De’Aaron Fox top-scored for the Sacramento Kings in his first game back from an ankle sprain that kept him sidelined for five games as they took care of the Cleveland Cavaliers 132-120 to improve to 5-4 on the year.
Fox played 36 minutes in his return finishing with 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting to go along with six assists.
He was one of four Kings to finish with 20-plus points joining Domantas Sabonis (23 points, nine rebounds, 10 assists), Keegan Murray (25 points, eight rebounds), and Kevin Huerter (20 points, 6-of-9 from three).
Bulgarian rookie Sasha Vezenkov added 11 points on 3-of-5 from deep off the bench whilst Malik Monk put up 13 points and four assists.
The Kings took an eight-point edge into the half before their lead ballooned out to 21 courtesy of a third-quarter explosion led largely by Huerter (14 points, 4-of-4 from three) and Murray (10 points, 2-of-3 from three).
Sacramento hit on 20 of their 42 three-point attempts on the night whilst holding Cleveland to under 50 per cent from the floor (45-of-91) and to just two fastbreak points.
Cleveland, who fall to 4-6 on the year, were led by Caris LeVert’s 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting whilst Max Strus put up 19 points on 5-of-9 from behind the arc.
Backcourt duo Donovan Mitchell (22 points, 7-of-21 shooting) and Darius Garland (16 points, 5-of-14 shooting) struggled for much of the night whilst Jarrett Allen had 12 points and nine rebounds but finished a game-worst -25.
The Cavs are in Portland on Thursday whilst the Kings face the Lakers in Los Angeles tomorrow in the second night of a back-to-back.
