Anfernee Simons scored 31 points and made seven 3-pointers to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 103-88 victory over the visiting Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.
Jusuf Nurkic contributed 14 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists for Portland, which won for just the second time in its past eight games and fifth in its last 21 outings. Nassir Little and Ben McLemore added 13 points apiece for Portland.
Tyrese Haliburton recorded 17 points and nine assists and Alex Len added 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Kings. De’Aaron Fox scored 14 points, Harrison Barnes had 13 and Buddy Hield tallied 10 for Sacramento, which has lost four straight games and 12 of 17.
The Trail Blazers were without their top three guards after placing Norman Powell on the COVID-19 list prior to the contest. Star Damian Lillard (abdomen) sat out his fourth straight game and CJ McCollum (lung) missed his 15th in a row.
Simons was 10 of 17 from the field, including 7 of 11 from 3-range, and also registered six assists.
Simons scored 15 consecutive Portland points in the fourth quarter over a span of 6:11 to help his team finish off the wire-to-wire victory.
The Trail Blazers shot 42 percent from the field, including 17 of 40 from 3-point range.
Sacramento connected on 38.8 percent of its field-goal attempts and made 7 of 31 from behind the arc.
Simons had 13 first-half points as Portland led 53-40 at the break.
Simons knocked down a 3-pointer to push the Trail Blazers’ lead to 63-48 with 8:16 left in the third quarter.
Later in the period, Tony Snell buried a trey to make it 80-61 with 1:44 remaining.
Portland’s lead was 82-67 entering the final stanza, and the Blazers increased the lead to 20 when Simons connected from 3-point range to make it 90-70 with 7:19 remaining.
Sacramento made a dash by scoring 10 of the next 12 points to cut its deficit to 12. But Simons scored five points over the next 25 seconds to make it 97-80 with 4:12 remaining.
Simons finished his personal scoring run with a 3-pointer with 2:57 left. Robert Covington drained a 3-pointer to make it 103-84 with 1:54 left and Portland finished off the triumph.
–Field Level Media