Indiana Pacers @ Sacramento Kings
Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 10:00 PM ET
Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA | Game ID: 22300583
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
SAC 31 26 32 32 121IND 34 36 29 27 126
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- — Bennedict Mathurin scored 25 points and the short-handed Indiana Pacers held off the Sacramento Kings 126-121 on Thursday night.
Indiana was without newly acquired forward Pascal Siakam , who had yet to join the team following a trade from Toronto, while fellow All-Star Tyrese Haliburton missed his fifth straight game because of a strained left hamstring.
Aaron Nesmith (shin) and Andrew Nembhard (back) also were out for the Pacers, and Isaiah Jackson left in the first quarter after taking a hit to the head.
“Big-time,” Mathurin said. “We were short a lot of guys on the team tonight. I feel like the guys who didn’t play as much the past couple of games pretty much stepped up.”
T.J. McConnell had 20 points and 10 assists to help Indiana win for the 10th time in 13 games. Myles Turner added 18 points and Jalen Smith had 17 points and 13 rebounds.
“McConnell set the tone,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “He was in the paint the entire first half and continued attacking it in the second. I thought Mathurin was terrific in the second half as well.”
Kevin Huerter had a career-high 31 points for Sacramento, making 7 of 12 3-pointers. Keegan Murray added 27 points and nine rebounds, but the Kings lost their fourth game in a row.
Domontas Sabonis had 21 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his third straight triple-double and his 12th of the season. De'Aaron Fox added 24 points.
“A loss like this, it should sting,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “I know that we can be a better defensive team than what we are. So it has to start there because at the end of the day, we’re going to figure out a way to score. We’ve just got to figure out a way to slow some of these teams down.”
The Pacers closed the first half on a 12-2 run to build a 70-57 lead.
Huerter answered with seven straight points to start the second half, cutting Indiana’s lead to 70-64.
The Pacers led 122-106 with 2:20 remaining, but the Kings staged a furious 15-2 run to climb within three with 32 seconds left.
Fox missed a potential tying 3 with seven seconds remaining. Following an offensive rebound, Malik Monk was fouled and missed both free throws.
“Obviously, you know they’re going to make a run,” Carlisle said. “But through all that, we made some mistakes, but everyone kept their poise, kept encouraging each other and we got out of here alive.”
Sacramento struggled at the free-throw line, going 18 for 32. Indiana made 15 of 19.
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
INDBH B. Hield
BM B. Mathurin
BS B. Sheppard
IJ I. Jackson
JS J. Smith
JW J. Walker
MT M. Turner
OT O. Toppin
TM T. McConnell
SACAL A. Len
AV A. Vezenkov
DF D. Fox
DS D. Sabonis
HB H. Barnes
KH K. Huerter
KM K. Murray
MM M. Monk
TL T. Lyles
IND/SAC the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur