De’Aaron Fox scored 34 points and the Sacramento Kings kept Luka Doncic relatively quiet while notching a 120-115 victory over the host Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night.
Harrison Barnes scored 20 points and Kevin Huerter added 18 as Sacramento won its third straight game.
One night after tying the fourth-highest output in NBA history with 73 points, Doncic scored 28 on 9-of-26 shooting and missed eight of his nine 3-point attempts. He also had 17 assists and 10 rebounds for his 65th career triple-double while the Mavericks lost for the fourth time in five games.
Grant Williams scored a career-best 27 points and Tim Hardaway Jr. added 19 points for Dallas. Dereck Lively II had 13 points and nine rebounds and Josh Green added 11 points for the Mavericks.
Domantas Sabonis registered 17 points and 11 boards before fouling out for the Kings. Keegan Murray added 15 points.
The Mavericks listed Doncic as questionable with right ankle soreness several hours before Saturday’s game before later determining he was available to play. Doncic experienced an ankle sprain earlier this month and missed four games in a six-game stretch.
Dallas trailed by 23 early in the fourth quarter but moved within 114-108 on a ferocious dunk by Lively with 2:03 remaining.
But Fox converted a layup with 53.5 seconds left and added two free throws with 31.6 seconds left to push Sacramento’s lead to 10.
Doncic scored five straight points and Maxi Kleber tipped in his own miss to bring the Mavericks within 118-115 with 7.2 seconds to play.
Barnes drained two free throws with 4.4 seconds left to put the game away.
Kyrie Irving missed his third straight game for Dallas, which shot 43.9 percent from the field and made 16 of 46 shots from 3-point range.
The Kings shot 53.8 percent from the field, including 11 of 30 from behind the arc.
Sacramento led 101-78 after Malik Monk’s layup with 10:08 left in the game before the Mavericks got back into the contest by scoring 22 of the next 31 points. Seth Curry hit a 3-pointer to end the burst and bring Dallas within 10 with 4:07 to play.
Sacramento led by 14 at halftime before receiving 3-pointers from Barnes and Huerter and a 2-pointer from Barnes to give the Kings a 71-49 lead with 10:27 left in the third quarter.
Sacramento led 94-75 entering the final stanza.
Fox scored 21 first-half points as the Kings led 63-49 at the break. Doncic had 14 points in the half on 5-of-14 shooting for Dallas.
–Field Level Media