National Basketball Association
Sacramento 106, Denver 98
When: 10:00 PM ET, Saturday, January 6, 2018
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California
Officials: #58 Josh Tiven, #59 Gary Zielinski, #50 Gediminas Petraitis
Attendance: 17583
Rookie guard De'Aaron Fox scored 18 points, and the Sacramento Kings never trailed while capitalizing on 26 turnovers by the Denver Nuggets in a 106-98 victory on Saturday at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif.

Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein added 17 points and set a career high with seven steals. Sacramento scored 40 points off Denver's turnovers and recorded a season-best 16 steals.

Cauley-Stein shot 8 of 12 from the field, and he tied an NBA season high with his steal total. Fox made 6 of 11 shots and handed out seven assists as Sacramento (13-25) ended a three-game slide despite playing without Zach Randolph (oral surgery) and George Hill (personal).

Buddy Hield added 14 while Vince Carter, Skal Labissiere and Kosta Koufos contributed 12 apiece for Sacramento. Bogdan Bodganovic scored 11.

Reserve Trey Lyles led the Nuggets (21-18) with 19 points and nine rebounds. Jamal Murray added 18 while Will Barton and Gary Harris contributed 17 apiece as Denver shot 46.1 percent.

The turnover total was Denver's highest since the Nuggets committed 27 on Dec. 8, 2016 at Washington. Wilson Chandler, Nikola Jokic and Murray each gave the ball away five times.

Sacramento forced 10 turnovers in the opening quarter and held a two-point lead going into the second. The Kings took a five-point lead into halftime before starting to pull away in the third.

The Nuggets were within 55-53 on a layup by Harris with 7:45 remaining, but Sacramento used a 20-10 spurt over the next 5 1/2 minutes to grab a 75-63 lead on a 3-pointer by Hield. The Kings held a 79-71 edge going into the fourth after Koufos converted an open layup just before the buzzer.

The Kings took a 13-point lead on Carter's 3-pointer early in the fourth but allowed Denver to cut it to 92-89 on a basket by Lyles with 5:22 remaining. Sacramento then took a 101-92 lead on Carter's 3-pointer with 2:37 left moments after Bogdanovic stole the ball from Jokic for Denver's 24th turnover.

Sacramento then iced the win on Fox's short jumper with 83 seconds left.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Denver   Sacramento
Trey Lyles 19 Scoring De'Aaron Fox 18
Nikola Jokic 10 Assists De'Aaron Fox 7
Trey Lyles 9 Rebounds Vince Carter 8
Wilson Chandler 4 Free Throws Made De'Aaron Fox 6
Will Barton 1 Steals Willie Cauley-Stein 7
Mason Plumlee 3 Blocks Skal Labissiere 3
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Denver 98 46.1 13-34 15-21 20 46 6 2 26
Sacramento 106 44.7 9-25 13-17 21 39 4 16 9
Upcoming Games
  • Sacramento will play their next game at home against San Antonio. The Kings have a W/L % of .167 after a win and .423 after a loss.
  • Denver will play their next game on the road against Golden State. The Nuggets have a W/L % of .381 after a win and .722 after a loss.