.

It was different on Saturday, as Fox scored back-to-back baskets to give the Kings a 121-117 lead with 2:53 left in overtime. Irving then scored seven of Dallas’ next nine points and pulled his team within 127-126 with a three-pointer with 24.6sec remaining.

Fox made two free throws with 18.4sec left to give Sacramento a three-point edge. Doncic missed a three-pointer with 14sec to go and Fox helped the Kings put the game away by sinking four more free throws.

Dallas’ franchise player later suggested he should have deferred to Irving instead, saying: “It’s my bad. Should have gave it back to Ky.

“For me, it’s still a learning process. But for sure, I should have gave it back. He was really hot down the stretch, so that was on me, for sure.” REUTERS