January 17, 2024, 12:23 a.m. ET
PHOENIX – Kevin Durant made two free throws with 1.8 seconds left and the Phoenix Suns staged a furious comeback to beat the Sacramento Kings 119-117 on Tuesday night.
Grayson Allen set a franchise record with nine 3-pointers and scored 29 points for the Suns, who trailed 113-96 before closing the game with a 23-4 run. Durant finished the game with 27 points and then tried to explain how the Suns recovered.
“I have no idea,” Durant said. “Normally I know how the game is going, but I felt like it was all a blur. Everything happened so quickly. I guess we were all in one zone and locked in.”
“They are a team that likes to play a free-flowing offense. So if you can disrupt them, they turn into a different team. We put pressure on.” [Domantas] Saboni is a little more. We swapped so many screens and let them play 1-on-1.”
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According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Suns became just the second team in the last 25 seasons to overcome a deficit of 20 or more points in the final 8 minutes of the fourth quarter, joining the Kings against the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2020.
Devin Booker had 16 points and 11 assists, Bradley Beal scored 13 points and Jusuf Nurkic had 10 points and 15 rebounds for Phoenix.
The Kings led by 22 points with 8:22 to play, but Durant sparked a comeback with two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Eric Gordon later scored three straight points, tying the score at 115. He scored 13 points off the bench.
“We stayed inside. “We stayed mentally in the fight,” said Suns coach Frank Vogel. “There were a lot of moments where our guys were struggling and getting frustrated and getting our butts kicked.
“We have seen firsthand that teams in the modern NBA are never eliminated from a game. We looked at the small lineup. These guys have really stepped up.”
Durant's free throws with 30 seconds left gave the Suns a 117-115 lead, their first since going 3-2. De'Aaron Fox, who led all scorers with 33 points, equalized with a jumper with 19 seconds left. But then he fouled Durant, who was attempting a long jump. After his free throws, a last-second Kings shot went wide.
Sabonis recorded his 11th triple-double of the season with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. It was his 23rd consecutive game with double figures in at least two columns and his league-high 36th double-double of the season.
“It’s a tough way to lose. Give them credit,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “We played a good 42 minutes. We made some tough shots at the rim in the last six minutes. We couldn't score at the rim instead of just continuing to move the ball and move bodies, everything was really stagnant, we turned that around.” Ball over.
“We had no pace in the halffield, we had a lot of possession. We have to find out. Hopefully we can learn from it.”
Keegan Murray scored 18 points, Sasha Vezenkov had 14 and Malik Monk finished with 13 points and eight assists for Sacramento, which has suffered three straight losses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.