Fox’s late FTs gives Kings 130-128 win over Rockets

HOUSTON (AP)— De’Aaron Fox had 31 points, including three free throws with lessthan a second left, to lift the Sacramento Kings to a 130-128 winover the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night.

Fox missed a3-pointer with .3 seconds left. But Eric Gordon fouled him to setup the game-winning free throws.

“I don’t wantto belittle it because he was he was amazing, but at the end of theday that’s what he gets paid to do,” coach Mike Brown said. “He’san All-Star. He’s one of our best players and he’s got to be ableto make plays for us when we need him to, especially on the roadand that’s what he did.”

Fox, whoadded 11 assists, made consecutive baskets to get the Kings within1 with 42.2 seconds to go.

Jalen Greenmissed a shot on the other end before the Kings missed threestraight shots but grabbed the rebound each time. Keegan Murray gotthe last rebound but Kenyon Martin Jr. battled with him, and a jumpball was called. Houston got the ball on the jump ball with 2.4seconds to go.

Gordon wasfouled after that, but Malik Monk stole the inbound pass fromAlperen Sengun to give the Kings the ball with 1.2 seconds left.They called a timeout to set up the final sequence.

“We just haveto be able to gut it out on the road,” Fox said. “Some times it’sgoing to be ugly. This was an ugly game for us. We know we have tobe better defensively.”

Green had 41points and Sengun finished with 18 points, a career-high 11 assistsand nine rebounds as the Rockets dropped their fourth straight.

Rockets coachStephen Silas was disappointed that his team let this one get awayafter his team played much better than it did in a loss to theKings on Monday night.

“We playedwith much more conviction, physicality, ball pressure, all thosethings,” he said. “We should have won that game.”

DomantasSabonis added 22 points with nine rebounds for the Kings and Monkadded 17 points.

Green made anoff-balance 3 as he was fouled and crashed to the court with justmore than two minutes left to put Houston up 124-123. HarrisonBarnes was called for a foul on the play, but the Kings challengedthe call, and it was overturned.

Green, thesecond overall pick in the 2021 draft, then scored four points toextend the lead to 128-123 with less than 90 seconds left.

Sabonis madea layup to get the Kings within four with about seven minutes leftin the third. But he picked up his fifth foul seconds later andheaded to the bench for the rest of the quarter.

The Kingsscored five points, with a 3 from Monk, to take a four-point leadlate in third. However, Houston ended the quarter with a 4-2 spurtto cut the lead to 99-97 entering the fourth.

Houston useda 6-1 run to take a 112-107 lead with eight minutes to go. TheKings then scored the next seven points, with a 3-point play byHarrison Barnes and four points from Fox, to go on top 114-112 aminute later.

Jae’Sean Tatehit a layup for the Rockets to tie it with less than five minutesto go. But a 7-2 run by the Kings, highlighted by a 3 from Murray,gave them a 121-116 lead with 3 1/2 minutes left.

A 5-0 spurtby the Rockets tied it after that before a layup by Sabonis put theKings on top 123-121.

TIP-INS

Kings: Barneshad 16 points. ... Sacramento made 10 of 30 3-pointers. ... TheKings were outrebounded 44-31.

Rockets:Kevin Porter Jr. missed his 14th consecutive game with a left bigtoe injury. … Martin had 15 points. ... Tate added 16 off thebench.

GOINGHOME

The Kingshead home Wednesday night after going 4-3 on a season-highseven-game road trip.