Buddy Hield leads Pacers to 107-104 win over Kings

INDIANAPOLIS(AP) — Buddy Hield scored 21 points against his former team and theIndiana Pacers beat the Sacramento Kings 107-104 on Friday night tostop a four-game losing streak.

Hield shot 5of 9 from 3-point range and grabbed 10 rebounds. Aaron Nesmithadded 17 points for the Pacers, going 4 for 7 on 3s. Myles Turnerhad 14 points and 13 boards.

“Especiallyagainst your old team, it’s always good to get the win,” Hieldsaid.

Hield andTyrese Haliburton were traded to the Pacers a year ago in asix-player deal that sent Domantas Sabonis to the Kings.

Turner saidthe Pacers had extra motivation to get the victory for Hield andHaliburton.

“(Hield) madesome big shots down the stretch,” Turner said.

HarrisonBarnes led the Kings with 23 points. Kevin Huerter scored 16, whileSabonis and Terence Davis each had 15.

Sacramentowas without leading scorer De’Aaron Fox, who sat out for personalreasons.

Davis sank a3-pointer with two minutes left to slice the Pacers’ lead to107-104, but neither team scored the rest of the way.

Barnes misseda 3 with 9.1 seconds left, and Nesmith came up with therebound.

“We didn’treact trying to foul,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “It’s on us asa staff to remind them to foul, if we’re down three and the clockis below 24 seconds and we’re down three points or two or one.That’s just a teaching point.”

Brown thoughthis team had several problems in the final quarter.

“You’ve gotto be able to box out,” he said. “You can’t give up second shots.We didn’t do any of that down the stretch. Throughout the course ofthe game, our turnovers were terrible. It really hurt in aone-possession game to have 20 of them on the road. Our inabilityto communicate on defense against a team — and give up too manygood looks — that can shoot like the Pacers, was not good.”

The Pacers,who led by 12 at halftime, took a 19-point lead in the thirdquarter before the Kings ended the period with a 20-8 run to narrowthe deficit to 87-80 after three.

Indiana went10 of 21 on 3s to take a 60-48 halftime lead. In contrast, theKings were 6 for 23 from long range in the opening half.

The Pacersscored 14 straight points to build a 51-39 advantage. Nesmith hit atrio of 3-pointers during the stretch.

Haliburton,playing his second game after missing 10 with an elbow sprain andknee bruise, acknowledged he was tired after the game and struggledto make shots. He had 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting and nineassists.

“We knew theway they play, you’re going to have to make it a gritty game, anugly game,” Haliburton said. “You need to be able to play defenseand get stops, and we were able to do that tonight.”

TIP-INS

Kings: ThePacers showed a pregame tribute to Sabonis on the scoreboard duringhis first game back in Indiana since the trade. Sabonis wasinactive due to a knee injury when Sacramento played at Indianalast March. … Trey Lyles, the 2014 Indiana Mr. Basketball fromIndianapolis Tech High School, scored seven points off thebench.

Pacers:Daniel Theis, in his second game of the season, scored eight pointsoff the bench. Theis, traded to the Pacers from Boston, returnedThursday after having knee surgery in November. … With the returnof Theis, two other Pacers post players, Jalen Smith and IsaiahJackson, didn’t play.

Buddy Hield with the backdoor cut andhammers it home.🔨 pic.twitter.com/okj9qlWmWa

BIGDUNK

Hield isn’tknown for his dunking ability, but he had a big one to put thePacers up 104-99.

“That’snumber one,” Hield said. “I’m never the one cutting to the middleor baseline. I saw an opening and that’s all she wrote. I trustedmy legs. It was fun. My teammates were excited. They’re alwaysjoking about me not dunking the ball. It was fun to see themlaughing.”

UPNEXT

Kings: At NewOrleans on Sunday.

Pacers: HostCleveland on Sunday.